Aussie Toddlers On Ritalin

Here's a startling report from New South Wales, one of Australia's states, where the Daily Telegraph reports that children as young as two-years-old are being given Ritalin. Keep in mind that Australia is nowhere near as populous as the US and that these figures only represent kids in part of the public health system.

"Figures obtained by The Daily Telegraph reveal 311 children in NSW aged five and under depend on controversial medication, including 58 four-year-olds and 13 three-year-olds....As well as the three and four-year-olds, there are 240 five-year-olds on subsidised ADHD drugs in NSW. There are 6692 6- to 10-year-olds, 9006 11- to 15-year-old and 2584 16- to 18-year-olds.

"The figures follow the State Government's ADHD review which found there was no overprescribing of drugs."

Governments generally think this sort of thing represents no problem. The kids of course are getting a range of ADHD drugs, not just Ritalin.

One child psychiatrist was critical of the situation:

"But child psychiatrist Jon Jureidini said he was disappointed at the number of preschoolers on the list. 'I would be confident that they (the drugs) are being inappropriately used in most cases of preschool children,' Dr Jureidini said. 'ADHD is not a good explanation for putting these children on drugs. I have seen children of that age displaying very disturbed behaviour but it is usually a medical problem or significant family circumstances that are undermining their well-being.'"

I'm sure someone will box my ears for saying this, but two-years-old is simply way too young for a child to receive medications like these--even though it goes on in the US and UK--much less a diagnosis of ADHD. At two, children are barely able to walk. How the hell are they getting diagnosed at such a tender age?