hay i was wondering if anyone on this website saw a news report on serious medical conditions from using Add medications. if anyone knows of this report or has watched it can you please give me the website or send me the report! in additioin i am surprised to not find it on this website!

I'm sure there are many warnings. Do you not get these warnings from your pharmacist? Also, I too am a bit afraid but I feel somehow I can just do this short term and then go from there.

Your doctor should have checked you for existng heart conditions before prescribing stims. With no existing heart problems your unlikely to have a problem. From what I hear there are only a handful of people who have died and its because they had undiagnosed heart problems. I think the number is 25 people per year or something like that.

hay i was wondering if anyone on this website saw a news report on serious medical conditions from using Add medications. if anyone knows of this report or has watched it can you please give me the website or send me the report! in additioin i am surprised to not find it on this website!The report you mention is referenced in the news section.

http://www.addforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25400&referrerid=4494

Over a 3 year period of time 25 people died -- there are over 3 million people taking this medication, if I remember all the stats right. Every medicine has some risks. There is a need to screen for pre existing heart disease and such, but overall the safety record on stimulent medication for ADD is very good. I also wonder how many people might have died if they hadn't taken their medication -- before I started medication I had to make two calls to poison control because I was distracted and wasn't watching my toddler closely enough. Unmedicated ADDers have more car accident. There's just a lot to consider -- Hallowell and Ratey write in their books (Driven to Distraction, Delivered from Distraction)that it's important to also consider the side effects of not taking medication. One study I read a while back that was done over several years found the medicated ADDers were healthier -- which makes sense to me, because my anxiety level has gone way down. I don't have an ulcer any more and so forth. Each person has to weigh the small risk against the potential gain.

Scattered

1,900 Canadians died last year from over-the-counter drug complications.

1,900 Canadians died last year from over-the-counter drug complications.Following along with this same vein of thought, Hallowell and Ratey write in Delivered from Distraction (p. 243)

"Moreover, if you look at the side-effect profile of an over-the-counter medication most people consider to be the epitome of a safe medicatoin, namely aspirin, you will see that it's track record shows more dangers than that of stimulant medications. Thousands of people suffer strokes or gastrointestinal bleeding every year due to side effects of aspirin, and many of these people die or become permanently incapacitated. Hundreds of people commit suicide by ovedosing on aspirin every year. And yet, we rightly consider aspirin a safe medication, an extremely valuable part of our pharmacopoeia." (emphasis mine)


Of course we balance that against how many suffer less pain, save heart and brain tissue by chewing an aspirin to prevent clotting -- why are we so much less willing to look at the positives and negatives in a balanced fashion with ADD medications?

Have any of you ever read the list of potential complications from giving your precious babies vacinations? I did and gave the go ahead anyway, because the risks of not giving them were higher.

Scattered

yup. if you are getting Stimulants, your Doctor should be sending you for an EKG.

They put electrode stickies on your chest, and do a paper strip printout of the heart rhythms.


I get one each time i start stimulant meds, and otherwise every 2 years while on stimulants.

Are you seeing a real ADD Psychiatrist? I'd be surpised if they did not do this!

Emma

yup. if you are getting Stimulants, your Doctor should be sending you for an EKG.

They put electrode stickies on your chest, and do a paper strip printout of the heart rhythms.


I get one each time i start stimulant meds, and otherwise every 2 years while on stimulants.

Are you seeing a real ADD Psychiatrist? I'd be surpised if they did not do this!

Emma
That’s a bit too close to medical advice for our comfort.

It’s not generally considered necessary to do an EKG before prescribing stimulants. Even as a precaution it isn’t likely to catch the problems that were supposedly implicated in the deaths noted in Canada.

In the USofA, formal diagnosis requires a confirming opinion, most commonly either from a neurologist, or a psychiatrist / psychologist. The initial diagnosis is most commonly made by a family practitioner.

Family practice is a specialty that routinely includes training in recognizing and treating AD/HD. A neurologist will rule out any possible physical reasons for the symptoms. The psychiatrist and psychologist are trained to apply the criteria in the DSM. The choice as to which is appropriate is left to the physician that made the initial diagnosis.

We aren’t even stating the facts correctly here, although Scattered was close. The deaths reported haven’t been linked to the ADD medication in use other than through the statistics. All the stats give us is a reason to look closer.

Assuming that there’s something to be found is fundamentally and scientifically incorrect. The first subject of further study is the stats themselves, looking at the reasons that the numbers came out the way they appear. Once we prove no numerical reason that an appearance of a connection exists (e.g., there’s no apparent analysis error) then we can start to think about what the connection might be.

It’s a long process. Pulling the drug is perhaps a prudent decision, but in this case it’s certainly not one indicating any knowledge that it’s actually dangerous.

Despite the many reports in the media, no direct connection has been established between serious heart problems and the use of amphetamines or methylphenidate in appropriate doses, even over the long term.

Methylphenidate (Ritalin) has one of the most benign safety records in long-term use in the elderly of any drug, with far fewer reported complications than aspirin, and no reported serious side effects.

If I thought there was a good reason, I wouldn’t object to giving an appropriate dose of Ritalin to my baby. Of course, all my babies are grown up now, and furthermore we can’t think of any reason that you would want to do that. So we would certainly consider the practice a bit abusive if it actually existed, which as far as we know it does not.

There’s no evidence suggesting it would harm the infant to ingest the drug, though. In our minds it would only be abuse because of what it represents, inappropriate application of a safe substance.

We believe that similar considerations apply to long-term use of appropriate levels of amphetamines. There should be data out there to show this, but it’s been hard to find, and much hype exists about it. Amphetamines are older than methylphenidate by several years, if memory serves, but they’ve both been in regular use for a long time, well over fifty years.

As usual, the standard disclaimers apply: just our informed opinion, not to be taken as medical advice, you should consult your physician (not the forums, or friends, or newspapers, or gossip rags) if you have any questions about your treatment, and certainly before stopping or changing any meds already prescribed.

We generally know what we’re talking about, but when it comes to medicine it only applies to us. You should find your own formal sources of information and seek professional help interpreting it.

Follow up?

I have been on Ritalin for ten tears, no drug holidays (no kidding :D).
Since posting on this thread, I've had an ECG, first time, as a pre-op assessment. I passed.

Follow up?

I have been on Ritalin for ten tears, no drug holidays (no kidding :D).
Since posting on this thread, I've had an ECG, first time, as a pre-op assessment. I passed.Nice to hear the good stuff! Thanks Imnapl!:)