MEDICATING OUR CHILDREN

April 2000
		Are we overmedicating our children? When should doctors prescribe psychiatric drugs for kids? Should there be restrictions imposed for younger children? Experts answer your questions.

Forum introduction Ritalin for children under 5. Diagnosing ADHD Diet and ADHD Is our definition of 'normal' accurate? Adults and medication Additional Comments     Health Spotlight: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder March 24, 2000: Treating ADHD The NewsHour's Health Spotlight. More NewsHour health coverage.	Ralph Winestock of Los Angeles, CA asks: Symptom chasing is not the answer. I believe, from nearly 20 years of clinical assessment, the answer lies in alkalizing our children's diets. That would include alkalized water, green foods and organic green concentrates, and colloidal minerals. Hypersensitivity expressed in the form of ADH and ADHD is nearly 100% containable. Primarily, we see an increase due to the acidic end products of processed foods.   Dr. Diller responds: It is tempting to reduce the complex and chronic nature of ADHD behaviors to one single component (e.g. diet). The alternative treatments to medication or behavioral modification in general have been far less studied. Various aspects of diet, including sugar and additives have been studied. Elegant studies have demonstrated that refined sugar does not contribute to ADHD behavior however this notion refuses to die in the community. Some artificial food coloring in massive amounts did make boys under five "more irritable" so it may be wise to limit the amounts of processed foods to all children. However, most of the claims of "alternative" approaches are anecdotal and more study is needed to before I can recommend these kinds of interventions for the treatment of ADHD. Dr. Jensen responds: As attractive as this notion seems, research studies DO NOT support this position. Only among very small fraction of disturbed children can difficulties be traced to such dietary factors. There do appear to be SOME children who have unusual responses to dietary factors, allergens, and such. But in most carefully controlled scientific studies (even among children whose parents have joined associations and support groups because they felt that their children had such difficulties), allergens, additives, and dietary deficiencies do NOT explain their difficulties, and changing these factors has no effects different than placebo.