Re: ADD and Ritalin - Why more prevalent in US than UK ?

I've been working with British Scouts in a range of leadership capacitie
for over twenty years and then in 1990 I started helping out with a BSA
troop at the American School in London, near where I work as a Health
Service Manager in the British NHS.

Until I became involved with the BSA units I had never heard of ADD . No
only that, in all that time I never (knowingly) had a kid on medication
for what you might call " behavioural problems ". And believe me, I've
had some problem kids in my unit. Like the eight year-old who I had to
dismiss because he broke into the church where we met and stole troop and
church property ... or the fourteen year-old who got into the first class
carriage on the train back from camp and threw all the lightbulbs out of
the window. He ended up in a special boarding school. Or the Cub we had
recently who had to ask to leave because he was constantly picking fights
with other kids, and on a couple of occasions caused actual injury. (This
kid was under psychiatric treatment. As a result of his assaults on other
kids we just had to bounce him.) You get the picture ...

Last Summer I worked at the BSA Summer Camp in England, running the Firs
Year Program. We had <four> kids out of about sixty on Ritalin. Now tha
makes it 1:15 of a random sample of US kids on this medication , compare
with zero out of about a thousand or so I have had in British units.

I'm no epidemiologist, but this <cannot> be chance alone. So what's the >
angle ? Is it that UK schools don't have the psychological screening th
US schools do ? ( Here to get a kid seen by a psychologist they have to
almost murder the teacher, burn down the school or preferably both ...)
Are there different expectations at work ?

There's a kid in my BSA troop who is on Ritalin. His behaviour is bette
than a good many of the kids in my British Cub Scout pack ... what I am n
clear about is whether this is the result of the medication he is on, or
whether the " treatment threshold " is different. Here in the UK there is
resistance to using any psychotropic medicines on juveniles unless they a
very strongly indicated. What I would like to know is this : Are US doct
more willing to prescribe than ours in the UK ?

Also, I have been unable to find details of Ritalin in any of the basic
pharmacological references I have at home. Can anyone explain what this
drug is, its mode of action etc. ? ( Please rember my field is public
health service policy - I'm not a clinician or pharmacologist! )

I'd welcome views from Scouters, but if you have experience of ADD as a
teacher / social worker / clinician then I'd appreciate hearing from you.

Any information you could supply by e-mail about ADD / effects of Ritali
would be appreciated. I'm also posting to sci.med for more information
because this question intrigues me. At work we are about to undertake a
research project looking at the specification for child health services ,
particular in schools, so I have both a Scouting and a professional
interest. I may use the information gathered from this posting ( with
appropriate attribution) in our paper unless you request otherwise. Any
information regarding identifiable individuals will , of course, be
regarded as confidential.)
>
> Regards,
>
>
> >

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