Prescribed against attention deficit disorder, Ritalin is increasingly sold in France, which worries doctors. Nicknamed “children’s cocaine”, it is officially classified as a narcotic.
All methylphenidate (or ritalin) specialties combined, community and hospital included, 738,419 boxes were sold in France in 2016 and 809,225 in 2017, i.e. an increase of 24% since the previous report by ANSMwhich publishes new figures.
As a last resort
Ritalin is a psychostimulant indicated as part of the overall management of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children aged 6 and over. “Even if it is sometimes essential, doctors tend to prescribe [la Ritaline] too quickly because there are no other solutions and they have to go quickly”, laments however in The Parisian Hélène Fresnel, journalist and co-author of the book “Homo Drogus”.
The Ansm recommends its prescription as a last resort, “when psychological, educational, social and family corrective measures alone prove insufficient”, as does the medical journal Prescribewhich denounces “sometimes serious cardiovascular and neuropsychic adverse effects”. Nicknamed “children’s cocaine” and officially classified as a narcotic, Ritalin can slow growth or weight gain and cause abnormal behavior, hallucinations, delusions, dependence or addiction.
Sales of methylphenidate have been growing for ten years
Sales of methylphenidate have been growing for ten years. They had already gone from 283,000 boxes purchased in March 2008 to 476,900 in March 2013, an increase of almost 70% in sales in 5 years. Attention deficit disorder with or without hyperactivity affects between 3% and 5% in school-age children, but the number of cases detected is increasing.
Attention deficit disorder is characterized by the association of three signs whose intensity and expression vary according to the child: attention deficit, motor hyperactivity and impulsivity. It is only when these signs ofare disabling for the child in his schooling or in his relations with his family and friends that a diagnosis of ADHD may eventually be made and that treatment may be considered.
.