The government is to consider carrying out a "wide-ranging" review of the causes and treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) following a call from a leading neurologist.
Baroness Susan Greenfield, professor of pharmacology at the University of Oxford, asked the government at Lords question time last week to consider the issue following concerns about the increase in the prescribing of Ritalin and other ADHD drugs such as Concerta to children.
In response, government spokeswoman Baroness Royall of Blaisdon, said: "It is not clear whether the percentage of children with ADHD has increased in recent years or whether this reflects greater awareness of the condition."
Prescriptions for the anti-ADHD drug Ritalin - said to be linked to depression, drowsiness, epilepsy and high blood pressure - slumped from 168,300 in 2001 to just 21,681 last year. However, other drugs using the same ingredient - methylphenidate hydrochloride - soared over the same period.
Prescriptions of Concerta rose from 43,100 in 2002 to 226,442 last year, while Equasym prescriptions rose from 4,400 in 2000 to 57,475.
What few everyday consumers know is Concerta IS ritalin. Concerta is just the "brandname" one drug company gave to ritalin. It the EXACT same thing. So, why someone may think they are chosing something else instead of ritalin... ...they aren't. It's just ritalin under a different branding.
Because people with no hopes are easy to control ~ The Neverending Story
Posts: 5455 | Location: East Bay | Registered: 25 July 2001
With the theory that medical professionals HAVE to do some good, in spite of themselves, I have read two sites of interest, 1) Ritalin, and Ritalin-SR, this is billed as treating symptoms associated with ADHD, and narcolepsy. Ritalin-SR is eight hour, timed released. 2)Concerta-it IS ritalin encased within a 'shell', constructed of a material which degrades quickly at first, to provide immediate dosing, and then gradually degrades but at increasing rate to provide a more and more effective dose as the day goes on!
--------------------------------------------------------------- "if you always do what you always did, you always get what you always got." ---------------------------------------------------------------
Posts: 6804 | Location: usa | Registered: 09 February 2006
I'm sorry! A medical professional (which I'm not) would know best which medicine does what; and which product to select; and which brand of medicine to use; and which particular pill or capsule to prescribe; and how he or she can be of best service to his or her patient!
Two Mayo Clinic-related web pages which may save some time, are:
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