What You Might See On The Packaging Of ADHD Medication If There Was Room To Write It
Use caution when driving, operating machinery, or performing other hazardous activities.
Methylphenidate may cause dizziness, drowsiness, insomnia, blurred vision, or impair your ability to concentrate.
Do not crush, chew or break the capsule. Do not take this if you have taken an MAO inhibitor such as isocarboxazid (Marplan), phenelzine (Nardil), or tranylcypromine (Parnate) in the last 14 days.
Do not take this if you have an allergy to methylphenidate, severe tension, agitation, anxiety, glaucoma.
Do not take this if you have motor tics or have been diagnosed with Tourette's syndrome.
Do not take this if you have depression, a psychotic condition such as schizophrenia, epilepsy or any other seizure disorder, high blood pressure, hypertension, a history of alcohol or drug abuse; or a narrowing or blockage of your gastrointestinal tract (esophagus, stomach, or intestines.)
The use of methylphenidate in children may cause suppression of growth, so monitor growth. It is not known whether methylphenidate will be harmful to an unborn baby.
Do not take methylphenidate without first talking to your doctor if you are pregnant or could become pregnant while using methylphenidate.
It is also not known whether methylphenidate passes into breast milk. Do not take methylphenidate without first talking to your doctor if you are breast-feeding a baby.
If you are taking Concerta, do not be alarmed after a bowel movement if you see in your stool what looks like a tablet. This is the outer shell of the tablet, the medication has been absorbed by your body.
Serious side effects could include an allergic reaction which could include difficulty breathing, closing of the throat, swelling of the lips, tongue, or face, hives, an irregular or fast heartbeat, chest pains or very high blood pressure, blurred vision, severe headache, flushing, unusual behavior or confusion, liver damage (yellowing of the skin or eyes,) nausea, abdominal pain or discomfort, unusual bleeding or bruising, severe fatigue.
etc. etc. etc. etc.
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The Great Debate
The debate surrounding Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, or ADHD has never been more heated. In part, this is due to the fact that they're now discussing the viability of using ADHD drugs to treat pre-schoolers and frankly, this has enraged more than a few people. On one side of the debate, we have those that say that ADHD is a legitimate disorder and it's always been present in society, it was just "under diagnosed" until recently. Talk to some parents of kids were were diagnosed and treated for ADHD, and they'll refer to the drugs used for treatment of it as "God-sends." Some say it's literally like having a different child now. There are also a huge number of adults who feel ADHD medications like Ritalin and Adderall have changed their lives as well. Yet on the other side of the debate, the contention is that ADHD is nothing but a trumped up, invented disorder that just puts billions of dollars in the pockets of both the companies manufacturing the drugs (a.k.a. "Big Pharma") as well as the physicians that act as a conduit to distribute these drugs. They say the diagnostic criteria used to assess for ADHD is so subjective and so inclusive, anyone with even a molecule of spirit in their personality is a candidate for ADHD medication. They also feel that many parents, educators and others use ADHD as a short-cut to keeping a spirited child "in line" and conforming with the group. Maybe They're Both Right? We happen to feel that both sides are to a degree, right. Owing to nature, nurture, and environmental factors, there's little question that some people function better when they're using an appropriate ADHD medication. That's no more unreasonable a statement than saying that some other types of people enjoy a better quality of life by taking anti-depressants. Yet there's also no question that the diagnostic criteria for ADHD is highly subjective, that it's massively over-prescribed, that billions of dollars are being made from it, and that some people do use it to compensate for a lack of quality parenting and education. And the truth is, you could take both arguments about ADHD drugs and apply them to any other pharmaceutical used in the world today. There are legitimate applications that are properly diagnosed, and there are abuses of the system for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is money. Legal or illegal, drugs equal money. The Why? It's the "why" of the ADHD issue that bothers us, and we began researching this about a year ago. So we'll be putting a tutorial on the site early in 2007 that tries to answer just that - the "why?" of ADHD. And there are many "whys?" For example, why are so many people suddenly in need of ADHD medication? We happen to believe it's a little more than ADHD just being "under-diagnosed" in the past. Or why is ADHD virtually non-existent in the Amish community and a variety of other cultures? Or why have we been dispensing a rather serious drug to children for years now, when we are just beginning to understand why and how it works? If you'd like to be one of the first to know when that tutorial is up on the site, just send us an email you'll be notified as soon as it's available. However, in this tutorial, we're going to focus on the nonprescription use of Adderall, Ritalin and other drugs of that classification, and we're going to pay particular attention to use on campus, as this is for lack of a better description, a "growth market" for stimulants. We begin with some basic definitions and distinctions among these drugs, as well as some clarification about the actual ADHD "Syndrome."
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