Interesting perspective that Dr. Peter Breggin has on Ritalin. Here's a quote that you will find in the interview below: ======================================================================== DR. PETER BREGGIN - And what the medication basically does is crush spontaneous behavior. If you give stimulant drugs to animals -- we have hundreds of studies -- the animals stop playing. They stop socializing. They stop interacting. They also stop trying to escape. Basically, we make good cage -- ======================================================================== Think the government wants to drug everybody into submission now??? By law? Hannity & Colmes Tuesday, August 8, 2000 Fox News Channel SEAN HANNITY - Welcome back to "Hannity & Colmes." I'm Sean Hannity. The latest debate over giving children mood-altering drugs like Ritalin has put parents and educators on opposite sides of the law. Kyle Carroll, a seven-year-old in Albany, New York was put on Ritalin after falling behind in his first grade class, but his parents took him off the drug because of the side effects that were happening with the child, including sleeplessness, and administrators at Kyle's school called Protective Services, if you can believe this, alleging child abuse. A family court judge then ruled that the boy's parents must continue medicating him, but they told them they could get a second opinion. Are drugs the answer when kids are acting up in school? And should courts have the right to force parents to put their children on these drugs, and are we overprescribing them? SEAN HANNITY - We're joined by psychiatrist Dr. Peter Breggin, is the author of the book "Reclaiming Our Children, A Healing Plan for a Nation in Crisis." Dr. Henry Paul; he's the author of the upcoming book "Is My Child OK," and he's a consultant for the New York City Administration for Children's Services. SEAN HANNITY - Alright, Mr. Paul, let me turn to you. In this particular case, [the] parents took him off th drug because of side effects of sleeplessness, appetite loss. It was their decision. They're the parents. It's a controversial drug. The use of it has become astronomical in just the last five years alone. Then for them to be -- for the teachers to call Special Services -- Social Services -- and accuse them of child abuse because they don't like that decision, and then a judge to mandate that the drugging of this child is nothing -- nothing short of state-mandated abuse. DR. HENRY PAUL - Well, it's not uncommon that schools will call doctors or foster agencies if it's a foster child and say, "Please put a child on Ritalin," which of course, it sounds absurd, but you have to remember that most of these parents are already involved in the foster system or with a state or local agency already been in some way allegedly neglectful of their child. It is very common. I -- I want to underline this. It's very --. SEAN HANNITY - Well we don't have that in this particular case. We don't know if there's any abuse here -- DR. HENRY PAUL - We don't know this case. SEAN HANNITY - But we do know this. We know that -- DR. PETER BREGGIN - There was nothing like that, Sean, in this case at all. That's -- that's throwing rocks at people he doesn't even know. These parents had no charged against them about anything. SEAN HANNITY - Dr. Breggin, this seems to me like an Orwellian Nightmare, that the state is going to tell you to give your kids drugs, then if you don't give them I assume the fear is that your children might be taken away from you. Is that a stretch -- of the imagination? DR. PETER BREGGIN - No. That's exactly what people are afraid of. It's really interesting what has happened. Our schools have basically become mental hospitals where the teachers diagnose, the psychologists diagnose, and then the nurses give the medication. And what the medication basically does is crush spontaneous behavior. If you give stimulant drugs to animals -- we have hundreds of studies -- the animals stop playing. They stop socializing. They stop interacting. They also stop trying to escape. Basically, we make good cage -- ALAN COLMES - Dr. Breggin, should kids never get Ritalin? Should nobody ever take it? Should no child ever take this drug? DR. PETER BREGGIN - I think it's a basic mistake. It's very much along the lines of severely beating a child. Should that ever be done? Can you get a result from severely beating a child? Well, you can get a result from doing that and you can get a result from giving Ritalin, but the result is subduing the child, not teaching the child self control. ALAN COLMES - Alright Dr. Paul, [he's talking about] never it. That's an extreme position. The National Institutes of Health says a study released last week shows that medication improves the ability of kids with Attention Deficit Disorder and hyperactivity. Is that -- DR. HENRY PAUL - Well, not only that, but let's just for a second, let's put aside the problems of over-use of Ritalin and underprescription of Ritalin. If there's a drug that's close to being a miracle drug for helping those children who need it, it's Ritalin. I have the privilege of seeing literally thousands of children who are on Ritalin or who are being asked for a consultation opinion. I don't know how many Dr. Breggin has seen. We've had this discussion before. But when you see the -- when you see the miraculous -- DR. PETER BREGGIN - The miracle is -- the miracle is when you want to control the child. DR. HENRY PAUL - -- When you see the miraculous improvement in cognitive skills, in social compliance, and being able to be educated, in being able to sit in school, you will not have the opinion that we're hearing about. ALAN COLMES - Dr. Breggin, I don't agree the state should mandate it. The parents should have a choice as to what their kids take. DR. PETER BREGGIN - Absolutely. ALAN COLMES - Absolutely. We can agree on that. But to say it should never be prescribed, should never be taken. could never have a positive effect, flies in the face of the studies that have been done about this drug. DR. PETER BREGGIN - Well, no. Actually, what the studies show is that for a few weeks the drug will subdue behavior. That's what they overwhelmingly show. The brain then fights back and long term, it increases the rate of cocaine addiction. We have studies out of Berkeley showing that kids who take it will be cocaine-addiction prone. Their brains are changed. This is no surprise. SEAN HANNITY - Dr. Breggin, when we come back I want to ask you this question. You would, under any circumstances, ever give Ritalin to your child. We'll let you answer that on the other side of this break as we continue on Hannity & Colmes. Please stay with us. [Commercial Break] ALAN COLMES - Welcome back to Hannity & Colmes. I'm Alan Colmes. Dr. Paul, let's address this issue of addiction -- the fact that if you take Ritalin, according to these people, you're going to be addicted and you shouldn't take it. DR. HENRY PAUL - Every reputable study shows that children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder who are not treated well, and one of the treatments is Ritalin, have a higher level of drug addiction. DR. PETER BREGGIN - No, that's false. DR. HENRY PAUL - In fact, the use of Ritalin decreases the chance of teenage drug addiction. DR. PETER BREGGIN - That's false. The study he's quoting -- they actually had the kids on the Ritalin at the time. So getting Ritalin from your doctor keeps you from having to get it elsewhere. But the latest studies are very clear on this. But let me address the larger issue. What does it mean when we diagnose a child ADHD and give that child a drug? It means we're blaming the child's brain instead of looking at the school and looking at the family and seeing what we need to do as adults to meet that child's needs. And our schools are deteriorating. They're too large. The good teachers are leaving. The technologies are too old. And it's partly because we can drug the kids instead of changing the schools. SEAN HANNITY - Dr. Breggin, I agree. You would not give your child -- under any circumstances -- you wouldn't give him or her Ritalin, is that correct? DR. PETER BREGGIN - No, I don't want to damage my child's brain. SEAN HANNITY - I agree with you a thousand percent. I think it's overprescribed. We have parents, a high tax bill, life is expensive today, they're busy, they don't have the time to raise their children. I think it's more the lifestyle. They're not getting the attention they used to get. When you look at the studies -- it's up fivefold in 10 years, the prescriptions were. DR. PETER BREGGIN - The attention deficit is in us. In us as doctors, as teachers, as parents. It's not in the children. It's us that has to change to give the children the family, school and community life that they need, and as long as we can drug them, we can subdue them enough not to meet their needs. SEAN HANNITY - The nation's babysitter -- chemically induced -- DR. HENRY PAUL - As I told you during the break, if you would sit with a few children with a bona fide correct diagnosis of Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder, your opinion would change. SEAN HANNITY - I have seen some of these kids. I have been with them, and I gotta be honest -- DR. PETER BREGGIN - I have never had a child in my office that didn't calm down within one hour with me and on occasion the addition of my old dog Blue who sits quietly with them. That's not a disease when you can be calmed down by a caring adult and his pet. DR. HENRY PAUL - Often children with ADHD calm down in a one to one setting. DR. PETER BREGGIN - What does that tell you, Doctor? DR. HENRY PAUL - Take them into the school. SEAN HANNITY - Then that means that they're capable of doing it. ALAN COLMES - We're just about out of time Dr. Paul. Would you like to make one last -- ? DR. HENRY PAUL - Just take them in a school setting -- in a relative unstructured setting -- ADHD symptoms really come to the fore--. ALAN COLMES - Dr. Paul, thank you very much. Dr. Breggin, thank you. Thank you for your time tonight. <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. 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