The Manhattan Adult ADD Support Group We Offer Support


	The Manhattan Adult ADD Support Group We Offer Support & Information To Adults In NYC And The Surrounding Communities With ADD/ADHD We Are Not "Lazy, Crazy, Or Stupid"


ADD IN THE NEWS

San Antonio Express-News, 5/8/06 ADHD DRUGS ARE CASTING A SHADOW OVER CAMPUSES by Melissa Ludwig Some local students toiling over finals this week will join a growing number of their peers across the country who are popping pills such as Adderall and Ritalin to stay alert and cram for tests. The prescription drugs normally are used to treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Many of those students either bum pills or buy them from friends with prescriptions. Adderall's effects are "like coffee, but better," said Justin, a 19-year-old freshman at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Justin declined to give his last name because he doesn't have a prescription for the drug. "It's the opposite of being scatterbrained," he said. "It's like tunnel vision." The number of students abusing the drugs still are small, but growing according to a recent survey. One of the biggest hurdles to stopping students from using the drugs is that they think the pills are perfectly safe, school health professionals said. "Taking somebody else's prescription is always dangerous," said Pat Berlet, director of student health services at UTSA. "Kids that get (stimulants) on the black market are not monitored. It comes in certain dosages so you have got to be careful." Education officials long have been aware that some students abuse Ritalin. Abuse of Adderall is relatively new, local school officials said. According to the Shire PLC, the manufacturer of Adderall and Adderall XR, side effects include loss of appetite, headaches and insomnia. Misuse can cause cardiovascular damage and sudden death, according to Shire's Adderall XR Web site. In an August survey of about 3,000 incoming freshmen at UTSA, 37 said they had used non-prescribed Adderall or Ritalin in the previous two weeks, according to AlcoholEdu, an online alcohol education class UTSA freshmen are required to take. That number jumped to 100 when the same students were surveyed a couple of months later. Officials at Trinity University, St. Mary's University and Our Lady of the Lake University said they aren't aware of a problem with Adderall use on campus. Nationally, about 7 percent of college students say they have used a prescription stimulant non-medically, according to a 2001 study by University of Michigan researcher Sean Esteban McCabe and colleagues at Michigan and Harvard University. "It does seem to be a growing problem," said Keith Anderson, a staff psychologist at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in upstate New York. Anderson is helping the American College Health Association create a counselor's guide on stimulants. "There are a good number of students turning to them for everything from helping them stay awake to weight loss, and some believe they will get euphoria from snorting and injecting it." In February 2005, Canada temporarily pulled Adderall products off the market after Shire's safety information revealed 20 sudden deaths internationally, according to Health Canada. The deaths weren't associated with overdose or misuse and two involved children having a stroke. More recently, drug safety experts have recommended the Food and Drug Administration slap a "black box" warning on ADHD drugs on the stroke and heart attack risks. An FDA advisory panel on pediatric medicine subsequently ruled against labeling the drug with a "black box" warning of rare psychiatric side effects, including hallucination and suicide. About 2.5 million children and 1.5 million adults take medication for attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorder, according to the FDA. The administration's databases contain 25 instances of sudden death in people taking ADHD drugs. Health risks increase when the pills are crushed and snorted, injected, taken in combination with other drugs or in large doses, according to university health professionals. Justin, the UTSA student, said he buys pills for less than $5 each, or he gets them from his friend, Paul, who also asked his last name not be used. Paul, also a freshman at UTSA, said a doctor prescribed him Adderall a couple of years ago after he complained of concentration problems. Paul doesn't take the pills as directed. Instead, he uses them as a study aid or as motivation to clean his apartment. He doesn't take it for fun, but knows people who do. "If you take it at the beginning of a party, it keeps you up and not so stupid drunk," he said. Some university counselors said the ballooning number of prescriptions contributes to the problem. "You can get it pretty easily, especially if you look distressed when you go in (to the doctor's office)," said Elizabeth Stanczak, UTSA's director of counseling services. That's not the case at UTSA, she said. Students prescribed ADHD drugs at university health services are rigorously evaluated and monitored, Stanczak said. At the University of Michigan, McCabe's research shows students are the ones fueling the illegal trade of prescription drugs. In a 2003 survey of undergraduates at an unnamed Midwestern university, McCabe and his colleagues found 54 percent of students who were prescribed stimulants were approached by their peers to give or sell them the drugs. "A first step is just educating campuses and letting them know this is occurring," McCabe said. "These drugs are highly effective for most students with ADHD, and you don't just want to end all prescription of drugs if they are serving a purpose." Write Melissa Ludwing at mludwig@express-news.net. Copyright 2006 San Antonio Express-News ---------------------------------------------------- Indianapolis Star, 5/8/06 STUDENTS ABUSING ADHD DRUGS PRESCRIPTION PILLS EASY TO GET, YOUTH, HEALTH WORKERS SAY by Staci Hupp Eric Cox wanted help with his homework as an eighth-grader. He found it in a little orange pill. A classmate of the Rushville teenager's used the prescription drug Adderall to control attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD. Eric had no doctor's diagnosis, but he figured a pill could help him concentrate and ace his tests. So he took one. And liked it. One pill turned into one a day. One pill a day turned into six. And Eric, a skinny, dimple-faced wrestler, became an Adderall addict before he was out of middle school. "It makes you stay up and focus on everything," he said. "I depended on it to think for me." Many of today's stressed-out, sleep-starved students are turning to prescription amphetamines such as Adderall for an edge, especially with final exams coming up this month, doctors and counselors say. Others pop the pills for a new high, with a lower risk of getting caught. Nurses say the abuse reflects a wave of children so dependent upon pills that they've earned the title "Generation Rx." ADHD-related prescriptions swelled in the 1990s. "We start children even at the kindergarten level on ADHD medications," said Carolyn Snyder, who heads the Indiana Association of School Nurses. "A long time ago, we didn't have those medications to use." An Indiana University survey of school-age children last year found 7 percent of high school seniors admitted trying Ritalin without a doctor's order. National reports put the number closer to 10 percent. Studies of students at colleges have reported 16 percent or more had tried Ritalin. Some Indiana doctors and police believe the numbers will climb. Doctors diagnose about 8 percent of school-age children with ADHD, according to a study last fall by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About half the children get medication. For children without diagnosed attention problems, getting pills is as easy as asking a friend. "It's a huge, huge problem here," said Bloomington therapist Beth York. "The rate of use skyrockets during finals." Extra attention IU and Purdue University health officials see up to five students a day for ADHD prescription requests. Both schools ask for more proof of the illness, such as psychiatric evaluations, before doctors will write or fill prescriptions. Indiana's two largest universities also have limited the number of times students can report "lost" pills before they're barred from refills. The rule is aimed at ADHD patients who sell or give away their medication. The policy has backfired against patients whose prescription drugs have been stolen. York said an IU student who was a victim of theft during finals week last year now stashes pills in several places in case it happens again. Stories of prescription drug abuse infiltrate high schools, too. High school students sprain their ankles, are prescribed painkillers and then trade their leftovers for Ritalin or other drugs. Others fake ADHD symptoms so their family doctors will write prescriptions. Eric Cox says he raided his friends' medicine cabinets during sleepovers. It often isn't until students are caught or suffer severe side effects that they go for help. "What we see is when some kids come to us, we have to send them to the emergency room before we commit them because their blood pressure is so high," said Melanie Margiotta, an adolescent staff physician at Fairbanks, an Indianapolis drug treatment center. The abundance of ADHD prescriptions has complicated efforts to monitor use of the drug. Snyder said school nurses don't always track prescriptions for ADHD because newer, one-a-day doses eliminate the need to dispense them at school. More Indiana high schools are testing students for drug abuse, but urine screenings don't necessarily detect stimulants such as Adderall. That leaves doctors, nurses and parents to keep an eye on children, said Carrie Whittaker, Eric's mother. "What I never realized is how easy it is to get at school," Whittaker said. "It's out there, and nobody's paying attention." Easily hidden Eric says he first tried Adderall three years ago, at age 14. He already was hooked on painkillers he borrowed from a classmate to dull the pain of a wrestling-related shoulder injury. The painkiller threw off his concentration in classes. He says Adderall put him back on track. Eric's addictions followed him to high school in Rushville, 30 miles southeast of Indianapolis. He says he never got pills from a doctor, but friends who did gave him bottles. "It's just really easy," he said. Eric stored his pills in sandwich bags that he stuffed into the barrel of his paintball gun, put inside deodorant bottles and hid in plastic storage tubs. At his worst, Eric says, he was selling Adderall pills for $2 apiece and swallowing up to 10 pills a day. He sold his guitars to buy more pills. "When I'd start coming down, I'd need to take more to get it back up," he said. "Sometimes it was like my heart was going to explode." Eric's mood swings and weight loss weren't lost on his parents. Whittaker says she worried about her son but figured he was under pressure to cut weight for wrestling matches. "I blamed myself for not seeing it earlier," Whittaker said. "He's the last person in town anybody ever would think" of as a drug addict. Eric, now 17, says he finally went to his parents for help two months ago, when he couldn't sleep for three days straight and paranoia set in. Contact Star reporter Staci Hupp at staci.hupp@indystar.com or 317-444-6253. Copyright 2006 IndyStar.com -------------------------------------- ADHD AT A GLANCE What is it A disorder characterized by passivity, inattentiveness or uncontrollable, aggressive hyperactivity. Children are unable to sit still, plan ahead, finish tasks or be fully aware of what's going on around them. How to treat it Prescription stimulants include Concerta, Adderall and Ritalin. In small doses, they help patients focus. Effects Short-term side effects include irritability, weight loss, insomnia, stomach pain and high blood pressure. Long-term or high-dose risks include heart attack and stroke. By the numbers -- The number of Americans who abuse controlled prescription drugs nearly doubled from 7.8 million in 1992 to 15.1 million in 2003. Prescription drug abuse among teenagers more than tripled during that time. -- One in 10 teenagers has abused prescription stimulants such as Ritalin. -- The Drug Enforcement Administration has collected anecdotes about college students who use Ritalin for all-night study sessions or as a party drug. A survey of students at an unidentified public liberal arts college found more than half the participants knew peers who had used the drug for fun and 16 percent had used it themselves. -- One percent of Indiana sixth-graders reported abusing Ritalin in 2005. For high school seniors, the number was 7 percent. Sources: Columbia University's National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse; Indiana University's Indiana Prevention Resource Center; Attention Deficit Disorder Help Center; the Partnership for a Drug-Free America; Terrance Woodworth, DEA; Journal of American College Health.

Home Page \| Preceding Article > \| Mailing List \| Contact Us