Read more
Zusatztext "A vitally important topic--and a constructive! hopeful message." --Daniel Goleman! Ph.D. " Running on Ritalin describes in vivid detail the performance pressures on America's children! their parents! and teachers that result too often in a prescription for Ritalin--and nothing else." --Ramon C. Cortines! Executive Director! Pew Network for Standards-Based Reform at Stanford University "No parent who has ever considered medication use for their child should make the decision without first reading Running on Ritalin. " --Stanley Turecki! M.D.! author of The Difficult Child and Normal Children Have Problems! Too "Balanced and thoughtful! yet it sounds a powerful alarm." --Kirkus Reviews Informationen zum Autor Lawrence H. Diller, M.D, Klappentext In a book as provocative and newsworthy as Listening to Prozac and Driven to Distraction! a physician speaks out on America's epidemic level of diagnoses for attention deficit disorder! and on the drug that has become almost a symbol of our times: Ritalin. In 1997 alone! nearly five million people in the United States were prescribed Ritalin--most of them young children diagnosed with attention deficit disorder. Use of this drug! which is a stimulant related to amphetamine! has increased by 700 percent since 1990. And this phenomenon appears to be uniquely American: 90 percent of the world's Ritalin is used here. Is this a cause for alarm--or simply the case of an effective treatment meeting a newly discovered need? Important medical advance--or drug of abuse! as some critics claim? Lawrence Diller has written the definitive book about this crucial debate--evenhanded! wide-ranging! and intimate in its knowledge of families! schools! and the pressures of our speeded-up society. As a pediatrician and family therapist! he has evaluated hundreds of children! adolescents! and adults for ADD! and he offers crucial information and treatment options for anyone struggling with this problem. Running on Ritalin also throws a spotlight on some of our most fundamental values and goals. What does Ritalin say about the old conundrums of nature vs. nurture! free will vs. responsibility? Is ADD a disability that entitles us to special treatment? If our best is not good enough! can we find motivation and success in a pill? Is there still a place for childhood in the performance-driven America of the late nineties? Ritalin Ascendant: A Doctor's Dilemma Something is awry, all right, but something not entirely medical in nature. --Robert Coles, M.D., The Mind's Fate It's midday at an elementary school in a comfortable American suburb. The lunch bell has just rung, and kids are noisily pouring out of classrooms to enjoy a brief recess in the schoolyard before mealtime. Inside, next door to the principal's office, the school secretary is arranging bottles of medication on a tray. Scotch-taped to the tray are little photos of fourteen children, labeled with their names and keyed to the bottles. Though by now she pretty much knows who gets what, at the beginning of the school year this system helped make sure she didn't make mistakes--that each of the children taking Ritalin at school received the right pill and dose. At least a dozen more youngsters among the 350 attending this school took the same medication at home before school but aren't required to take a midday dose. At a nearby school of similar size, the kids getting Ritalin are organized in ten-minute shifts because their number exceeds thirty. And this weekday ritual is carried out--with variations in the number of kids and the personnel responsible for handing out the pills--at schools across the United States. Attention deficit disorder, or ADD--the condition for which the medication Ritalin is most commonly prescribed--was ...
