The Brain-Disabling, Spellbinding Effects of Stimulants

Within an hour after taking a single dose of a stimulant drug, any child tends to become more obedient, narrower in focus, and more willing to concentrate on humdrum tasks and instructions. Parents in conflict with a little boy can hand him a pill, knowing he will soon be more docile. 

It is commonly held that stimulants have a paradoxical effect on children compared to adults, but these drugs probably affect children and adults in the same way. At the doses usually prescribed by physicians, children and adults alike are spaced out, rendered less in touch with their real feelings, and hence more willing to concentrate on boring, repetitive, schoolroom tasks. 

At higher doses, both children and adults become more obviously stimulated into excitability or hyperactivity. There is, however, great variability among individuals, and a number of children and adults will become more hyperactive and inattentive at the lower doses as well. 

The stereotypical behavior mentioned by Grahame-Smith and Aronson (1992) has been carefully studied in the laboratory in regard to both amphetamine and methylphenidate, which produce identical results in animals. Randrup and Munkva (1970) described the stereotypical behavior produced in rats by subcutaneous injections of amphetamine  

Randrup and Munkva (1970) noted that the stereotypical behavior varies from species to species but always involves the suppression of normal behavior  

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