The rate of overexposure to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder drugs skyrocketed by about 61 percent from 2000 to 2011, but the rate fell slightly in the three following years, according to a new study.
The study published Monday in the Journal of Pediatrics looked at trends for people aged up to 19 years old who were reported to U.S. poison control centers.
It found that from 2000 to 2014, there were 156,365 exposures reported to control centers related to ADHD medications. The overall rate of exposures increased 71 percent from 2000 to 2011, but that was followed by a 6.2 percent decrease from 2011 to 2014, the study said. That leaves the overall increase from 2000 to 2014 at about 61 percent.
The study added that 76 percent of exposures from 2000 to 2014 involved children that were 12 years old or younger.
“The most common reason for exposure was therapeutic error (41.6 percent),” the study said.
The study was released a few days after incoming NRA President Oliver North said that school shootings are a “symptom” of a broader problem that includes overmedication.
“Nearly all of these perpetrators are male and they are young teenagers in most cases,” he said on Fox News Sunday. “And they have come through a culture where violence is commonplace. All you need to do is turn on the TV, go to the movies. If you look at what has happened to the young people, many of these young boys have been on Ritalin since they were in kindergarten.”
North spoke a few days after 17-year-old Dimitrios Pagourtzis was charged with killing 10 people at a high school in Santa Fe, Texas. Pagourtzis took Ritalin, but experts have shot down any link between use of the ADHD drug and violence.
