WASHINGTON —
Prescribing psychotropic medications to normal, healthy kids who want to boost their academic performance is “not justifiable” because it contravenes a physician’s responsibility to promote a child’s “authentic” development and to protect him or her against coercion by parents or peers, a group of neurologists and bioethicists has asserted.
When older adolescents who are closer to the age of autonomy (or their parents) ask for such medications, arguments against the practice are weaker, the group concluded. But it’s still “inadvisable,” they wrote.
Those arguments are contained in a new finding published in the journal Neurology on Wednesday.
They come against rising concern about the misuse and diversion of stimulant medications prescribed to people with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, often for purposes that have more to do with performance enhancement than recreation.
In recent years, the proportion of children diagnosed with ADHD and prescribed stimulant or other medication for the condition has risen steeply. So too has evidence of the medication’s use by children and adolescents looking for an edge in test-taking.
Among 12th-graders, 3.4 percent acknowledged having used ADHD drugs in the last year for purposes other than those for which they are prescribed, according to a yearly federal survey of youth drug use. In the same 2008 survey, 2.9 percent of 10th-grade students and 1.6 percent of eighth-graders acknowledged having taken ADHD drugs for “nonmedical” purposes.
The neuro-ethicists wrote that widening use of ADHD medications and growing awareness and acceptance of the ADHD diagnosis have confronted physicians with increasing requests from parents and children to prescribe the medications to children who do not meet the clinical standards for an ADHD diagnosis. Some may come from parents of children who are developing normally but falling short of high expectations for grades and academic performance.
In such cases, physicians not only have an “essential fiduciary responsibility” to protect the child, but have a social obligation as well to prevent the misuse of a societal resource - medications - in ways that may give some children an unfair advantage over others, the neurologists wrote. When asked for such medications by parents of children who do not need them, a physician should take the opportunity to explain that there is no evidence that such drugs benefit children who do not need them, and explore with parents their goals and expectations for the child.
The neuro-ethicists stopped short of asserting that prescribing such medications to children for neuro-enhancement actually endangers their health. They noted that, though medications used for ADHD - typically stimulants - can raise blood pressure and heart rate, the consequences of such physiological changes in youngsters can be difficult to detect.
World, nation, state
Doctors urged to stop prescribing ADHD drugs for healthy kids
- World, nation, state
-
-
Man shot to death while questioned in Boston probe
A Chechen immigrant was shot to death by authorities early Wednesday after he turned violent while being questioned about his ties to one of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects, officials said.
-
Jury in Arias trial adjourns after impasse
Jurors in the Jodi Arias murder trial said Wednesday they were unable to reach a unanimous verdict on whether she should be sentenced to life in prison or death for killing her one-time boyfriend, prompting the judge to instruct them to keep trying.
-
More than 50 hurt when Indiana school buses have chain-reaction crash
A school bus slammed into the back of another one Wednesday afternoon, setting off a chain-reaction crash involving four buses in northern Indiana, leaving about 50 middle and high students with non-serious injuries and one driver seriously injured.
-
Oklahoma tornado damage could top $2 billion
The tornado that struck an Oklahoma City suburb this week may have created $2 billion or more in damage as it tore through as many as 13,000 homes, multiple schools and a hospital, officials said Wednesday as they gave the first detailed account of the devastation.
-
Search for Oklahoma tornado survivors nearly complete
Helmeted rescue workers raced Tuesday to complete the search for survivors and the dead in the Oklahoma City suburb where a mammoth tornado destroyed countless homes, cleared lots down to bare red earth and claimed 24 lives, including those of nine children.
-
Poll finds teens migrating to Twitter
Twitter is booming as a social media destination for teenagers who complain about too many adults and too much drama on Facebook, according to a new study published Tuesday about online behavior. It said teens are sharing more personal information about themselves even as they try to protect their online reputations.
-
Power of Moore tornado dwarfs Hiroshima bomb
Wind, humidity and rainfall combined precisely to create the massive killer tornado in Moore, Okla. And when they did, the awesome amount of energy released over that city dwarfed the power of the atomic bomb that leveled Hiroshima.
-
Russian mice, gerbils dead in 30-day space ordeal; lizards live
A crew of Mongolian gerbils may have gone where no Mongolian gerbil has gone before, but they did not come back alive. A Russian spacecraft filled with mice, lizards and other animals has returned to Earth - but with the majority of its furred passengers apparently dead.
-
Jodi Arias asks jury to give her life in prison
Jodi Arias asked jurors Tuesday to give her life in prison, saying she “lacked perspective” when she told a local reporter in an interview that she preferred execution to spending the rest of her days in jail.
-
Cleveland kidnapping suspect’s 3 dogs go to foster care
Three dogs seized from a Cleveland man charged with holding three women captive over a decade have found a foster home.
- More World, nation, state Headlines
-
Man shot to death while questioned in Boston probe
