Stronger warning on drug taken by students

By Megan Bakker
The Collegian

A federal advisory panel proposed last Friday that a more severe warning be placed on Ritalin and other Attention Deficit Disorder medications. The proposal arose from concerns over the drug’s risks to cardiovascular system.

Doctor Anthony Molina, a staff physician at the University Health Center, said that a large portion of Fresno State Students were on Ritalin or other drugs for ADD and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

“The majority of students on medication were diagnosed at younger ages,” he said. But there are also many students with ADD who don’t get diagnosed or started on medications until college.

The warning would apply to all methylphenidates used to treat ADD and ADHD, which are sold as Ritalin, Concerta, Methylin, and Metadate. It was prompted after an FDA review of its own database that found 25 deaths from 1999 to 2003. There were also 54 cases of serious cardiovascular problems, including heart attacks, stroke, hypertension and arrhythmia.

“It’s kind of scary. Children don’t usually have those problems,” said Molina. He added that there may be other factors that contributed to the deaths.

“The numbers are very small considering the huge number of people who have taken it over 50 years,” he said.

In fact, there are more than two million kids and one million adults prescribed Ritalin and other medications every month. Ritalin itself has been on the market since 1955.

“This is the first I’ve heard about it,” said senior and political science major Cole Ramsey about the new warnings. Ramsey was diagnosed with ADD when he was seven, and took Ritalin for it when he was younger.

“Mostly I just think it’s over-prescribed,” he said, adding that many doctors use ADD as an excuse for discipline problems.

“When I did take it, it calmed me down,” Ramsey said, but he never felt he needed it.

He stopped taking the medication when he was eight, adding that as he got older, many of his friends still on Ritalin would sell it on the black market.

The over-prescription is part of the reason that the advisory panel wants the harsher warnings. They hope that the move for more forceful labeling will raise caution among doctors and promote a narrower use of the medications to treat behavior.

“It’s wise to let patients know,” Molina said about the warnings. He added that it would be a good idea for physicians to more closely monitor the blood pressure of their patients in light of the warning.

Students diagnosed with ADD suffer from under-active attention centers in the brain. Ritalin and other medications stimulate this activity, as well as several other areas in the body, including the heart.

“There are pros and cons to every medication,” Molina said. “I don’t see any reason for students not to take it if it’s been working for them.”

Before the FDA makes any decisions about whether to accept or reject the new warnings, it plans to ask for further studies of the issue in March.

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