Ritalin use tied to adult depression
Source: Boston Herald, 12/11/2004
New animal studies are suggesting that misdiagnosis of attention-deficit disorder in kids who are treated with Ritalin may cause depression in adulthood.
Rats who were dosed with Ritalin as pre-adolescents showed a lack of interest as adults in pleasureable stimulants that healthy rats enjoy - food, sex and cocaine - and also gave up more easily when placed in potential drowning situations.
Harvard Medical School associate professor William Carlezon, a McLean Hospital psychiatric researcher, said the results suggest a need for careful diagnosis.
``What this may be relevant to is people who are receiving Ritalin but don't actually have ADHD,'' Carlezon said. He said parents and teachers who may be pushing to have a child daignosed and placed on Ritalin should make sure a thorough and competent series of tests is done.
Carlezon and researcher Susan Andersen dosed juvenile rats, and then tested their reaction as adults to cocaine and stress, and found signs of depression in their lack of interest in pleasure or saving themselves. Similar work being done by researcher Eric Nestler at the University of Texas Southwest Medical Center found similar results.