I was very interested to hear today on the news that the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE to you and me) is requesting that doctors are more careful when prescribing Ritalin for newly diagnosed cases of ADHD. It seems that this particular government agency has realised this reliance on Ritalin is too widespread among the medical profession – at last!!!! I wonder if they read my blog on the subject
However, it’s advice that alternative therapies should be sought in all but the most severe cases is all well and good as long as the support is available out there. Given the sad history of so called Care in the Community in this country – willing but drastically under-resourced, we will have to reserve judgement for now. A number of parents have told me they only need to resort to the medication at school, because they have found strategies to work with their children with ADHD at weekends.
Certainly there has been some worried parents in the media today thinking that the Ritalin treatment which has worked for their children will be withdrawn. Hopefully, there will be enough backup to support them – Ritalin or not. Perhaps it should be targeted at teachers too!!!
A Beautiful but Distracted Sequel
September 24, 2008I was very interested to hear today on the news that the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE to you and me) is requesting that doctors are more careful when prescribing Ritalin for newly diagnosed cases of ADHD. It seems that this particular government agency has realised this reliance on Ritalin is too widespread among the medical profession – at last!!!! I wonder if they read my blog on the subject
However, it’s advice that alternative therapies should be sought in all but the most severe cases is all well and good as long as the support is available out there. Given the sad history of so called Care in the Community in this country – willing but drastically under-resourced, we will have to reserve judgement for now. A number of parents have told me they only need to resort to the medication at school, because they have found strategies to work with their children with ADHD at weekends.
Certainly there has been some worried parents in the media today thinking that the Ritalin treatment which has worked for their children will be withdrawn. Hopefully, there will be enough backup to support them – Ritalin or not. Perhaps it should be targeted at teachers too!!!
Posted in Comments on the News, Disability Issues | Tagged ADHD, disability, NICE, Ritalin |