Boys will be Boys - unless they take Ritalin

Its time to be concerned when we single out one gender for behavoir control.

This was in today's Melbourne Age.

Overhaul for attention deficit disorder guides
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/overhaul-for-attention-deficit-disorder-guides/2006/07/11/1152383741239.html
Melissa Fyfe
July 12, 2006

A KEY public health body wants to rewrite the guidelines related to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder — a move that has renewed debate about the controversial condition.

The National Health and Medical Research Council has scrapped its 1997 guidelines for ADHD, a developmental problem that affects mostly boys, and asked the Royal Australasian College of Physicians to come up with a more up-to-date version.

The new version is likely to include the results of American trials whose early results show stimulant drugs such as Ritalin are effective in children under six. The guideline review will be led by ADHD specialist Daryl Efron, a pediatrician at the Royal Children's Hospital's Centre for Community Child Health. He is seeking Federal Government money for the review, which will cover all aspects of treating the condition and supporting sufferers.

Dr Efron, who supports the use of stimulants for children under six "in the right circumstances", sits on advisory boards to Novartis, makers of Ritalin, and Eli Lilly, maker of Strattera, a less common drug. He said drug treatments were not the most important issue for children with ADHD. A lack of school support and better access to psychologists were bigger issues.