Saturday, July 19, 2008

Ritalin, the new Soma

There is a piece in this week's Health Service Journal on the level of prescribing of Ritalin. The area with the highest level of prescribing has a rate 23 times higher than the area with the lowest level. This means that in the Wirral, 144 out of 1000 children were prescribed Ritalin in 2007 - that is one in seven. Isle of Wight was second with one in nine. The lowest area will have a rate of about one in 160 children.

There is no way that this drug is being used to treat a medical condition for most of these children, it is being used to treat a social condition. This is straight out of Brave New World.

If there really was this level of ADHD in these areas then this should be treated as an epidemic with the seriousness of Avian Flu or Foot and Mouth. Of course there is no such problem, just a lost generation.

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