Patti's Blog - Advocate for Elders, People with Disabilities and Their Families

FACE THE FACTS: Pain-killer prescriptions triple, cause more deaths than heroin, cocaine

Excerpt from: The Oakland Press (click for full article)

 

Fact: Prescriptions for painkilling drugs have nearly tripled in two decades, and unintentional overdose deaths from these drugs now exceed those from heroin and cocaine combined.

Back in 1991, 75.5 painkiller prescriptions were written in the United States.

In 2010 it was up to 209.5 million.

That was enough to medicate the entire American adult population for one month.

The pharmaceutical industry estimates painkiller spending rose from $6.7 billion in 2007 to $8.3 billion in 2011.

Study Finds that ADHD may Inhibit Societal Growth if Untreated

Excerpt from: About.com (click for full article)

 

Adults who were diagnosed with ADHD as a child may take pause at a new study on the learning disability. The recent study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry was a follow-up from a previous ADHD study conducted some 33 years ago on a selection of children. The initial study observed the behaviors of children diagnosed with ADHD and a separate group of children without the learning disability. Now scientists have compared how these two groups of children have grown up into adults all these years later, and the results are quite startling.

Here are just some of the discoveries that researchers made as a result of the study:

1. The adults who had ADHD as children earned significantly less than the adults who never suffered from ADHD. The study estimates that the adults without ADHD earned almost $40,000 more on average than those who did have the learning disability.
2. The adults in the group that didn't suffer from ADHD as children as had more schooling on average than those who had ADHD. The study states that adults with ADHD had an average of two and half years less schooling than those without ADHD-that's more than an associate's degree worth of education.
3. Adults with ADHD also had higher rates of substance abuse issues as well as issues with antisocial behavior. Addressing ADHD early and effectively: Though the numbers from this particular study appear to paint a bleak picture for people who had ADHD, it shouldn't discourage people who have the learning disability. If anything, the study points to the necessity of properly addressing and treating ADHD as the real disability that it is. ADHD shouldn't be disregarded as a mere disorder that promotes hyperactivity in children; this study proves that at least that much.