Kids on pills.

The progrmme examines concerns over the increasing use of powerful psychiatric drugs to control the behaviour of children suffering from attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD). The first problem is in diagnosing the condition, which is probably a brain disease and is affected by the child's environment. There is no test. Doctors must judge by the symptoms and when a checklist of symptoms was produced, there was a huge increase in the numbers of children diagnosed with ADHD. Ritalin is the most frequently prescribed drug. It can produce wonderful transformations in behaviour, and parents may become dependant on their children taking it, but it may alter normal brain development, cause depression and lead to the need for sleeping pills. Psychiatrists and psychologists disagree over the use of ritalin. Among those taking part in the programme are Prof Steve Baldwin (Univ of Teeside), Prof Eric Taylor (Institute of Psychiatry), Dr Geoffrey Kewley (ADHD Assessment Centre) and Dr Roger Bloor of the N Staffs Combined Healthcare Trust which showed that in 50% of the cases it reviewed, ritalin had been over-subscribed.