Doctor says prescribing Ritalin and Adderall is borderline child abuse

[red22]

I’m a cardiologist — this overprescribed drug taken by millions of people is toxic for your heart

Dr. Evan Levine tackles a drug that is often prescribed to help children perform better — a phenomenon he calls “borderline child abuse.” “The FDA didn’t do their job,&#8221…

nypost.com

I’m a cardiologist — this overprescribed drug taken by millions of people is toxic for your heart

Diana Bruk, April 9, 2025, 2:10 p.m. ET, The New York Post


This little pill — taken by adults and children alike — might just be a prescription for heart disease.

Dr. Evan Levine is an experienced cardiologist in Scarsdale, New York, who also runs a very popular TikTok channel, where he gets real about everything from heart attacks and health care quacks to the truth about your favorite Starbucks drink.

Speaking to The Post, the veteran heart doctor tackled a drug that is commonly prescribed to help children perform better on tests and sports — a phenomenon he calls “borderline child abuse.”

“There are two classes of stimulants for ADHD,” Levine said.

“One is the Ritalin-derived drugs called methylphenidates — Ritalin and Concerta are the most popular — and the other is the amphetamine class like Adderall and Vyvanse.”

Both types, he said, “increase the levels of norepinephrine in the blood, which can lead to slightly higher blood pressure and a mild increase in risk of arrhythmias.”

That might sound minor, but new research and common-sense questions have Levine sounding the alarm.

“In 2011, the Food and Drug Administration used a study to confirm the safety of these stimulant medications and they concluded — among young and middle-aged adults — [that there is] no increase in cardiovascular events,” Levine pointed out.

“But the study clearly states the average follow-up was only 1.3 years,” he added. “So, yeah, young healthy people have no risk at 1.3 years with elevated norepinephrine levels in their blood.”

Here comes the however.

“We know that very elevated levels of norepinephrine for years, like in people with adrenal tumors and heart failure, can adversely affect the heart — levels are much higher here,” Levine said.

“What if a child takes this for 20 years? The FDA never commented on this. Or an elderly patient takes this — or anyone at risk, people with congenital heart conditions like a bicuspid aortic valve, which 1.5% of the population has and are at risk for aortic aneurysms? The FDA never did their job.”

And now? The longer-term data is starting to back him up.

“In April 2024, they find that when you follow them up for eight years, young healthy people aged 20 to 40, they have a 57% higher risk than young healthy people not on these meds,” Levine said.

“It ends up that 1/500 of these patients were diagnosed with a cardiomyopathy.”

Levine, who also tackled the subject on TikTok, noted that the sheer volume of Americans taking these meds could be a ticking time bomb — recent data suggested 1 in 9 kids these days have been diagnosed with ADHD.

“The numbers of young adults on this since childhood can be significant,” he said.

But it’s not just kids: A recent study showed 1 in 17 adults have been diagnosed with ADHD, and some experts questioned whether or not all of these cases are legitimate.

Levine said people are taking it without an ADHD diagnosis, only to help them “focus better on exams or perform better in sports.”

Plus, he added, the drugs may have a greater risk for adults who may have hypertension or underlying heart disease.

Telehealth services have supercharged the trend, Levine warned — potentially making the drugs available to anyone with a credit card and Wi-Fi access.

“Who is vetting these services? ‘Hi, my name is Evan and I cannot concentrate and need some Adderall. Thank you,’” he said.

According to Levine, what’s lacking is comprehensive mental health care and careful consideration of non-stimulant options.

“With better behavioral health, available psychiatric evaluation and alternatives like non-stimulants, of course the amount of prescriptions for these drugs will diminish,” he said.

The three most dangerous medications for your heart. #heart#medicine #danger #healthy

Levine pointed out that these meds are taken seriously — even banned — in certain fields unless a formal diagnosis is proven.

“In Olympic sports, you need to apply for an exemption and demonstrate you have ADHD. Otherwise, you are disqualified,” he said.

“One can only guess there are some that claim a diagnosis to improve their ability and concentration in a sport.”

So, what now? For Levine, the message is simple: ADHD should absolutely be treated — but with more caution, more oversight and less blind trust in pills.

 

[emkee_reinvented]

Prescribing to Kid s, maybe excluding the exception to the rule.
Is imo not borderline child abuse, its totally unethical medically seen.
That it happens is shocking. 8/ 9 year old s ?

That most dr s don t even follow protocol, 2 times a year Heat-rate.
And Blood-pressure measurement, my last dr the first doing it.
Weird enough, on dextro-Amphetamine, my Pressure borderline low.
Should be fainting constant, and Heart-rate OK.

That doesn t go for Methylphenidate, that definitely bad for both Ime.

 

[Rectify]

Stimulants can stunt children's growth, but both Adderall & Ritalin are GRAS. Generally Recognized As Safe.

Of course, all drugs have side effects, and you can die from anything, such as drinking too much water, for example.

 

[foodcrisis]

pretty sure stimulants just cause kids to sit there kind of jittery as opposed to acting out and distrupting the flow of their class.. i was reading that it actually doesn't coincide with kids learning more or getting better grades. kids just kind of get strung out and act "better" is what i gather from the articles i've read.

i think it motivates some adults to be able to study or get more done, but i think it's just like that's what you want. i know some people are gonna be like "no way do i want to be addicted to a drug. i need this though."... i think it's like people just expect the drug will help.. like i think tripping and smoking weed helps me tune music better, and i actually find results when i test this recording, but i think it's partially maybe not what I WANT, but WHAT I EXPECT, so that i expect to do better, i actually can do better... like i feel like some people could definitley be tricked into placebos working for these types of stimulants. not everyone, but i believe a lot of people have the thought processs i'm talking about.

i think some adults just can't really sit still and relax on stimulants, so they put their time to good use... i'm not really against adults using stimulants... i don't really see why people use them every day, and dose all through out the day, but if that's what a person chooses to do... i'm not for giving children drugs for the most part.

 

[Rectify]

I'm not into giving children drugs or psychiatric labels which can harm their future employment prospects, either. But, in this case, the liars that be can't win: De facto restricting ADHD meds for adults will just drive them to street stimulant drugs, which are even stronger, or is that what they want? I saw a doctor say today that Adderall and Ritalin are the 2 most cardiotoxic drugs there are, which is utter bullshit. For example, testosterone supplementation is far more cardiotoxic than either.

 

[sHR00m]

There are way worse drugs being prescribed for ADHD than traditional stimulants. Noradrenaline reuptake inhibitors that give you the etchieness and stress of speed without any euphoria. Or off-label antipsychotics. Or wellbutrin, which is easily the dirtiest stimulant around. The thing is, the paradigm says, if you don't medicate kids they will stumble through life like someone without glasses. They will likely mess up their education and end up as untreated ADHD adult, which requires additionally to stimulants often also an antidepressant because of their broken existence.

 

[BourbonMac]

I'd say Ritalin is the lesser of the two evils, but yeah, putting children on these drugs is pretty messed up. I mean, I understand there are SEVERE cases of ADHD where a kid is so out of control it's beyond anyone's help, and I knew kids like that. But in some cases, the drugs just made the hyperactivity even worse.

It's too bad special ed program tutoring has been cut from schools thanks to a certain someone... so now these kids can't even get special tutoring or anything, and many need it since ADHD and dyslexia are common to have together.

 

[Private Criminal]

All drugs have also side-effects, and larger the dose, more prone they are causing those side-effects.

But adhd meds have been tested thoroughly and found to be safe in moderate doses. Of course, that doesn't mean that these meds are "wonder drugs", since none is. But still, the advantages and poditìve things outweight possible problems greatly. By monitoring patient's blood pressure etc, and by adjusting dose in relation to findings, will negate all potential ill effects, in otherwise healthy children. It's much better to treat the adhd with safe meds, when there is great evidence that these meds help, than leaving the child wrestling with problems of adhd or add with no medication. Not all adhd chidren benefit from medication; but many do.

 

[Keif' Richards]

Hey guys, I'm gonna move this over to our sub-forum for news articles and such, Drug Policy and Media Coverage

There is something that I see as just dystopian about how prevalent stimulant usage is. I take Lisdexamfetamine myself, so it's a bit of a mindfuck to consider the implications there. I feel I am more organized and reliable on the medication, though I also know that Amphetamine is a drug known to be highly addictive as it releases neurotransmitters that stimulate our Reward Pathways. Could I just like being under the influence of Amphetamine; I'm sure that's possible.

I'm currently involved in Social Work. My Supervisor takes Amphetamine, I take Amphetamine, I know two ladies who take Amphetamine and one who takes Methylphenidate and this is in an office of ~20 people. I don't even know a lot of the people here well enough to ask them, though I'm sure there are more people here on these stimulant drugs. There is something in me that just doesn't believe that this is the way we are supposed to be living. We have all of these people taking stimulants every day in this country, yet we can't find anyone to do any actual work. We are constantly understaffed here to the point we are giving jobs away to people who should not be involved in social work. I understand this is a national issue right now. So does that mean we have an army of Amphetamine zombies just so they can make interesting TikToks from their parents' basements?

I had a friend in High School who was overmedicated by an unscrupulous doctor. 80mg Adderall/4mg Alprazolam (Xanax) per day which he would pick up in 3 month scripts somehow, this was 20 years ago now mind you. He ended up killing himself with a shotgun and it was pretty much assumed that the medications had seriously fucked him up or that he was on those medications at the time of his suicide.

I just don't think that these powerful drugs should be given to kids except for the most extreme cases. If an 8 year old is taking Amphetamine or Methylphenidate, it should be because they have zero chance at a normal life in school without it. I don't think it could possibly have a net positive impact on their health or our society to raise them up in the world on powerful psychoactive drugs.

 

[red22]

Giving ADHD Drugs To Kids Has A Long-term Side Effect That Might Change Their Minds About Taking It. Noor Al-Sibai. Apr 14 2025. futurism.com

 

[tryptakid]

Hey guys, I'm gonna move this over to our sub-forum for news articles and such, Drug Policy and Media Coverage

There is something that I see as just dystopian about how prevalent stimulant usage is. I take Lisdexamfetamine myself, so it's a bit of a mindfuck to consider the implications there. I feel I am more organized and reliable on the medication, though I also know that Amphetamine is a drug known to be highly addictive as it releases neurotransmitters that stimulate our Reward Pathways. Could I just like being under the influence of Amphetamine; I'm sure that's possible.

Many traditional drugs have a long history of use to manage work, deal with pain from working, increase stamina to work for longer, and take the edge off from stress related to work. Cocaine, opium, alcohol, kratom all have a long history of use for these purposes. I've heard of amphetamine (and methamphetamine) described as the most purely american drug out there - eat less/work more/sleep less/burn the candle at both ends.

What's increasingly murky is whether we've created a society that demands stimulant use just to keep up? How many lines of code are written after lines of speed? How many students have turned to stimulant use just to keep up with their classmates? How much of our inability to focus stems from our incredibly distracting relationship with technology, or from the health effects of environmental contaminants? Hard to know the answers to these questions.

I'm currently involved in Social Work. My Supervisor takes Amphetamine, I take Amphetamine, I know two ladies who take Amphetamine and one who takes Methylphenidate and this is in an office of ~20 people. I don't even know a lot of the people here well enough to ask them, though I'm sure there are more people here on these stimulant drugs. There is something in me that just doesn't believe that this is the way we are supposed to be living. We have all of these people taking stimulants every day in this country, yet we can't find anyone to do any actual work. We are constantly understaffed here to the point we are giving jobs away to people who should not be involved in social work. I understand this is a national issue right now. So does that mean we have an army of Amphetamine zombies just so they can make interesting TikToks from their parents' basements?

While in school for my MSW, I worked as a pharmacy tech in a clinic that served clients who struggled with housing stability, consistent employment, complex trauma, and active substance use. I used to wonder how many people really 'needed' that adderall prescription since they weren't working and lived in a shelter. I definitely entertained some flippant thoughts regarding what, if anything, these people actually needed help focusing on. Their clinical needs were probably as varied as most people on stimulants these days - a combination of having taken them for years, actual struggles with keeping up with things without meds, and a preference for medicated vs. unmedicated living. Hard to blame them in retrospect, and certainly not how I'd think about the issue today. Maybe it helped them stay away from meth, coke, or even dope, or perhaps it was just one more hurdle to abstinence and recovery - harm reduction can be tricky in that way.

I had a friend in High School who was overmedicated by an unscrupulous doctor. 80mg Adderall/4mg Alprazolam (Xanax) per day which he would pick up in 3 month scripts somehow, this was 20 years ago now mind you. He ended up killing himself with a shotgun and it was pretty much assumed that the medications had seriously fucked him up or that he was on those medications at the time of his suicide.

I just don't think that these powerful drugs should be given to kids except for the most extreme cases. If an 8 year old is taking Amphetamine or Methylphenidate, it should be because they have zero chance at a normal life in school without it. I don't think it could possibly have a net positive impact on their health or our society to raise them up in the world on powerful psychoactive drugs.

I find myself considering the ethics of children on stimulants often. When someone's brain develops saturated in speed, what's the likelihood of being able to find a way to function without it?