Ritalin Horror Stories

Medication for ADD: On the other hand...

We typically observed good success with children using small doses of stimulant medications. The track record was so good that when we heard horror stories, we tended to discount them as propaganda from the Church of Scientology cult and their Citizens Commission on Human Rights (They are very extreme in their criticism of medications for ADD ADHD, and psychiatry in general. See for yourself at the link above.).

However, I recently received a call from a friend of a friend here in Central California. Her five year old son had been taking Ritalin for several months (meaning that he had started Ritalin at either 4 years old or 5 years old) with good success. However, his physician decided to switch him over to the Ritalin SR timed release (which is a 20mg capsule, supposedly equivalent to two 10mg doses, one released immediately and one released in about three hours).

According to this mom, ten days after the switch-over, this five year old boy suffered seven seizures in one day, twice stopping breathing. Not a good day.

There's going to be trouble for this physician, as the manufacturer's of Ritalin recommend that the medication not be prescribed to children under six years old.

It has become more and more common for five year olds, four year olds, even three year olds to be prescribed Ritalin or other stimulant.

Don't do it. Try DIET or NUTRACEUTICALS first. Try parenting classes too. But do whatever you can to avoid using prescription medications until at least six years old.