Ritalin prescribed twice as often for children in divorced families

A study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal back in June, 2007 found that Ritalin, which is prescribed for ADHD, is dished out to kids from divorced families almost twice as often as to kids from normal families. So much for biological causes.

The study was conducted by Lisa Strohschein, a sociologist at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. Strohschein gives no reason for why this happens. It reminds me of the story of a guy named Howard Dully whose step-mother had him lobotomized and managed to get his Father to go along with it. When the lobotomy didn’t work to her satisfaction she had him committed for the remainder of his childhood.

Here are some snippets from the story:

Ritalin use is almost twice as high among children whose parents divorce compared with those who continue to live with two biological parents, a Canadian study suggests.

Ritalin, or methylphenidate, is commonly prescribed for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, in children.

Use of the drug has increased rapidly over the past few decades in Canada, the U.S., the Netherlands, Israel and Australia, raising questions about whether it is overprescribed or prescribed inappropriately in children.

The study in Tuesday's issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal attempted to tease apart whether family structure makes a difference in the higher prescription rate, but the findings do not explain why the prescription rates are higher, said the study's author, Lisa Strohschein.

"I've got the what, but not the why," said Strohschein, a sociologist at the University of Alberta in Edmonton.

Stress of divorce?

Previous studies suggest children who live with a single parent or a parent and step-parent were more likely to be prescribed Ritalin.

But a child could be living in a single-parent household because of several reasons — divorce, loss of parent to death or because they were born to a single parent. The earlier research was not clear about whether divorce itself makes a difference in Ritalin prescription rates.

When Strohschein looked at prescription rates between 1994 and 2000 among 4,151 children whose parents hadn't divorced and 633 children whose parents had, she found Ritalin use was significantly higher among children whose parents divorced.

In two-parent families, 3.3 per cent of children were prescribed the drug, which rose to 6.1 per cent among the children whose parents had divorced.

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The Statistics Canada survey results on which the study was based did not include questions to test whether Ritalin is prescribed inappropriately to children of divorce.

Be cautious in prescribing

Nonetheless, the findings should serve as a reminder to doctors to be cautious in prescribing drugs for ADHD to children after a divorce, said Dr. Abel Ickowicz, the psychiatrist-in-chief at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.

"Because … if we are going too quick to prescribe medication, like Ritalin, like methylphenidate, we may not only be masking the normal process of adaptation to divorce, but we may be contributing to the degree of distress the children of divorce are experiencing."

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