ADHD and Use of Ritalin Have Exploded

The noon bell rings at an elementary school in the United States. The children walk in a supervised line from their classrooms to the cafeteria. Their smiles and voices reflect their anticipation and excitement after a long morning of learning. Once inside the cafeteria, they find their friends, sit down, and examine their lunches. I hear laughter and the typical lunch trading by those who didn't get what they expected in their brown bags. In the school office, a short distance from the cafeteria, a large group of children somberly wait in line for their medication. The school secretary is dispensing Ritalin. I'm told this medication will help them manage their attention behavior until they go home. But whom the Ritalin is really for is the issue I feel the need to examine.

In my search for the truth on the Web I find 13,200 sites on the drug Ritalin. What I find most interesting is the site, breggin.com. There are over a dozen with the breggin address. As I begin to view the sites, I see that breggin is actually Breggin, M.D. Peter Breggin, M.D. has quite an opinion on the overuse of psychiatric medication, specifically Ritalin, dispensed to American children. I decided to check out his credibility, as all good critical thinkers would do.

Dr. Peter Breggin is the director and founder of the Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology. He is a Harvard graduate and considers himself a critic of biological psychiatry. His credentials are revered among his peers, as his website stated. Ginger Breggin whom, I presume, is a relative of the good doctor built that website. Breggin has written more than a dozen books attempting to educate the reader against using psychiatric drugs, including several titles examining Ritalin. I...

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...disease so the active children can take a pill. Ritalin is given to children so the parents can handle their over-committed lives. Ritalin is given to children so teachers can better manage their overcrowded classrooms. Ritalin is given to children by doctors to pacify screaming parents who are convinced there is something wrong with their energetic kids. Ritalin is for the adults medicating themselves through their children. Ritalin is given to the wrong patient.

WORK CITED

Breggin, Peter M.D. "Eric Harris was taking Luvox (a Prozac-like drug) at the time of the Littleton murders" 30 April 1999. 10 February 2000. http://www.breggin.com/luvox.html

Breggin, Peter M.D. Editorial/Letters, The New York Times 20 May 1996. 16 February 2000. http://www.breggin.com/

Wiener, Jerry M.D. "Is Ritalin Overprescribed?" 17 February 2000. http://www.familyeducation.com/