Why Did the FDA Approve This New High-Dose ADHD Drug?

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From Healthline: “[Dr. Mary Ann] Block, who treats children with ADHD without medication at The Block Center in Fort Worth, Texas, said she doesn’t see the need for a new drug using the same base ingredient.

‘If a doctor wants to give a higher dose, an older drug can accommodate that,’ she said. ‘The only reason to make another methylphenidate drug is to apply a new patent so that the cost to consumers of the drug can increase.’

Block said any formulation of methylphenidate is ‘highly addictive and much abused,’ similar to cocaine. So much so that the two are used interchangeably in medical research.

‘If a doctor suggested we give a 6-year-old cocaine to help them focus, no one would consider that,’ she said. ‘But change the name to Ritalin, Concerta, or Metadate, and no one objects.’

While some experts question Adhansia XR’s approval after the fact, Purdue Pharma has posted a potential new clinical trial to test methylphenidate in dosages up to 100 mg a day.

A company spokesperson said current manufacturing capabilities limited Adhansia to pills up to 85 mg, but the 100-mg doses are expected to be available early next year.”

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2 COMMENTS

  1. “‘If a doctor suggested we give a 6-year-old cocaine to help them focus, no one would consider that,’ she said. ‘But change the name to Ritalin, Concerta, or Metadate, and no one objects.’”

    I object, I consider force feeding children cocaine, or any similar drug, downright evil.

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  2. i believe the “professional” jargon/euphemism is “dosage optimization,” as in…ramp it up! I was bored one day, and I read a pubmed article about it, dealing with dosing ‘atypicals’ above the fda approved dosage range. Not surprisingly, it is…according to what I remember of that brief paper…the most brilliant idea, ever.

    When psychiatry is given more leeway, high(er) dosages become common. One reason the so-called “Golden Age of Psychopharmacology” from the 50s to 70s or so came to an end was an increase in regulations on barbiturates, amphetamines, and more regulations to give people/’patients’ some voice in ‘treatment,’ including informed consent laws. and now…

    The Myth of Mental Illness, as Szasz called it, is more firmly entrenched than -ever-. And now…everything is somehow a brain abnormality, that is fully expected to respond to the Miracle Meds.

    The last time psychiatry got this out of control, there was something of a pushback. I don’t know, honestly, if it is possible for an organized pushback, this time around. Perhaps the best we–as disillusioned, well-informed people–can really hope for is that enough people with the correct credentials will speak up, or at least offer some alternatives….

    thereby sparing at least -some- people -some- pain and destruction. 🙁

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