10 March 2012

Ritalin

From ANATOMY OF AN EPIDEMIC (2010), Roger Whitaker.

"All these reports told the same story.  On Ritalin, a student who previously had been an annoyance in the classroom, fidgeting too much in his or her chair or talking to a nearby classmate while the teacher scribbled on the blackboard, would be stilled.  The student wouldn't move around as much and wouldn't engage as much socially with his or her peers.  If given a task like answering arithmetic problems, the student might focus intently on it....Teacheres and other observers fill out rating instruments that view a reduction in the child's movements and engagement with others as positive, and when the results are tabulated, 70 to 90 percent of the children are reported to be 'good responders' to ADHF medication....

"However, none of this tells of drug treatment that benefits the child. Stimulants work for the teacher, but do they help the child?"

He concludes that they don't.

South Park had it right then.

Chef

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Knowledge is warranted belief -- it is the body of belief that we build up because, while living in this world, we've developed good reasons for believing it. What we know, then, is what works -- and it is, necessarily, what has worked for us, each of us individually, as a first approximation. For my other blog, on the struggles for control in the corporate suites, see www.proxypartisans.blogspot.com.