Essential reading: NY Times on the dark side of Adderall and other prescription stimulants

A superb piece in this Sunday’s New York Times tells in gripping and heartbreaking detail how casual prescribing of Adderall and other stimulant drugs can lead to catastrophe. The article is structured like a Greek tragedy, with the reader — like the victim’s family — seeing where the narrative is leading but powerless to do anything to derail it. The author, Alan Schwarz, lets us in on what to expect from the beginning: The story of Richard Fee, an athletic, personal college class president and aspiring medical student, highlights widespread failing in the system through which five million Americans take medications for A.D.H.D. (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), doctors and other experts said. Medications like Adderal can markedly improve the lives of children and others with the disorder. But the tunnel-like focus the medicines provide has led growing numbers of teenagers and young adults to face symptoms to obtain steady prescriptions for highly addictive medications that carry serious psychological dangers. These efforts are facilitated by a segment of doctors who skip established diagnostic procedures, renew prescriptions reflexively and spend too little time with patients to accurately monitor side effects. The elements leading to Richard Fee’s death are familiar: rapid and glib diagnosis, inadequate follow-up, failure to screen for abuse potential, failure to utilize available resources such as prescription databases to determine if a p...
Source: The Poison Review - Category: Toxicology Authors: Tags: Medical adder all ADHD alan schwarz attention deficit hyperactivity disorder new york times vyvanse Source Type: news