| Everyone wants the best for their children and | | | | years of age. |
| everyone wants to trust the advice of their primary | | | | The American Academy of Child and Adolescent |
| care physicians. So it's no wonder that when | | | | Psychiatry published their findings at the conclusion of |
| awareness of ADHD began to rise significantly that | | | | a 70 week study recently. The study monitored not |
| parents were asking their family doctors if they should | | | | only the social, behavioral, and cognitive effects that |
| be concerned. Typically, the doctor would ask a series | | | | Ritalin and generic medications may have on young |
| of questions about the child's behavior and assess the | | | | children but also on the possible physical effects. |
| answers carefully before deciding whether or not | | | | What caused a large stir were the findings that |
| medication such as Ritalin should be prescribed. There | | | | preschool-aged children that regularly took the drug |
| are more in-depth screening procedures that assess | | | | were more apt to suffer from slowed growth and |
| whether ADHD symptoms are actually present and | | | | stunted overall development, probably caused by the |
| are severe enough to warrant medication, but | | | | marked decreased appetite that they experienced as |
| all-too-often physicians would prescribe the drug in | | | | a side effect of taking Ritalin. |
| moderate to low doses early and allow the parents to | | | | The study's findings do point out that - case-by-case - |
| gauge whether or not it was beneficial to the child in | | | | the significance of the stunted growth is not typically |
| follow-up visits. | | | | very severe. But what is considered "severe" when it |
| This scenario is all-too-common across the US and in | | | | comes to your child's health and development? It also |
| other countries, but startling facts have come to light | | | | points out that while it is not typically considered |
| about the potential side effects of such drugs and their | | | | "severe" for most independent children, the fact of the |
| generic counterparts. Truth be told, until fairly recently, | | | | matter is that statistically, the findings show that a |
| there was little documentation to refer back to in | | | | disconcertingly large portion of the children taking the |
| reference to the long-term effects of such medication, | | | | drug were affected. |
| particularly when prescribed to children as young as 4 | | | | |