Ritalin Nation

DeGrandpre, R. Ritalin Nation Rapid Fire Culture and the Transformation of Human Consciousness. New York W.W. Norton Company, 1999. 

The United States produces and uses about 85% of the world s total Ritalin supply. Although Ritalin consumption in Canada quadrupled between 1990 and 1996, it stills remains less than one-half of that in the United States. Australia is the only other country to note a similarly large increase in the use of Ritalin during the 1990s, although that nation s rate of usage remains only one-tenth that of the United States. 

None of the industrialized nations of Asia has experienced a recent increase in the use of stimulants. In Europe, the prevalence rates run as low as one-tenth of 1%. Even in England, where Ritalin s use has increased over 20-fold since 1990, children are from 10 to 50 times less likely to be diagnosed with ADHD than in the United States (Figure 4.1). 

Figure 4.1 The United States consumes some 85% of all the Ritalin produced in the entire world—an astonishing figure. This graph, based on data from the United Nations on methylphenidate consumption, demonstrates the dramatic difference between U.S. use of Ritalin and similar stimulant drugs and that of the rest of the world.

In 1994, a national high school survey (Monitoring the Future) indicated that more seniors in high school in the U.S. abuse Ritalin than are prescribed Ritalin legitimately. 

Reclaiming Our Children A Healing Solution to a Nation in Crisis (2000) Talking Back to Ritalin, Revised Edition (2001)... 

National Institute for Clinical Excellence Technology Appraisal Guidance No. 13. Guidance on the use of methy Iphenidate (Ritalin, Equasym) for Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in childhood 2000. http //www.nice.org.uk/... 

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