More research needed on possible Ritalin-cancer connection

• As the U.S. Food and Drug Administration moved to examine a potential link between Ritalin and cancer, the scientists who first unearthed the connection stressed Friday that the finding was preliminary and should not be cause for panic.
• The concerns about the drug, a stimulant that has been used to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) for decades, surfaced during a FDA pediatrics advisory committee meeting Thursday.
• The advisory committee had been called to discuss yet another health issue surrounding the class of ADHD medications known as methylphenidates, to which Ritalin belongs: Some psychiatric side effects have been reported among children using Concerta, Ritalin and other versions of these drugs.
• But the Texas scientists said their Ritalin study was far too small to prompt the parents of ADHD patients to abandon the drug.
• "We're hoping that they'll see this as a major public health issue, and as something that needs to be done," Bondy added.
• Meanwhile, the question of labeling changes because of possible psychiatric effects of Ritalin and other methylphenidates have been put on hold after the advisory committee told FDA officials that it was hesitant to recommend such changes.
• According to an FDA release, committee members suggested waiting until more safety data have been collected on two other types of drugs used to treat ADHD -- methamphetamines such as Adderall and the non-stimulant Strattera, something that won't happen before early 2006.
• Concerta had 20 cardiovascular event reports, while the other methylphenidates had four such reports.
• "Labeling is an oversimplification of the problem," said Dr. Eugenio M. Rothe, director of the child and adolescent psychiatry clinic at Jackson Memorial Hospital and an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Miami School of Medicine.