Now You Have an Even Better Excuse to Snarf Ritalin

Annalee Newitz — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 15:00:00 PDT

It turns out that there's a valid medical reason for your burning urge to eat huge piles of Ritalin in order to feel speedy, erm I mean, increase your powers of concentration. According to a new study, doctors have increasingly been diagnosing ADHD in young adults over the age of 12, despite the fact that attention deficit disorder is traditionally found in kids around age 7. Could it be that ADHD is sweeping the entire human population, becoming an adult problem as well as something that afflicts hyperactive elementary school kids?

Actually, even the people reporting on this study are pretty skeptical. Says PhysOrg:

The study didn't investigate why the increase in one age group was so much higher than the other. It found the percentage of older children diagnosed with ADHD has been rising by 4 percent each year. Some experts say the increase may reflect that doctors are increasingly considering the possibility of ADHD in older kids who have concentration problems - a trend that coincides with the marketing of ADHD medications to teens and adults.
The finding may also reflect the misuse of Ritalin and other ADHD medications in that age group as study aides and recreational stimulants, some experts speculated. "There are people out there being treated for ADHD that probably don't meet the diagnostic criteria," said Scott Kollins, director of Duke University Medical Center's ADHD Program.

So the increased diagnoses may actually just reflect the increasing hunger for Ritalin among people who want a boost. Or it might be a legitimate transformation in human consciousness. You be the judge.

ADHD Increasing Among Older Children [PhysOrg]

62 Percent of Pill-Popping Scientists Use Ritalin

Annalee Newitz — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 15:25:02 PDT

Today, the results are in for a survey conducted by the scientific journal Nature on "enhancement" drug use among its readers. Turns out 1 in 5 of the 1400 respondents have taken drugs to enhance their performance (i.e., recreationally) rather than to cure a problem. The most popular of these drugs was speedy Ritalin: 62 percent of respondents had used it. It was followed closely by concentration-focusing Provigil (44 percent) and anxiety-reducing beta blockers (15 percent). These scientist drug users were of all ages — in this chart, you can see that drug use for "enhancement" is just as popular among the kids as it is among the seniors.

Four-fifths of all respondents in the Nature poll (not just the pill-poppers) thought people should be allowed to take these pills if they wanted to.

It's interesting to compare these results with those from an annual study done by the National Coffee Association, which reports that 1 in 5 people in the U.S. drinks espresso drinks. They also have a fascinating chart, similar to the chart done for the Nature study, showing what percentage of people drank coffee the day before the survey, and breaking down the answers by age. You can see that recreational coffee use is rampant — up to 70 percent of people drank coffee within the last 24 hours in 2007.

And yet coffee is a crappier stimulant than Ritalin or Provigil, with lots of bad side-effects. So the lesson here? Scientists get the good shit, and the rest of us are left clutching a shakes-inducing mug of Starbucks. Charts via Nature and the National Coffee Association.

Poll Results: Look Who's Doping [Nature]

io9: ritalin

Now You Have an Even Better Excuse to Snarf Ritalin

62 Percent of Pill-Popping Scientists Use Ritalin