Comments on: Spike in Western Australian ADHD child prescribing defies the long term downwards trend

By: GA

GA — Wed, 04 Sep 2013 04:24:52 +0000

So just because you and others like you abuse drugs that should mean people with adhd should be denied access to treatment?

Over a decade for me on dex. ONE increase of 5mg to allow for going from part time to full time work. NO TOLERANCE because I actually have adhd and do not abuse drugs. I have NEVER used any illegal substances because I AM NOT A LOSER. But if you bunch of losers had your way I would have been denied access to treatment.

Martin you have a crusade to vilify us. For some
reason it is legal for you to vilify us for a medical
condition.

By: Pete82

Pete82 — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 04:23:24 +0000

Well said Martin. I can say from personal experience that it didn’t stop me abusing dexamphetamines or other amphetamine/stimulate type drugs. And Seth even if these medications did stop kids from going onto abuse drugs/medication and overall help them get a better life/ living standard. Where’s the limit to theses medications. Do people keep using more for better academic performance? Who gets to take them? Who gets to regulate them? Take lance Armstrong (and others) performance enhancing drugs are illegal yet he pushed them to the limit because there were huge benifits by doing so. However it went all went pare shaped in the end.

By: Martin Whitely

Martin Whitely — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 15:53:48 +0000

Revealing that the expert quoted by Brian Seth was disgraced Harvard Professor Wilens who along with his colleagues Professors Biederman and Spencer took millions in undisclosed drug company payments. (see http://speedupsitstill.com/world-leading-adhd-%e2%80%98expert%e2%80%99-harvard-professor-joseph-biederman-sanctioned-hidden-drug-company-money-allegations )

The lived reality in my home town Perth is that high child prescribing rates were associated with high teenage amphamine abuse rates and when we cut child prescribing rates 50%there was a similar fall in teenage amphetamine abuse rates. This supports the common sense notion that if you stop giving teenagers amphetamines they stop abusing them.

By: brian seth

brian seth — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 11:24:31 +0000

Many people fear that the use of psychoactive drugs in children will lead to future substance abuse. Actually, all of the evidence points to the opposite. Multiple studies have shown that stimulant treatment for ADHD cuts the risk of future substance abuse by more than half (e.g.,
Wilens et al. 2003). In other words, there is a huge protective effect of stimulants against substance abuse. Research has not been done yet to show why stimulants lower the risk of substance abuse in ADHD people; but presumably, those people who are now able to find success in society have less need to seek alternate forms of pleasure or escape. It is actually fair to ask, “How can we withhold a treatment,when withholding the treatment doubles the child’s risk for substance abuse?”

A quote from “Kids in the Syndrome Mix of ADHD, LD, Asperger’s, Tourette’s, Bipolar, and More” by Martin L. Kutscher MD