UN consultant Ritalin is almost always superfluous

Swiss UN consultant: „Ritalin“ is almost always superfluous

04/18/2014

Switzerland is known for its soothing critical treatment of the diagnosis of ADHD and the medication of children with psychotropic drugs. As early as 2010, doctors and psychologists there expressed concern after the consumption of methylphenidate, the active ingredient in psychotropic drugs such as Ritalin, rose again by 10%. Even seniors would already be treated with methylphenidate.

In 2011, the Swiss National Ethics Commission (NEK-CNE) will comment on the use of psychotropic drugs to enhance the brain, called enhancement, and also critically examine the use of medications containing methylphenidate in children. Because pharmacological changes caused behavioral changes, but the child does not learn how such behavioral changes can be achieved, the child will be deprived of an important learning experience for self-responsibility. „In this sense, the enhancement of the child's freedom is severely restricted and inhibited in his personality development“, it says in the opinion of the NEK-CNE.

And now the Swiss UN consultant Pascal Rudin criticizes ADHD and her medication. The high Ritalin consumption becomes the topic for the UN, he says. The UN should therefore recommend Switzerland to set stricter rules for the Ritalin consumption of children. Pascal Rudin: „The problem is that Ritalin is used to treat a disorder. So the key question is: What is our understanding of disruption? It is clear that a child in a school environment can disturb relatively quickly. But that does not mean that it has a medical disorder. The attention deficit syndrome ADHD is defined as a disease, but it is difficult to measure medically. So children are stigmatized just because Ritalin works at short notice and is efficient. The UN should also point to fundamental ethical principles in this context: doctors should treat us, not increase our performance.“

Rudin further points out that „Ritalin“ is only justified if you have a true biological-medical basis for the prescription. However, this applies to a maximum of 5% of the children who take the appropriate medication today, so that in 95% of children - so almost always - these psychotropic drugs are superfluous.

The ADHD conference welcomes and supports this position, but doubts Rudin's assumption of 5% of medicated children, including one „real“ biological-medical basis available. However, such a foundation does not exist in ADHD. If methylphenidate is temporarily indicated, it is not for biological or medical reasons, but solely for psychosocial reasons (for example, as part of an intervention in the event of an escalating crisis). (Pm)