Summary
In an effort to compare how a healthy brain handles medication commonly prescribed for children suffering from ADHD, the FDA is considering testing Dextroamphetamine on healthy children as young as nine years old. Parents are promised a whopping $570 for exposing their children to this medication, which may induce some to introduce their children to possibly harmful side-effects from Dextroamphetamine.
A similar experiment was performed 20 years ago by the National Institute of Health, but they did not have access to MRI technology to measure effects on the brain, which will be used in this new study if it is approved.
Original source:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5907667
Details
-
Is it ethical in the name of science to give a healthy child as young as 9 a controlled substance?
- That's the dilemma facing the Food and Drug Administration's Pediatric Ethics subcommittee at its first-ever meeting on Sept. 10.
- The research, proposed by the National Institute of Mental Health, includes healthy children among 9- to 18-year-olds who would receive a single 10 mg. dose of dextroamphetamine.
- The hoped-for payoff for research: A better understanding of how healthy brains work differently from those of children diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
- Characterized by inattentiveness, overactivity and impulsiveness, ADHD affects up to 5 percent of schoolchildren.
- Dextroamphetamine, the active ingredient in such drugs as Dexedrine and Adderall, is prescribed commonly to increase attention span and calm restlessness.
- Researchers looked only at how the stimulant changed children's behavior as they performed tasks.
- The new trial would add magnetic resonance images to map potential differences in brain activation patterns.
- Risk vs. scientific gain While Rapoport's trial is little different from the earlier one, review boards that balance risk vs. scientific gain have changed dramatically in 20 years.
- Indeed, an NIH review panel met twice and was unable to reach a consensus whether risk to healthy volunteers would be too high in the new study.
- The study would involve 14 children with ADHD, 14 healthy children, 12 pairs of identical twins and 12 pairs of fraternal twins.
- The major stumbling block was determined to be the risk of giving a class 2 controlled substance to healthy children, which some fretted might breed future substance abuse.
- Children in the 1980 NIH trial had no increased risk of drug abuse in the five years after the trial ended, researchers say in the study protocol.
About the author: Mike Adams is a consumer health advocate and award-winning journalist with a passion for teaching people how to improve their health He has authored and published thousands of articles, interviews, consumers guides, and books on topics like health and the environment, and he has authored and published several downloadable personal preparedness courses including a downloadable course focused on safety and self defense. Adams is an honest, independent journalist and accepts no money or commissions on the third-party products he writes about or the companies he promotes. In 2010, Adams co-founded NaturalNews.com, a natural health video sharing site that has now grown in popularity. He also founded an environmentally-friendly online retailer called BetterLifeGoods.com that uses retail profits to help support consumer advocacy programs. He's also the founder and CEO of a well known email mail merge software developer whose software, 'Email Marketing Director,' currently runs the NaturalNews email subscriptions. Adams volunteers his time to serve as the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, and regularly pursues cycling, nature photography, Capoeira and Pilates. He's also author of numerous health books published by Truth Publishing and is the creator of several consumer-oriented grassroots campaigns, including the Spam. Don't Buy It! campaign, and the free downloadable Honest Food Guide. He also created the free reference sites HerbReference.com and HealingFoodReference.com. Adams believes in free speech, free access to nutritional supplements and the ending of corporate control over medicines, genes and seeds.
Have comments on this article? Post them here:
people have commented on this article.
Monday, September 06, 2004
Email this article to a friend
Share
this article on: 
