The Hard Facts

The facts behind this story are incredible.

Clearly, they show the United States is madly in love with medication. No really, it's almost humorous. The rate at which we have began to medicate children is sky-rocketing, and it doesn't seem to be coming down anytime soon.

Americans medicate their children four times more than any other country in the world. Four times. Why? Well, that still hasn't been answered yet. Money? Maybe. The fact that the medication is actually beneficial. That could be argued.

In the United States, the diagnosis of ADHD in children has risen 3% each year from 1997-2006. As of 2006, 4.5 million children ages 5-17 have been diagnosed with ADHD.


But why are other countries not jumping on board with this new fad? Well it seems that they are being cautious. Actually, Canada recently banned Adderall from being prescribe within its borders in 2005. Why? Because there were over 20 reports of sudden death as a result of taking Adderall. Yes, death. But yet those reports didn't seem to slow down the U.S. diagnosis.

At that time, there were 11,000 patients on Adderall in Canada compared to 750,000 patients in the United States.

Shire, the cooperation which distributes Adderall said they were puzzled as to why Canada had temporarily banned the pills.

“We are surprised by this action from Health Canada,” said CEO Matthew Emmens. “Shire remains confident in the safety and efficacy of Adderall XR.” A spokesperson from Shire said.

Following the incidents of 20 "sudden deaths", the FDA required a label be placed on the bottles of Adderall warning of the possibilty of "sudden death".