A new study of the effects of long-term use of ADHD drugs like Ritalin and Concerta indicates that the drugs when used over a several-year period may be no more effective than therapy without drugs. Even worse, the study found that long-term use of these drugs may inhibit kids' growth. Yikes: short kids with even shorter attention spans, and the frustration about both to match.  

The new study negates an earlier one which claimed that the drugs were better than therapy, but only looked at a one-year treatment period rather than three.

Here's a nice quote: "There's no indication that medication's better than nothing in the long run."

Makes you feel good about how our kids are being medicated, doesn't it?

And I'm even more concerned about the side effects that the drugs seem to be having, slowing kids' growth in terms of both height and weight. Short adults are known to consider themselves less happy and less healthy than their taller counterparts, so adding that onto the effects of ADHD and how it is perceived only adds up to trouble, in my mind. (We won't even talk about the thing that pedophiles tend to be shorter than average, too.)

My confidence in the medical community continues to diminish with news like this. It sure seems like medicine likes to throw drugs at people in a vain attempt to "fix" them, doesn't it?