Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Concern over rising use of 'chemical cosh' on disturbed youngsters

From the Scotsman:
"MORE children than ever in Scotland are being prescribed drugs to treat hyperactivity, figures revealed yesterday.

Statistics show prescriptions for treating attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) increased by almost 16 per cent in 2005-6, with 49,528 handed out by doctors.

This compared with 42,832 the previous year and fewer than 4,000 in 1996.

The cost to the NHS has increased to more than £1.89 million, compared with £1.45 million the previous year and less than £33,000 in 1996.

The Scottish Executive said the rise was due to increased awareness of ADHD and it did not expect to see similar rises in future years."
ADHD - bah! They can remember every score in every Premier league game, concentrate on Playstation for goddam hours. It's the medicalisation of social problems. Other forms of social control have been all but de-legitimised so they dish out the soma instead.

And it isn't strong enough to deserve the name 'cosh'.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am not aware of any recent study of ADHD that was carried out without input from a pharmaceutical company and which did not conclude that pharmaceuticals were the answer. Certainly, for the past few years every ed psych I've had dealings with starts from a position of which drug and what dosage. Ask if there is a non-pharma alternative and you might as well be talking Phoenecian.

Definition of ADHD; that which we treat with ritalin.

Robert G. said...

I'd like to know what % of the parents tell their kids' doctors to get stuffed.

Anonymous said...

In my experience, about half.

Anonymous said...

I think it's actually because all these boys (check out the figures - most of them are boys) are just behaving like, well, boys.

Too rough for Mrs. Teacher, you see.

Anonymous said...

ADHD = A Dick Head in Denial.

Colin Campbell said...

Most of these types of drugs should be resisted.

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