Ritalin leaving pupils zonked out says official

By MONIQUE DEVEREUX and NZPA

Too many children are being rendered "semi-catatonic"in the classroom from taking the psychiatric drug Ritalin, says Teacher Registration Board director John Langley.

He has criticised prescription levels after the release of figures from the Government's drug-buying agency, Pharmac.

Pharmac spent more of its $2 million annual Ritalin budget on the central and lower South Island ($641,140 this year) than on any other region. Southern doctors collectively prescribed more of the drug than their peers in other regions.

Ritalin is a powerful stimulant primarily prescribed to control attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children.

A total of 16,682 prescriptions were issued in the southern region of the West Coast, Canterbury, Otago and Southland this year - the equivalent of 4170 people receiving the drug.

The northern region issued 12,222 prescriptions, despite 437,000 more people living there than in the south.

Midland issued 10,758 prescriptions and central, including Wellington, Nelson and Marlborough, had 12,675.

Dr Langley said prescription rates appeared "far, far too high."

He feared that some doctors could be prescribing Ritalin as a quick-fix for stressed families whose children might have other problems.

While Ritalin did "dampen down" the extreme behaviour of some children to normal levels, it subdued others to a "semi-catatonic state."

"It frightens the hell out of me to think that a kid who presents with serious behavioural problems is simply put on Ritalin as though that is going to cure it," he said.

"No one is going to tell me that the number of kids being shovelled on to Ritalin at the moment are all suffering from chemical imbalances."

But Rangiora High School principal Peter Allen said he was surprised to learn that the southern region had topped prescription levels.

Although there were "a handful" of children on Ritalin at his school he was not aware of any problems with the drug leaving children unable to perform in the classroom.

Mr Allen said he was not aware of any other principals in his region with concerns about the effects of Ritalin on children.

The president of the New Zealand Principals Federation, Geoff Lovegrove, said the high number of prescriptions for Ritalin was more a reflection of society than a slight on doctors.

He called Dr Langley's comments a "wild overstatement."



"It's not an epidemic and we certainly don't have hordes of zombies wandering around the school."

Julie Broerse, president of Addvocate, the support group for people with attention deficit disorder, said ADD-ADHD was under-diagnosed in New Zealand.

She believed that the South Island's higher prescription rates showed the system was successfully identifying and treating children.

Meanwhile, Concerned Teachers spokesman Peter Calvert said the Langley comments were inappropriate and, if made at all, should have been made by Education Minister Trevor Mallard, "not by a public servant charged with registering teachers."