NHS spends millions on drug that turns children into 'drones'

THE NHS is spending more than £1million a month on mind-altering drugs designed to help to calm hyperactive children.

Blair dishing out more unnecessary money Blair: dishing out more unnecessary money?

Doctors now write almost 7,500 prescriptions a week for Ritalin tablets, known as “chill pills”.

They cost about £200 a year per child and are likely to cost taxpayers a total of £12.48million this year, figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act have revealed.

The revelation comes as new figures show that Ritalin or similar drugs are being linked to at least 11 deaths in Britain.

Last night the UK licensing authority, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), admitted that the deaths were likely to be an underestimate of the true figure because most doctors do not inform them of suspected cases.

Dr Sami Timimi, an expert in child behaviour, said taxpayers’ money is being wasted on Ritalin, which he warned may cause serious long-term damage.

“This is shocking and not a wise way to spend money,” he said. “By using Ritalin, doctors avoid addressing the real issues that are causing a child’s behavioural problems. It is like putting a sticking plaster on a huge wound.

“We could be storing up big problems for this generation of youngsters.”

New figures obtained by this paper also show that doctors have linked other serious side-effects with drugs such as Ritalin. These include 73 blood disorder reactions, 39 heart disorders and 80 stomach disorders.

Ritalin or similar pills are given to children diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, a condition that affects mainly boys and includes problems focusing, controlling their actions and remaining still or quiet. Doctors wrote 97,224 prescriptions for the controversial drugs in the last three months of last year, at a total cost of £3.12million.

There is no medical test for ADHD. Diagnosis is based on monitoring problem behaviour which is severely and persistently inattentive and disorganised, not just naughty or defiant.

Andrea Bilbow, from hyperactivity support group ADDISS, said: “Untreated ADHD can lead to psychiatric problems in later life, at enormous cost to the health service. We also know that many of the more severe cases end up in the justice system, again at enormous cost to the state.”

Many are sceptical about the success of ADHD drugs and question whether the condition actually exists.

Blair Gibbs, spokesman for the TaxPayers’ Alliance said: “If parents were allowed to discipline their children, ordinary taxpayers wouldn’t have to fork out so much for expensive drugs that turn kids into drones.”

Professor Steve Baldwin, who died in the 2001 Selby rail crash, had concluded from his research that Ritalin was being used as a “quick fix” for children being used as “guinea-pigs”.

He believed ADHD as a biological brain disorder did not exist and that symptoms were caused by a number of social and psychological problems that could not be treated with pills.

He considered the massive rise in Ritalin prescriptions a “public health scandal”.

Next Tuesday in Edinburgh there will be a demonstration against the increasing use of psychiatric drugs for children.

Campaigners who will be marching include the Citizen’s Commission on Human Rights.

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