title: Psychostimulants: Concerns over Long-Term Adverse Side Effects.
abstract: The personal rewards are substantial for the healthcare provider who can make teachers and parents happy. There are evolving, alternative methods of dealing with ADHD, but PS are relatively cheap and quick when they work (roughly 70% of the time) and readily accessible. We have no social or educational structures currently to deal with the extreme ADHD cases. In cases of less dramatic, attention problems, poor grades, where PS boost attention, physicians are unlikely to abandon their patients willingly, unless compelled to sacrifice short-term goals over the unanswered questions about what is best in the long run. How can we know if it's the child and not the educational system that needs diagnosis and treatment? Psychiatric literature consistently suggests the prevalence of attention deficit in children is roughly 5% of the child population. Do 5% of our children need to take PS? This is where risks versus benefits enters the decision making process, and this is where this article aims to intentionally plant a healthy dose of scientific scrutiny. Ultimately, the doctor in charge makes a decision ... sometimes based on intangibles that cannot be legislated or defined by even the best scientific studies. It is not clear or scientifically established that the use of PS, especially in young, developing minds of children, is safe or meaningfully beneficial in the long run. There is much information in human and animal studies to question the wishful thinking that using mind altering drugs in children is the right thing to do. There are risks, and there are benefits. In this case, the risks are less obvious, cloaked in the inadequacy of our current state of knowledge, potentially threatening the quality of the lives we seek to enhance.
authors: James Gray
authors: JG
authors: Adams
mesh_terms: D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy*; D000697:Central Nervous System Stimulants / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002648:Child; D004334:Drug Administration Schedule; D006801:Humans; D000069342:Medical Overuse; D018570:Risk Assessment; D014481:United States
chemical_list: D000697:Central Nervous System Stimulants