WOW SO MUCH INFORMATION HERE

 The link below is an article that talks about the link between eczema and ADHD. It explains the correlation between the two and why this link is possible. Not only does it address this issue, but it speaks of the many things that I have blogged about thus far. There is more in this article on the correlation between exercise and more focus in children with ADHD as well as more information on the medication Ritalin and its inability to work for all children. Remember the blog post about pesticides? There is also more information on the link between the foods we eat and the presence of ADHD.  I learned a lot from this article, and it actually explains the many links to ADHD that I have addressed. If you have time, please take a look at the link below.



http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread684801/pg1

More on Sudden Deaf in Children who Take Ritalin

Source: New York Times
Date: 16 June 2009

Study Shows Possible Link Between Deaths and ADHD Drugs

By Shankar Vedantam
Washington Post Staff Writer Children taking stimulant drugs such as Ritalin to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder are several times as likely to suffer sudden, unexplained death as children who are not taking such drugs, according to a study published yesterday that was funded by the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institute of Mental Health.
While the numbers involved in the study were very small and researchers stopped short of suggesting a cause and effect, the study is the first to rigorously demonstrate a rare but worrisome connection between ADHD drugs and sudden death among children. In doing so, the research adds to the evolving puzzle parents and doctors face in deciding whether to treat children with medication.
Doctors have speculated about such a connection in the past because stimulants increase heart rate and have other cardiovascular effects. Physicians are currently advised to evaluate patients for cardiac risks before prescribing the drugs, and FDA officials said yesterday that those guidelines do not need strengthening in light of the new study. About 2.5 million children in the United States take ADHD medications such as Ritalin and Adderall.
In a press briefing called on short notice yesterday, FDA officials said that given the seriousness of ADHD and the rarity of sudden death -- which strikes fewer than 1 in 10,000 children -- the benefits of the drugs outweigh their risks. Agency officials urged parents to discuss concerns with doctors rather than deciding on their own to discontinue a child's medication. The study's lead author, Madelyn Gould, a professor in child psychiatry and epidemiology at Columbia University, said she agreed with the FDA's advice.
"This study reports a significant association or 'signal' between sudden unexplained death and the use of stimulant medication, specifically methylphenidate," the study researchers concluded, referring to the chemical name of Ritalin. "While the data have limitations that preclude a definitive conclusion, our findings draw attention to the potential risks of stimulant medications for children and adolescents."
Since an experimental study comparing the risk of sudden death among children taking medications with those not taking medications would have had to include millions of children to generate a useful scientific result, Gould and a number of colleagues conducted what is known as a matched case-control study: They obtained information about 564 children in the United States who died suddenly and inexplicably between 1985 and 1996. The researchers evaluated how many of the children who died had been taking stimulant drugs by asking their parents and caregivers and by reviewing medical documents.
For every child who died suddenly and inexplicably, the researchers then found another child closely matched in terms of age, sex and other variables who died in a traffic accident. Taking a stimulant drug is unlikely to have played any role in a child getting killed in an accident. If stimulant drugs had nothing to do with sudden, unexplained death, then the number of victims on stimulant drugs who suffered such deaths and the number of victims on stimulant drugs who died in traffic accidents ought to have been about the same.
But Gould found that 10 children in the group that suffered sudden, unexplained death had been taking stimulant drugs, whereas only two children in the group killed in traffic accidents were taking such medications.
Robert Temple, director of the Office of Drug Evaluation at the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research at the FDA, said that the study had been well conducted, but that he was concerned that not all parents may accurately recall whether children who died were taking stimulant drugs. When a child dies suddenly, he said, it is natural for a parent to pay close attention to all the medications the child was taking at the time and to report that to researchers. By contrast, he said, parents whose children die in traffic accidents may be less likely to note whether their children are taking medications -- and less able to report it years later.
In an editorial accompanying the study, Benedetto Vitiello of the National Institute of Mental Health said that ADHD itself might have increased the risk for sudden, unexplained death. If that were the case, he said, it would explain why more children taking stimulant drugs were found in the group that suddenly died than among the children who died in traffic accidents.
The researchers who conducted the peer-reviewed study acknowledged that its design precluded definitive answers, but they said that they had taken care to eliminate each of these potential confounders. They did not consider cases of sudden death in which children had asthma or cardiac abnormalities -- conditions known to be associated with ADHD -- because those factors might have independently raised the risk of sudden death. They also included one child who died in a traffic accident who seemed to have been abusing amphetamines, rather than taking an ADHD medication.
Gould said she had her colleagues had compensated for biases not only on the part of parents, but in medical records -- medical examiners are more likely to conduct toxicology tests among children who die suddenly than among children who die in traffic accidents. The researchers first eliminated all records that relied on parental memories and looked only at medical records. They then eliminated all cases that had medical records and looked only at what parents reported. No matter how the data were sliced, Gould said, there were significantly more children taking stimulant drugs who suffered sudden, unexplained death than those were killed in traffic accidents.
Vitiello said Gould's study underscores that ADHD drugs are not innocuous. Indiscriminate prescription of the drugs for general behavioral problems and the growing number of healthy teenagers and adults using the drugs to boost mental performance could have deadly consequences, he added.

I copied and pasted the above link. These studies show that there is a link between sudden deaf in Children and the Medicine Ritalin. This article argues that the cases are so small that children's benefits of taking the drug actually outweigh their risks.

*Disclaimer. I did not write this article, I copied and pasted it from the reference below.  The New York Times is referenced above.

 Works Cited:
 "ADHD Drugs (Ritalin Etc) and Sudden Death among Children." ADHD Drugs (Ritalin Etc) and Sudden Death among Children. Web. 31 May 2012. <http://www.biopsychiatry.com/methylphenidate/risks.html>.

Here is More on Ritalin as an addictive drug

 Here is more information on Ritalin as an addictive drug like I promised. This Link is actually a newsletter published by the University of Utah. What I have learned from taking a look at this newsletter is Ritalin is not addictive to the children who are prescribed it. The drug can become addictive as a recreational drug, or if taken in high doses. The cause for this is, Ritalin has the same structure as cocaine. The two drugs are very similar. There were also studies that showed a link between adults with ADHD and addiction to cocaine. Children that took Ritalin as a child, and stopped taking it when they became an adult, are more likely to become addicted to cocaine. Since Cocaine and Ritalin are similar drugs, adults with ADHD find that they are calm and focused after cocaine and thus become addicted to using it.

Check out the Newsletter in the link below

 http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/addiction/issues/ritalin.html

Genetic Science Learning Center (1969, December 31) Ritalin and Cocaine: The Connection and the Controversy. Learn.Genetics. Retrieved May 31, 2012, from http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/addiction/issues/ritalin.html

The Video Below

I apologize for creating separate post for the video and the information about the video, but at this time I am unaware of how to write on the same post as the video.

In the video posted below, Studies have shown that there is a link between the fruits and vegetables that your child eats everyday. The pesticides found in fruits such as blueberries, strawberries, and celery will increase your child's chances of developing ADHD.

Check out the video below! (Previous Post)

Pesticides and ADHD

About The Video Posted Below

The video below explains studies that have been done that show an increase risk in sudden death of children who take Ritalin. Other studies have also shown that Ritalin can become an addictive drug. I have found articles on both of these issues and will post them both tomorrow.

Don't forget to check out the video Below.

Thanks,
Ashley

Critical Alert about Ritalin and Your Child