OT: 2 articles: Lawsuit Charges Drug Co. Conspiracy on Ritalin

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http://www.foxnews.com/health/091500/ritalin.sml

Lawsuit Charges Drug Co. Conspiracy on Ritalin

Friday, September 15, 2000

Are Ritalin prescriptions to children with attention-deficit

hyperactivity disorder really part of a conspiracy between drug

companies and doctors?

That's the allegation made by two class-action lawsuits filed in

California and New Jersey this week against the Swiss pharmaceutical

giant Novartis.

The suits charge that the company conspired with the American

Psychiatric Association to create the disease known as ADHD in order

to fuel the market for Ritalin.

A Novartis spokesman, who had not seen the lawsuits, said he could

not respond directly, but he dismissed the allegation that Novartis

conspired with the psychiatric association to invent the disorder.

" This disease is described even earlier. It was described by

psychiatric societies. It was described in a lot of the best medical

journals, and we are not the only ones on the market, " the spokesman

said.

Ritalin works in a seemingly paradoxical way, some experts say: it's

a stimulant used to calm down overstimulated kids. The drug works

primarily on the part of the brain responsible for inhibitions.

" We know that these parts of the brain are smaller in children and

adults with ADHD, " said Dr. Barkley, a professor of

psychiatry and neurology at the University of Massachusetts Medical

School. " It results in people being very uninhibited and

distractable. "

But other critics decry Ritalin and similar drugs on general

principle.

" I think this whole idea of drugging children to control their

behavior is wrong, " said Dr. Breggin, author of Talking Back to

Prozac. " It's like smoking dope to get through a job you can't stand,

or drinking alcohol to get through a bad marriage. "

An estimated 10 to 12 percent of American boys receive Ritalin or its

generic form, methylphenidate, according to U.S. House Judiciary

Chair Henry Hyde, R-Ill., who in a related action Thursday asked for

a government probe of Ritalin abuse in the nation's schools.

In a letter to U.S. Comptroller General , Reps. Hyde and

Bill McCollum, R-Fla., ask the General Accounting Office to

investigate the prevalence of psychostimulant abuse in the elementary

and secondary schools. They proposed the investigation look at the

theft and sale of such medications and identify " systematic factors "

contributing to the abuse, such as inadequate state laws.

In response to Hyde's letter, Novartis spokeswoman Moran

said, " We manufacture Ritalin for use in the treatment of ADHD and we

want it to be used appropriately. So if there are issues with

appropriate use, we welcome whatever investigations are undertaken to

solve those problems. "

— Reuters' Pallarito contributed to this report.

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http://dailynews.philly.com/content/daily_news/2000/09/16/national/RIT

A16.htm

Suit: Ritalin maker revved up diagnosis

Associated Press

NEWARK - Two lawsuits filed this week accuse the makers of the drug

Ritalin and the American Psychiatric Association of encouraging

overdiagnosis of behavioral disorders in children to boost sales of

the drug.

Novartis Pharmaceutical Corp. and the American Psychiatric

Association promoted the belief that a large number of children need

to take Ritalin for attention deficit disorder or attention deficit

hyperactivity disorder, the lawsuits filed in New Jersey and

California allege.

The suits were filed Wednesday in state Superior Court in Hackensack

and in San Diego federal court by some of the same attorneys who

filed huge lawsuits against gun makers and the tobacco industry.

Novartis and Ciba-Geigy Corp. - which produced Ritalin before it

merged to form Novartis in 1996 - and the American Psychiatric

Association worked together to include the diagnosis of the two

disorders and list it in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of

Mental Disorders in 1980, creating a huge market for the drug, the

lawsuits say.

The companies released misleading sales literature about Ritalin's

effectiveness, " without ever advising . . .that Ritalin usage would

not stimulate or improve academic performance and/or have any long-

term effect on the symptoms associated with ADD or and/or ADHD, " the

California lawsuit says.

Novartis released a statement yesterday calling the

charges " unfounded and preposterous " and noted that attention

deficit/hyperactivity disorder has been recognized by medical experts

worldwide. The American Psychiatric Association also denied the

allegations.

The symptoms of short attention span, impulsive behavior and

difficulty sitting still are also associated with youthful

rambunctiousness, which has raised questions of whether youngsters

are being overmedicated. The American Academy of Pediatrics issued

its first guidelines earlier this year for diagnosing the disorders,

stating that a child must show symptoms in two settings for at least

six months.

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