If you have seen this headline recently(as I have) please read the
following article from the HSINewsletter
Nachum

What are the symptoms of being a preschooler? Parents need to be on
the alert for these six warning signs that their child is being
childlike:
A tendency to color outside the lines
A desire to sing favorite songs over and over and over again
Refusal to mask grumpiness after naps
Sometimes "unable" to hear parents speaking
Organizationally challenged
No hesitation to pout, cry, or scream in public places
If you notice any of these symptoms (sometimes all within the same
hour) then you have a typical preschooler. But don't worry. All these
symptoms can be easily smoothed over, creating a sort of
permanent "time out"...as long as you're okay with giving your three-
year-old a powerful prescription drug.

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Don't make me stop this car
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I don't know what's more disturbing; the fact that Columbia
University recently conducted a Ritalin study on 300 children aged
three to five, or the fact that so many parents were willing to allow
their preschoolers to be medicated.

Ritalin, of course, is the attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder
(ADHD) drug that's been approved by the FDA for use in children age
six and above.

But why wait until a child is six? Ask any parent: Ages three through
five are often just as challenging as the terrible twos. So, gee,
wouldn't it be nice to just pop a pill in your little tyke and undo
all the tantrums, crying jags, and incessant demands?

Half of the kids in the Columbia study were given low doses of
Ritalin and half received a placebo. In the November 2006 issue of
the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent
Psychiatry, the authors write that Ritalin "produced significant
reductions on ADHD symptom scales in preschoolers compared to
placebo."

Such as it is, that's the good news.

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Safety net
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Now for the bad news, which is all about adverse events (AE). The
study authors note: "Thirty percent of parents spontaneously reported
moderate to severe AEs in all study phases after baseline. These
included emotional outbursts, difficulty falling asleep, repetitive
behaviors/thoughts, appetite decrease, and irritability."

Arguably, the most unsettling item on this list is "difficulty
falling asleep." Have you ever known a three-year-old with insomnia?

But here's the kicker. Some media outlets actually portrayed the
results as safe! Here are headlines from two different sources:

"Ritalin Safe for Hyperactive Preschoolers"

"Popular ADHD drug Ritalin safe and effective for pre-schoolers"

What are they thinking? Nearly ONE THIRD of the medicated kids had
adverse events. How can anyone interpret that as safe?

Eleven percent of the children in the medication group were pulled
out of the study because of unfavorable side effects. I wonder...if
we checked with the parents of those kids, do you suppose they would
describe this drug as safe for a three-year-old?