The Manhattan Adult Attention Deficit Disorder Support Group

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Our Goal Is To Offer Support And Information To Adults In New York City And The Surrounding Communities With ADD/ADHD

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Washington Post, 12/7/04 DESPERATE FOR MEDS by Matt McMillen "So you got addicted to your kids' ADD medication," Bree consoles her drug-addled friend Lynette. "It happens." Maybe on fictional Wisteria Lane, setting of ABC's hit show "Desperate Housewives." But in the real world? The Script: On the show, Lynette Scavo, whose twins have untreated attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, pops a prescription stimulant to get through a long night of costume making for the school play. Suddenly able to finish tasks that previously overwhelmed her, Lynette keeps taking the drugs. Soon, she's hooked. "I've been a developmental pediatrician since 1978," said Patricia Quinn of the District. "Only once have I had a parent abuse [a child's] medications." Raymond Crowel, vice president for the National Mental Health Association, agrees parental drug-dipping is rare, but says "it's probably more common than we think." Yes, But Addiction? Like Lynette, anyone taking stimulants, even in low doses, can develop psychological dependence. "[Lynette] has used the medication to create a lifestyle, a schedule, [that she] can't achieve without it," said Russell A. Barkley, author of "Taking Charge of ADHD" (Guilford Press, revised 2000). The character's breakdown in episode 8 is "not because of the medication but because she has had so little sleep. This is sleep deprivation, not addiction." Taking high doses of stimulants, especially by snorting or injecting, can cause paranoia, dangerously high body temperatures, addiction and heart failure. Really Now: Abuse of prescription stimulants, according to the 2000 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, is most common among adolescents and young adults, who often get them from friends with legitimate prescriptions. Quinn, co-author of "Understanding Women with ADHD" (Advantage Books, 2002), thinks Lynette may actually have ADHD. Like other women with the disorder, Lynette "doesn't seem to be able to get things done, and what seems easy for others is very difficult" for her. Both Quinn and Crowel hope to see Lynette in therapy in later episodes. Copyright 2004 The Washington Post Company

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