Aftere 40 years of research, Ritalin STILL increases delinquency.

Isn't it absolutely extraordinary that studies in 2007 show that Ritalin STILL increases delinquency just as it did in a study of 1971? How is it that a drug causes the same effects consistently for almost 4 decades?

In a study entitled “Hyperactive Children as Teenagers: A Follow-up Study” (1971), eighty-three children were followed from two to five years after being diagnosed as hyperactive or as having attention deficit disorder. Ninety-two percent of the children were treated with Ritalin. Results were as follows:

• 60% of the children were still overactive and had poor schoolwork (the original reasons for being put on Ritalin), but in addition were now viewed as rebellious;
  
• 59% had had some contact with the police;
  
• 23% had been taken to the police station one or more times;
  
• 58% had failed one or more grades;
  
• 57% had reading difficulties;
  
• 44% had arithmetic difficulties;
  
• 78% found it hard to sit still and study;
  
• 59% were viewed as a discipline problem at school;
  
• 83% had trouble with frequent lying;
  
• 52% were destructive;
  
• 34% had threatened to kill their parents;
  
• 15% had talked of or attempted suicide.

Another research study, the Satterfield study (1987), states,

We found juvenile delinquency rates to be 20-25 times greater in our hyperactive drug-treated only group than in the normal control group. In the “Delinquency outcome for the drug-treated group,” the results were: of 61 boys, 46% were arrested for one or more felony offenses before age 18; 30% were arrested for two or more felony offenses; 25% were institutionalized.… Studies of the long-term effectiveness of drugs have been consistently discouraging.

There is also scant evidence of improved academic performance with stimulant treatment.

According to Rooney, research has still not shown the use of medication to be significantly effective in the treatment of processing deficits or academic achievement.

In The Learning Mystique, Gerald Coles confirms the findings of a 1978 review of both short- and long-term studies on the use of stimulants with children who were hyperactive and learning disabled. Of a total of seventeen studies included in this review, short- or long-term, whether they met basic scientific criteria or not, all the conclusions agreed: “stimulant drugs have little, if any, impact on…long-term academic improvement.” Their major effect seemed to be an “improvement in classroom manageability.”

In the Journal of Behavioral Optometry (1991), a study evaluated twenty-two previous studies/articles since 1976 concerning Ritalin use for hyperactive children. It states:

The fact that the above studies do not show the efficacy of Ritalin for helping hyperactive children should be apparent to the skeptic and make a skeptic out of the believer. But the argument should not stop at this point. The weak evidence for the value of Ritalin must now be viewed in the light of its reported side effects

As someone noted with scathing sarcasm:

36 years later and still a deep scientific mystery worthy of continuous, expensive and arduous attention... valiant 'expert' researchers and concerned manufacturers work hard running regular clinical studies in the desperate hope that one day they will discover that Ritalin is filled with remorse, has learned to change the way it acts within the human body and has at last started working towards the well-being of children.