Study finds Ritalin risky for pleasure addiction

William Atkins
Wednesday, 18 February 2009 18:54

Science - Biology

According to New York researchers, the attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) medicine Ritalin increases the risk of addiction to people who take it for pleasure or for performance enhancement because it causes brain changes in its addiction centers.


The authors—Yong Kim, Merilee A. Teylan, Matthew Baron, Adam Sands, Angus C. Naim (also from Department of Psychology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut), and Paul Greengard, all from the Laboratory of Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience, The Rockefeller University, New York City, New York—reported their results in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Their paper “Methylphenidate-induced dendritic spine formation and ΔFosB expression in nucleus accumbens” (DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0813179106) was published in February 6, 2009 issue of PNAS (and online earlier than that date.)

They state in the paper’s abstract: “Methylphenidate is the psychostimulant medication most commonly prescribed to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).”

Methylphenidate (MPH) is a stimulant drug that is prescribed to treat ADHD. It is also used to help treat daytime drowiness (narcolepsy) and chronic fatigue syndrome.

MPH goes by various brand names besides Ritalin, such as Attenta (Australia), Ritalina, Rilatine, Methylin, Penid, and Rubifen.

Ritaline, and other related drugs, have been increasingly used (without a prescription) by people to enhance performance levels in school and to increase the sensation of pleasure.

Based on these prescription and non-prescription uses, the researchers decided to investigate MPH (Ritalin-type drugs) with respect to its risks for addiction.

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