RITALIN STORY CUT TO SHREDS

THE DRUG is methylphenidate, usually known as Ritalin. Millions of
children, mostly boys, take it to control a neurological condition called
attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

The disorder makes kids jumpy and unable to concentrate. Scientists are
uncertain as to what causes ADHD, but Ritalin is the most common treatment.
Like most drugs, however, Ritalin has critics.

So it's safe to assume that many readers saw a brief story tucked away deep
in The Star recently. It had an eye-catching headline: Hyperactive child
drug like cocaine.

The item, datelined London, was by Reuters News Agency. Accurately quoting
a New Scientist magazine article, it said Ritalin has similar properties to
cocaine ``and could encourage drug abuse in later life.''

The three-paragraph story was based partly on a study of 5,000 children by
developmental psychologist Nadine Lambert of the University of California.
She also believes kids on Ritalin are more likely to smoke as adults.

The story ended by saying psychopharmacologist Susan Schenk of Texas A&M
University ``suggests they are three times more likely to develop a taste
for cocaine.''

Reaction to the story was swift. Several readers, all with kids on Ritalin,
complained that the paper was trying to scare people into abandoning a
useful drug.

For sure, it wasn't intentional. But as is often the case when medical
research stories are trimmed for space reasons, readers get shortchanged.

The Reuters story - itself a summary of a longer New Scientist article
- - had been cut to just 110 words from 370. In the process, much was lost.

Gone were some crucial balancing comments from Alan Zametkin, a National
Institute of Mental Health psychiatrist who told New Scientist he thinks
stimulants (such as Ritalin) reduce, not increase, the risk of drug
addiction:

``My theory is that stimulant use allows kids to be more successful and
therefore they develop fewer antisocial behaviours. So it's less likely
they'll become drug addicts.''

Clearly, there's a debate about the Ritalin risk.

A glance at the New Scientist article, available on the Internet, uncovered
more weaknesses. Primarily a scene-setter for a U.S. National Institutes of
Health conference on Ritalin controversies, it's not so scary.

For one thing, the magazine quoted scientist Nora Volkow as warning that
similarities she detected between cocaine and Ritalin ``should not be used
as an argument against the use of methylphenidate.'' She saw no evidence of
a link between Ritalin use and cocaine abuse.

The New Scientist also noted that Volkow's study on Ritalin's cocaine-like
properties was based on an experiment with just ``eight healthy male
volunteers'' injected with the drug. Their brain scans were compared with
those of people in earlier studies who had been injected with cocaine.

As for Schenk, she experimented with rats, not people.

Also, a Canadian angle was missed. New Scientist cited the work of Lily
Hechtman, a Montreal psychiatrist who found ``no significant differences in
patterns of substance abuse'' among people who took Ritalin, people who
weren't hyperactive, and ADHD sufferers who hadn't taken the drug.

Let's hope the coverage of this fall's Ritalin conference is more complete.

Contents copyright (c) 1996-1998, The Toronto Star.