ADHD drugs proven useless (again)

This story is all over the place in other countries' media, but it's been ignored by the American media. Kind of like the story a couple months ago about Ritalin stunting growth, which I was only able to find in the South Bend Tribune. I found the latest story in the Telegraph, which is actually one of Britain's more conservative major newspapers. The American media is so conservative that it's ignored the story completely - even though it's about an American study.

Conservatives are usually in favor of forcibly drugging kids. I've seen it firsthand, so don't deny it, conservos. ADHD drugging competes with standardized testing to be American conservatives' official religion. Nobody is allowed to criticize it.

But now it's been revealed - once again - that ADHD drugs like Ritalin and Concerta have no long-term benefits. At all. Zero. These toxins create short-term behavior changes (also known as mind control), but that's it.

While these drugs have no long-term benefits, they do have long-term drawbacks, according to the Multimodal Treatment Study of Children with ADHD. The report - which studied 600 American children who had been diagnosed with ADHD - says that children who took these drugs for only 3 years were found to have stunted growth. William Pelham, a University of Buffalo professor who coauthored the report, said that these children "weren't growing as much as other kids both in terms of their height and their weight" and that "there were no beneficial effects - none."

Even in Britain, which has a vastly better health care system than the United States, ADHD drugs have managed to get a foot in the door. Several thousand children there have been prescribed poisons that cause brain damage and diabetes. (This rate is still far lower than in the U.S.)

How many studies is this now that have proven Ritalin stunts growth? Will this study be swept under the rug too like all the others? Knowing the media, we think we know the answer to that question. (Here's a hint: It's yes.)

(Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/11/12/ndrugs112.xml)