Methylphenidate is very similar to both amphetamines and cocaine, a drug used to treat (ADD) attention deficit-disorder, and (ADHD) attention deficit hyper-activity disorder, in mostly children. Children are being diagnosed with a list of behaviors that In 1987 was literally voted into existence by the American Psychiatric Association and inserted in the DSM-IV, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Within one year 500,000 children in the U.S. were diagnosed with the disorder.

 In 1998 at the National Institutes of Health Consensus Conference on ADHD The NIH issued the following statement regarding ADHD: "We do not have an independent, valid test for ADHD, and there is no data to indicate that ADHD is due to a brain malfunction" About seven million children in this country are treated with addictive, dangerous, and potentially deadly drugs without demonstration of abnormality of disease.

 School administrators are coercing parents into drugging their children for disorders that have no scientific and organic validity of disease. If they don't drug as requested by school officials, Child Protective services may and have been called, therefore involving still another government agency in fraudulent cases.

 There are absolutely no positive long-term effects of these medications on learning, academic standards, performances, and social behavior. Between the years of 1990-2000 over 569 children were hospitalized, 38 of them were life threatening hospitalizations, and 186 died from Ritalin.

What are the truthful experts saying about ADHD and stimulant drugs used to treat these disorders!

These drugs make children more manageable, not necessarily better. ADHD is a phenomenon, not a brain disease. Because the diagnosis of ADHD is fraudulent, it doesn't matter whether a drug works. Children are being forced to take a drug that is stronger than cocaine for a disease that is yet to be proven.

Beverly Eakman Author,
President National Education Consortium 2001

The medical community has elevated Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) to the status of diagnoses, and most people believe that these are real diseases. They aren't and doctors who label children ADD or ADHD don't have a clue what's really ailing them.

Dr. Sydney Walker III
Psychiatrist

a) often fails to give close attention to details or makes careless mistakes in schoolwork, work, or other activities

b) often has difficulty sustaining attention in tasks or play activities
c) often does not seem to listen when spoken to directly
d) often does not follow through on instructions and fails to finish schoolwork, chores, or duties in the workplace (not due to oppositional behavior or failure to understand instructions)
e) often has difficulty organizing tasks and activities
f) often avoids, dislikes, or is reluctant to engage in tasks that require sustained mental effort (such as schoolwork or homework)
g) often loses things necessary for tasks or activities (e.g., toys, school assignments, pencils, books or tools)
h) is often easily distracted by extraneous stimuli
i) is often forgetful in daily activities

2. Six (or more) of the following symptoms of hyperactivity-impulsivity have persisted for at least 6 months to a degree that is maladaptive and inconsistent with developmental level:
Hyperactivity:
a) often fidgets with hands or feet or squirms in seat
b) often leaves seat in classroom or in other situations in which remaining seated is expected
c) often runs about or climbs excessively in situations in which it is inappropriate (in adolescents or adults, may be limited to subjective feelings of restlessness)
d) often has difficulty playing or engaging in leisure activities quietly
e) is often "on the go" or often acts as if "driven by a motor"
f) often talks excessively Impulsivity :
g) often blurts out answers before questions have been completed
h) often has difficulty awaiting turn
i) often interrupts or intrudes on others (e.g., butts into conversations or games)

Prescribing Kiddy Cocaine¨ to our Children From the Drug Enforcement
Administration (DEA) 1995 Report on Methylphenidate

Like other schedule II stimulants, abuse of methylphenidate, the stimulant most prescribed for ADHD¨ can lead to tolerance and severe psychological dependence. The literature indicates that the addiction produced by methylphenidate abuse is neither benign nor rare in occurrence, and methylphenidate is more accurately described as producing severe dependence. In clinical studies methylphenidate is self-administered by humans and produces patterns of reinforcing and subjective effects similar to d-amphetamine. Methylphenidate and d-amphetamine produce similar patterns of subjective effects, including increases in rating of euphoria and drug liking. In a study of the incidence of cocaine use and abuse in adult subjects exposed to methylphenidate as children, medicated ADHD subjects who tried cocaine reported higher levels of drug dependence than non-medicated ADHD subjects and controls. Recent data suggests that pre-exposure to stimulants, including methylphenidate, in childhood, may predispose these same individuals to the reinforcing effects of cocaine. ADHD adults have a high incidence of substance abuse disorders. With three to five percent or more of today's youth being administered methylphenidate on a chronic basis, these are issues of concern. Typical of other CNS stimulants, high doses of methylphenidate often produce agitation, tremors, euphoria, tachycardia, palpitations and hypertension. Psychotic episodes, paranoid delusions and bizarre behavior characteristic of amphetamine-like psychomotor stimulant toxicity have all been associated with methylphenidate abuse. Severe medical consequences, including death have been reported. Case reports document that methylphenidate abuse can lead to marked tolerance and psychic dependence in children and adults. Psychotic episodes, violent behavior and bizarre mannerisms have been reported. A significant body of literature is available that describes the actual abuse of methylphenidate and consequences associated with that abuse. Some of the earliest reported abuse cases came out of Sweden where the widespread abuse of methylphenidate led to its withdrawal from the Swedish market in 1968.

The Consequences of Stimulants for ADHD¨ : Suicide and Death

The Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) indicated that between 1990 and 1993, most emergency room mentions for methylphenidate involved whites (75% to 89%) who were taking the drug orally (90% to 96%) to commit suicide (47% to 67%). Note: The DSM III listed the major complication of methylphenidate withdrawal was suicide. This information was not included in the subsequent version, DSM -IV. The FDA reported on May 2, 2000, that "A total of 4,400 health-related complaints of adverse reactions to methylphenidate have been received since 1969. Thirty percent of those more than 1,300 complaints were reported in the last 15 months, including complaints of convulsions and tics, drug dependence, heart ailments, and death. Some estimate only about one percent of all complaints is ever reported to the FDA. The FDA reported 121 cases of people dying while taking methylphenidate and other medications; in nearly 50% of those deaths (59 cases), methylphenidate was suspected of playing a role in the patient's death." 

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)

The standard reference used by psychiatrists and psychologists for diagnosis and for assigning insurance-payment codes is the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). Here is what authorities have said about DSM. The third edition of DSM states: There is no satisfactory definition that specifies precise boundaries for the concept mental disorder."

The revision of DSM III admits: there is no assumption that each mental disorder is a discrete entity with sharp boundaries between it and other mental disorders or between it and no mental disorder.¨ (Emphasis added). DSM IV also admits to not being able to define a mental disorder: Moreover, although this manual provides a classification of mental disorders, it must be admitted that no definition adequately specifies precise boundaries for the concept of mental disorder."

The low level of intellectual effort was shocking. Diagnoses were developed by majority vote on the level we would use to choose a restaurant. You feel like Italian, I feel like Chinese, so let's go to the cafeteria. Then it's typed into the computer.¨

Dr. Paula Caplan, psychologist,

author of They're Making Us Crazy,

commenting on the American Psychiatric Association's 1987 hearings into DSM

Given their farcical empirical procedures for arriving at new disorders with their associated symptoms lists, where does the American Psychiatric Association get off claiming a scientific, research-based foundation for its diagnostic manual? This is nothing more than science by decree. They say it is science, so it is.¨

Dr. Margaret Hagen, PhD,
Professor of Psychology
Boston University

"Finally, why must the APA pretend to know more than it does? DSM IV (the fourth edition) is the fabrication upon which psychiatry seeks acceptance by medicine in general. Insiders know it is more of a political than scientific document. To its credit it says so --although its brief apologia is rarely noted. DSM-IV has become a bible and a money making best seller-its major failings notwithstanding...It is the way to get paid...The issue is what do the categories tell us? Do they in fact accurately represent the person with
the problem? They don't and can't, because there are no external validating criteria for psychiatric diagnoses. There is neither blood test nor specific anatomic lesions for any major psychiatric disorder psychiatry a hoax--as practiced today? Unfortunately the answer is mostly yes."

Dr. Loren Mosher, Psychiatrist former Chief of The
National Institute of Mental Health's Center for the Study of Schizophrenia

No evidence of a Chemical Imbalance"

The designation disease can only be justified when the cause can be related to a demonstrable anatomical lesion, infection, or some other physiological defect. As there is no such evidence for any mental disorder, the term disease is a misnomer; in fact, it is fraudulent.

Thomas Szasz, Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus
State University of New York,
Author of 25 books