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The stimulant Ritalin, a drug used to
help children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder,
may cause long-term changes
in the brain.
The changes look similar to those seen
with other stimulants such as amphetamine and cocaine, at
least in rats, the team at the University of Buffalo found.
Clinicians consider Ritalin to be short
acting. When the active dose has worked its way through the
system, they consider it all gone. The research with gene
expression in an animal model suggests that it has the potential
for causing long-lasting changes in brain cell structure and
function.
Ritalin, known generically as methylphendiate,
probably is not addictive in the way drugs of abuse are if
it is used properly. High doses of amphetamine and cocaine
have been found to switch on genes known as "immediate
early genes" in brain cells. One of the genes, called
c-fos, has been linked with addiction
when it is activated in certain parts of the brain.
The researchers gave rat pups sweetened
milk containing methylphenidate in comparable doses to what
a child would get and at similar times.
CFOs genes were activated in their brains
in a pattern similar to that seen in cocaine and amphetamine
use. These data do suggest that there are effects of Ritalin
on cell function that outlast the short term.
Annual
Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in San Diego November
11, 2001
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