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Amphetamines: Wrong to give to children?

Renz Envy

Renz Envy

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Joined
Sep 29, 2010
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Don't you think it's a little strange that so many parents are perfectly okay with feeding their children amphetamines in order to help them "concentrate" in school? After many experiences with adderall and vyvanse I can tell you that the come-down must be a lot different for a child experiencing something they don't understand.

I first experienced something "beyond sobriety" when I was 16. I can only imagine that growing up using amphetamines daily must have some psychological impact on children. Dependency maybe? or worse?
 
I grew up as one of those children (Have had an Adderall script for ADD since the age of nine or so), and can't say I remember experiencing any sort of "high", "come-down" or other adverse effects aside from not having much of an appetite. Personally I think those adverse effects are experienced if the wrong dosage is being administered or the medication is being prescribed to people who don't need it.
 
blackskirt said:
Personally I think those adverse effects are experienced if the wrong dosage is being administered or the medication is being prescribed to people who don't need it.
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This. Plus there is a lot of literature on the presumption that people with ADHD/ADD are much more prone to develop addiction and dependency 'by default'. So it will be hard to identify effects of dopaminergic drugs in this respect, while those drugs do give a lot of patients a higher chance of finishing a decent education and ending up somewhere decent. Of course there is also the discussion about the excessive labeling of 'difficult' children as having ADHD/ADD, but that's a different subject I suppose.
 
I don't believe there's necessarily a huge difference in brain chemistry. ADD and ADHD is a broad range of symptoms. Pretty much anyone "can" be considered one of the two. I think if you keep the doseage at a decent level the person will only experience the focusing aspects. When you feel euphoric, is when there's usually a crash.

I work with a parent who feeds her 7 year old son all kinds of pills. Mood stabilizers. Adderall. She studied medicine in college and her kid is the most violent, insane child I have ever seen. The kid is usually on at least 4 different prescriptions.
 
Ever since i took adderall for the first time and started becoming more itnerested in drugs and researching them, i have always thought it was fucked up.

Most parents rnt going to go against a doctors advice. Seems like there could be a better solution but some kids really do need to calm the fuck down in order to be successfull. But besides those certain kids it is VERY over prescribed.

Kinda a double edged sword type deal.
 
I think that amphetamines should be used sparingly, very sparingly, but there are children I have encountered who I believe need to be medicated ASAP.

I swear, sometimes I just want to ask the parents of these children, "Are you seeing what I'm seeing? Your child is about to be a freshman in high school, and he can't sit still for even the shortest length of time."
 
Its is rather scary..........cant imagine being a young kid on speed........im well over 19 and i thought ADHD pills where a joke.........well once i tried adderall and i felt the rush. Boy oh boy my mind changed FAST. I could read, Think, Function,socialize. Love em! But i need a benzo at night. Xanax to comedown or you can get really wired up! Was prescribed Vyvanse 50 MG and iv been abusing the hell out of it.......taking upwards of 300 MG + Energy drinks and caffene....I need to stop abusing this med its gonna lead to a street addiction. Like me and opiates.......Vicodin led to oxycontin to Black tar real fast........Beat that addiction.....still can enjoy some occasional opiate use but i watch it closely.
 
It's true; amphetamines hooked me. I wasn't aware that I even had a problem until I went to bed one night, or, early morning, rather, and could feel each one of my hip bones. I put myself on the scale and realized that I had lost a disgusting amount of weight for an already-skinny guy like me.
 
Forcing a child to take amphetamine is child abuse, plain and simple. Whether the speed is prescribed by a doctor or not is absolutely irrelevant.
 
Roger&Me said:
Forcing a child to take amphetamine is child abuse, plain and simple. Whether the speed is prescribed by a doctor or not is absolutely irrelevant.
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Under all circumstances? Because I have encountered very bright, but very attention-deficit students before for whom medication makes the difference, and it's quite literally the difference between dropping out of high school and becoming an electrician (not that there's anything wrong with being an electrician, it's just hard work and not for everyone...) and going on to graduate from college. I'm not exaggerating. I'm being deadly serious, and that's one hell of a difference, too big of a difference for me not to recommend medication.
 
They have their place, yet are over prescribed. The dosage must be carefully monitored and be left in the hands of responsible parents; I have seen children who whine for their amphetamines like they would whine for a candy. I feel bad for those two children, as their parents are obviously reinforcing their addictive personalities, even at seven and nine.
 
Roger&Me said:
Forcing a child to take amphetamine is child abuse, plain and simple. Whether the speed is prescribed by a doctor or not is absolutely irrelevant.
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Statements that lack any form of nuance are erroneous by default. Doing nothing for a child that has severe ADHD ranks much higher on the chart of parental behaviour that can be considered as child abuse imvho.
 
No, I don't think it is strange to give a child medication for something that is greatly affecting their lives in a negative way. If my kid had an extremely painful condition I wouldn't think it wrong to use an opioid painkiller for them, IF the benefits outweighed the risks and for whatever reason the opioid they were rx'd was the best drug for their situation. Medications are awesome if they work. Are kids these days over medicated? YES. Everyone learns differently and kids who blast through their work then bounce around the classroom are bored, not in need of drugs. Kids aren't meant to sit still at a desk all day, they are programmed to run around and play constantly (this isn't how western society works, unfortunately). Kids that cannot focus, fail every class and are going to end up dropping out of highschool in their future unless they are on some medication? They are the ones who need it. I don't care what a med consists of, if the benefits outweigh the risks it is time to take it.
 
Being prescribed amps definitely encouraged me to use more drugs in that I had to start drinking to fall asleep and they really just made me stay awake for so long and research other stuff and look for other sorts of experiences. This isn't the case for everyone but it happened to me.
 
Let's also realize that shire has a steady movement up on the stock market. Ever since the release of XR and vyvanse, they've been growing.

Great for controlling young brains and reducing childhood obesity, but certainly not something I will introduce my kid to until he's old enough to fully understand what it does.

Now imagine if you could start a pharmaceutical company and claim the rights to MDMA :P
 
It's definitely wrong to give amphetamines to children. Amphetamines are dangerous and powerful drugs; most children do not need to be exposed to potentially harmful chemicals with possible lifelong complications.

It's not necessarily that I don't believe that amphetamines have a purpose in medication for those who have a genuine need. I strongly feel they are overprescribed and that a clinical diagnosis of ADHD is 1) highly subjective and 2) not accurate enough to justify an amphetamine prescription.

In my opinion, counseling, therapy, and alternative educational methods should be used more frequently when dealing with children with ADHD. I believe a significant portion of the disorder can be overcome through discipline and structure. After all, eventually the individual should learn to adapt and function in society irrespective of medication.

Amphetamines should only be used in the most severe cases in which alternative treatment has proven ineffective.
 
yb62338 said:
After all, eventually the individual should learn to adapt and function in society irrespective of medication.

Amphetamines should only be used in the most severe cases in which alternative treatment has proven ineffective.
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I agree that only severe cases should be treated with drugs, and definitely agree with alternative education as an excellent "cure" for ADD/ADHD since everyone learns differently and kids are certainly not made to sit at desks all day. However, why should someone with a lifelong illness be forced to "learn" to adapt and function without their medications? Just because ADD/ADHD is classified as a mental disorder, should it somehow rank less of a problem than a more physical problem needing daily medication? I have epilepsy and need daily meds to literally stay safe from head injury or death in some form or another. I also have ADD which I have spent 29 years fighting with. I've had 10 years of psychotherapy and was homeschooled most of my life. It is still greatly affecting my daily life and I have begun pursuing medication options. Stimulants didn't work and as of this morning I have started Strattera but had the stimulants worked I'd have stayed on them. If I had a kid struggling with the same thing I do and stimulants make life better, healthier and more productive, who cares? Lots of drugs giving to kids longterm are nastier than ritalin and adderall.

I often wonder where I'd be today had I had correct medications from childhood. Probably more successful than I am right now.
 
I would have to say that there is no problem at all giving children with severe or moderate ADD/ADHD medication.... I have someone close to me who is a teacher. When kids who do have these problems it can effect their work in school and the work of others. One kid in this class was on medication and his dad forgot to give him his morning dose or something.... This happened to be a standardized test day and things got baddd!

He told the teacher that he couldn't focus on a single thing. In his words the words where moving on the page. Obviously he was also frustrated and mentally shaken. So my opinion is yes, if they are positivly tested for ADD or ADHD they should get on the medication.

EDIT: They diagnosed a lot of people my age in the 80's and 90's and said that people had ADD or ADHD and they diagnosed A TON.... Who knows if these people all had it I heard the tests they did turned out not to be accurate.
 
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It's my opinion that giving amphetamines to kids is royally fucked up. I was prescribed adderall from a fairly young age. I had/have all the symptoms of "ADHD," and public school definitely didn't jive with the way I'm wired - so the logical thing is compromise your natural brain chemistry so you can be a worker-drone, right? Seriously? That shit ruined a huge portion of my life, drove me into addiction as I could no longer feel "high" off any normal thing, any sober experience, when taking adderall, and for a great deal of time after I stopped. Speed is a scary drug, in any context. Giving it to 4 years olds, as it is now fairly routinely, is evil, in any circumstance. Allowing a child of any age that doesn't have narcolepsy to take amphetamines is no better than slamming your baby's head in a door repeatedly.
 
I think that at the current time, there is really no effective alternate medication for ADD. Everyone I know who gave straterra a shot, claimed it was useless.

In my opinion, for children, I would think that using something like modafinil (Provigil), might be a good choice. I'm no psychiatrist, at least in the legal sense, but I always found modafinil to be a lot gentler, with less side effects, and a smoother come down.

I wonder though if something like ephedrine or caffeine might be effective as well in young people with ADD. I remember when I first drank coffee when I was seven or so, and I was totally spun!
 
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