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Post by jdd2 on Oct 15, 2012 6:08:02 GMT -5
Just google it, ritalin schools, and there seems to be an American epidemic of that drug (and one or two others), being prescribed as performance enhancements.
Am I reading sensationalistic journalism, or is this really happening?
Gee, Lance Armstrong just got canned for doping, and so now will students need to submit urine samples before their SATs/ACTs?
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Post by mccoyblues on Oct 15, 2012 7:37:35 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on Oct 15, 2012 8:56:56 GMT -5
First off, my youngest grandson is on Adderall (a form of Ritalin). He was officially tested and diagnosed by psychiatric professionals (I witnessed the testing and was in the consultation). Before he went on it, I was dead set against it. Without the medication, he has an attention span less than a gnat, bouces around the room like a ping pong ball, and is almost unfunctional. With the medication, he is able to focus on his studies and make good grades. At no point is he ever a little drugged out automaton.
In Georgia, it's illegal for a school teacher or administrator to make the recomendation that a child be put on one of these drugs, but I do know of a couple of cases where it has happened (actually in Cobb county where McCoy lives).
Sometimes these kids aren't ADD or ADHD, but are simply bored and unchallenged in class. The schools would rather have little drugged out zombies rather than deal with these distractions. Ritalin has replaced discipline and ingenuity in the classroom.
Many of us are perceived as bad parents because our child is medicated. Some of the schools consider us bad parents if we aren't willing to medicate our child.
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Post by Shannon on Oct 15, 2012 9:15:57 GMT -5
As to your question, jdd2: I can tell you categorically that these drugs are being wrongfully prescribed in quantities that would make you shudder if you knew the full extent. i work in the medical clinic of a large university, so I know whereof I speak.
It is a shame, really. There are many who truly have ADD, and who benefit greatly from treatment. I hate it that so many people who really don't need treatment are getting this therapy from lazy or unscrupulous doctors.
At our clinic, we require appropriate testing or documentation of same in order for us to prescribe stimulant medications. If a student just went and got Ritalin or Adderall or whatever from some MD without being properly evaluated, they will not get prescriptions from us until the diagnosis is properly confirmed.
And don't even get me talking about these kids selling their meds, or sharing them. I could buy any quantity I wanted, at any time, at the university library.
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Post by dickt on Oct 15, 2012 14:12:02 GMT -5
Kids today have everything. In my day we had to take No-Doz and coffee to stay up to study for an exam. That is, unless somebody had some greenies (dexedrine). But I do remember a night or two with the greenies where we stayed up all night and instead of studying for the psych exam we solved all of the problems of the universe.
And in those days college health services would give any girl who was ten pounds overweight a scrip for dexedrine as a "diet" pill.
In fact when I got my job here at the library in 1972 one of the other offers I had was to work at DOJ as a narc--investigating drug companies. As in why does the pharma industry manufacture enough black beauties to dose the entire U.S. population and where do they end up?
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Post by Russell Letson on Oct 15, 2012 14:49:17 GMT -5
Just an anecdotal data point, but a few years back a friend was about to retire from decades of teaching science in a downstate NY district, partly because he was fed up with the behavior of upscale helicopter parents, who had been known to go to NYC in search of a diagnosis of ADHD, partly for the drugs and partly to get the institutional and procedural perks (extra time on exams, for example) that go along with the diagnosis.
And nearly every term, my wife gets a notification that one of her students has "special needs" and requires extra time on exams (sometimes to be taken in a special quiet room) or the aid of some kind of assistant. On the one hand, it's hard not to want to accommodate students with hearing or vision handicaps (though I'm not sure I'm supposed to so name these limitations), but I wonder how the ones with non-trivial learning issues do once they get into the working world. Or, judging from our interactions with various bureaucrats and customer-service personnel, maybe we have already seen them.
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Post by epaul on Oct 15, 2012 15:46:34 GMT -5
And I wonder how many high school athletes are taking advantage of performance boosting drugs in order to reach that next level? No fancy lab testing in high school (and college drug testing is pretty hit and miss).
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Post by jdd2 on Oct 15, 2012 18:00:23 GMT -5
Yes, this is one of several articles I read. Drugs to compensate for reduced school budgets. But as a uni teacher, I do wonder about some students' attention deficits... I've read some blog/forums here in Japan, apparently ritalin and related stimulants were banned for ADD about five years ago due to over-prescription. It seems to still be prescribe-able for narcolepsy. Also, there have been never-ending discussions about the legality of bringing these drugs in thru customs--many stories of serious hassles, with others claiming it's possible. |
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