Archive for January, 2012

Medical Scientist Find Link between ADHD and Thyroid Conditions

Saturday, January 28th, 2012

In Science Daily of March 12, 1997, a press release states medical researchers found a positive link between patients with ADHD and specific Thyroid levels. At the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Dr. Peter Hauser, Psychiatrist, warns “The correlation between thyroid hormone concentrations and symptoms of hyperactivity does not prove causality. What it does show is that thyroid hormones may provide a physiologic basis for the dichotomy between symptoms of inattention and symptoms of hyperactivity.”
ADHD is the most common mental health problem found in school age children. And while psychiatry freely admits that they do not know what causes ADHD or its symptoms, they justify the labeling of children and medicating them as having an incurable brain disease.
The CDC reports that by 2007, there were 5.4 million children 4-17 years of age diagnosed with ADHD, an increase of 22% from 2003 to 2007. As of 2007, parents of 2.7 million youth ages 4-17 years (66.3% of those with a current diagnosis) report that their child was receiving medication treatment for the disorder. Rates of medication treatment for ADHD varied by age and sex; children aged 11-17 years of age were more likely than those 4-10 years of age to take medication, and boys are 2.8 times more likely to take medication than girls. Children with Medicaid were more likely than uninsured children or privately insured children to have each of the diagnoses.
The medication of choice for this disorder is an amphetamine based drug given several different brand names such as Ritalin, Adderall, Focalin, Concerta, Dexedrine, Metadate and Vyvanse. Each of these has a stern warning on the packet insert to not be given to anyone who has a thyroid condition. Considering the findings in 1997 at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, how many children are being harmed by being placed on this stimulant without a thorough testing for thyroid disease? What typically happens with a person who doesn’t seem to respond to the medication at the usual dose, they will have their dosage increased and be thought of as “resistant” to the medication. In the case of hyperthyroidism, the symptoms mimic hyperactivity and impulsive behavior, and the result of an amphetamine with this thyroid condition is increase behavior problems. This results in children being given more medications to handle that behavior, or more psychotropics, in that they are typically are started on anti-psychotics to manage the aggressive behavior.
In an article written on September 17, 2010 by Helen Beden, HealthDay News reporter, findings were suggesting that MDs were jumping to antipsychotic meds for this same thing too soon, and that managing just the amphetamine based drugs could cause the aggressive behaviors to diminish or stop. This allows that children were unduly being put on a strong antipsychotic when it was unnecessary and still being a problem of medication adjustment today. Why is this still going on?
The problem with treating a disorder with no biologic origin as yet to be found with a stimulant that psychiatry freely admits in the APA’s Textbook of Psychiatry “do not produce lasting improvements in aggressivity, conduct disorder, criminality, educational achievement, job functioning, marital relationships, or long-term adjustments.” Furthermore, the NIMH publication concluded “the long-term efficacy of stimulant medications has not been demonstrated in any domain of child functions”. So why are they still given in such large quantities despite the evidence they don’t work? It’s because the stimulant “numbs” the child for the short-term, their neurologic systems overwhelmed by the powerful drug, and it seems to those looking at them that it worked and calmed them from their hyperactivity. It’s only later when they’ve been on this devastating drug for years that we find they have had to be placed on several drugs to combat their “resistance” to the amphetamine, and soon demonstrate depression, suicide, and dependency on drugs for living.