Ritalin may be cause of higher incidence of Parkinson`s diease

[Peter Hichens]

"It’s odd the way some health scares get a lot of publicity, and others don’t. But I was amazed how little attention has been paid to a study showing a higher incidence of Parkinson’s disease in those, including children, who take pills prescribed for ‘ADHD’."

"Those given these pills were said to be significantly more likely to develop the disease, or similar conditions, between the ages of 21 and 49. This connection was more marked for patients who had been prescribed only Ritalin, the drug most commonly used in such cases in the UK."

"The one newspaper that mentioned it gave it a tiny space and a poor position, and quickly added that ‘no definite link had been found’, which is true but not very reassuring."

"It then quoted unidentified ‘experts’ who said that the sample size of the study was small. Well, it isn’t that small. I got hold of the study, which pretty much examined the whole population of the US state of Utah, born since 1950, including 31,769 ‘ADHD’ patients and 158,790 people who haven’t been labelled with ‘ADHD’. Of course, there could be another explanation. But as the authors say, it certainly deserves further study."

http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2018/09/were-on-the-brink-of-war-and-nobody-cares.html

Experts advise caution about neurofeedback

 

 

Betsy DeVos, newly appointed US education secretary has been having a hard time entering a public school, with shouts of `Shame` from a protester.

 

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Some of her other pursuits have been criticised too.

 

"A group of brain performance centres backed by Betsy DeVos ... promotes results that are nothing short of stunning: improvements reported by 91 percent of patients with depression, 90 percent with attention deficit disorder, 90 percent with anxiety."

"The treatment offered by Neurocore, a business in which Ms. DeVos and her husband, Dick, are the chief investors, consists of showing movies to patients and interrupting them when the viewers become distracted, in an effort to retrain their brains. With eight centers in Michigan and Florida and plans to expand, Neurocore says it has assessed about 10,000 people for health problems that often require medication."

"`Is it time for a mind makeover?` the company asks in its advertising. `All it takes is science`."

"But a review of Neurocore’s claims and interviews with medical experts suggest its conclusions are unproven and its methods questionable."

"Neurocore has not published its results in peer-reviewed medical literature. Its techniques — including mapping brain waves to diagnose problems and using neurofeedback, a form of biofeedback, to treat them — are not considered standards of care for the majority of the disorders it treats, including autism. Social workers, not doctors, perform assessments, and low-paid technicians with little training apply the methods to patients, including children with complex problems."

"In interviews, nearly a dozen child psychiatrists and psychologists with expertise in autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or A.D.H.D., expressed caution regarding some of Neurocore’s assertions, advertising and methods."

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/30/us/politics/betsy-devos-neurocore-brain-centers.html?_r=0

Are too many children receiving ritalin?

"According to The New York Times:

“[A recent] study enrolled 146 children with an A.D.H.D. diagnosis from ages 5 to 12 and randomly assigned half on a low dose of generic Ritalin. The other half received no medication, but their parents began attending group meetings to learn behavior-modification techniques.

Behavior modification for A.D.H.D. is based on a fairly simple system of rewards and consequences. Parents reward the good or cooperative acts they see; subtle things, like paying attention for a few moments, can earn a pat on the back or a ‘good boy.’ Completing homework without complaint might earn time on a smartphone. Parents withhold privileges, like playtime or video games, or enforce a ‘time out’ in response to defiance and other misbehavior.”

"The results? Children who had behavior therapy from their parents `had an average of four fewer rules violations an hour at school than the medication-first group`."

 

"After a few months, the study decided to see if more medication would be beneficial to children in both groups. Fully one-third of the children who had behavioral therapy did not need medication at all! Those who did need to add medication to their behavior modification regimen still saw better results than the children who had never been given behavioral therapy."

 

http://www.intellectualtakeout.org/blog/new-study-parenting-more-effective-ritalin-adhd

ADHD in the Borders is twice the national average

"Concerns have been raised that some young people in the Borders have been `parked on medication`. It came as new figures revealed that the region has the highest rate of prescriptions for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) drugs in Scotland. "

"MSP John Lamont said the the statistics were `alarming`. However NHS Borders said the medication was one of a range of measures used to treat the condition."

"A spokesman for the board said the MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire displayed `little understanding of the condition or its treatment and what the figures represent`. More than 180,000 daily doses of ADHD medication were prescribed in the Borders last year, almost twice that in 2009/10... "

"Most received methylphenidate hydrochloride, which is also known as Ritalin.' Mr Lamont said there was `no reason` why the health board should be prescribing the medication at twice the national rate. He added: `Clearly more people are being diagnosed with ADHD and other behavioural problems as awareness about them increases, but the fact that prescriptions are rising in the Borders faster than anywhere else and doubling since 2009 is alarming.` "

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-34527068

Reading problems ?

(1) Neuro-imaging might predict future problems.

"New innovations in the neuroscience of education have opened the possibility that young children predisposed to reading problems could be identified early, even before they learn to read. Parents can get their children tested, using an electroencephalogram (EEG) that can show differences in students’s brains tied to dyslexia or autism. Some districts have begun to see rises in test scores, as well. "

http://www.educationdive.com/news/districts-turning-to-neuroscience-for-new-instruction-strategies/402553/

(2) Non-verbal communication:

On the other hand, shaking the head, pointing and other gestures related to communication might indicate proficiency in later literacy skills.

 

(3) Proprioception (brain/body coordination)

"Gross-motor Activities such as walking, climbing, running, rolling down hills, hopping, skipping, hanging from monkey bars,catching a ball, playing ball games, clapping, bike riding, jump rope, carrying shopping bags."

"Fine-motor Activities such as drawing, painting, sewing, cutting with scissors, picking weeds, knitting, threading beads, old fashioned games,’Jack Straws’."

"According to Bright Brain Scotland: "Encouraging participation in healthy, rhythmic, and non-competitive activities will help our children develop the connections between their brain and bodies, which will later enable learning for reading, writing, spelling, numerical skills, and creative and imaginative thinking."

http://www.brightbrain-scotland.co.uk/news/is-your-child-reading-ready/

(4) And let us not forget emotions:

"New work from Mary-Helen Immordino-Yang’s lab at the University of Southern California (USC) Rossier School of Education has revealed that emotions powerfully shape the way that we experience the world around us—as well as how we learn from it. What’s more, emotion is strongly influenced by an individual’s culture and social environment. "

http://magazine.good.is/articles/cultural-literacy

So there is plenty for parents to be worrying about.

ADHD

Dr Richard Saul has this to say about attention deficit hyperactivity disorder:

This so-called condition has apparently spread like wildfire across the globe in recent years, with a huge increase in its diagnosis and medication. More than 4 per cent of adults and 11 per cent of children in the U.S. have been diagnosed with ADHD - a leap of more than 40 per cent in the past decade. It's now the most common mental health disorder in the UK and affects around 2 to 5   per cent of school-age children.

Prescriptions for the stimulants used to treat it, including Ritalin, doubled for children and quadrupled for adults in the UK between 2003 and 2008. But these stimulants - so-called because they're designed to stimulate parts of the brain that are not thought to be working properly - frequently do not help, and instead cause a range of side-effects, some dangerous. They can even make symptoms worse.

To treat ADHD as a condition, rather than a set of symptoms, is doing a terrible, and dangerous, disservice to the children and adults who are diagnosed with it. There is no doubt that the symptoms - an inability to pay attention to details, fidgeting, interrupting, difficulty staying seated, impulsive behaviour - exist.

But to lump them together and turn them into a diagnosis of ADHD, then to treat this so-called condition with stimulants, is like treating the symptoms of a heart attack - such as severe chest pain - with painkillers, rather than tackling the cause of them by repairing the heart. It is dangerous, neglectful and wrong.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2577814/The-eminent-doctor-convinced-ad-hd-doesnt-exist-In-fact-says-Dr-RICHARD-SAUL-symptoms-routine-causes-drugs-harm-good.html

 Here is a common sense account written by a parent who questions whether or not the condition ADHD exists:  ADHD REPORT

There is no doubt that a case can be made for or against the diagnosis. All of this does bring into question what is likely to happen in Scotland if a `named person` in charge of the wellbeing of a child disagrees with a parent about such a diagnosis.  How are disputes to be settled? At the moment it is impossible to say.