Seven Years on High Doses of Ritalin

[bigd]

Just a question.

I've been on high doses (40-80 MG) of ritalin 6 days a week for seven years. Is it possible I have such a high toxicity level in my body this is what has caused my 8 month shed?

No hairloss in family, diffused thinner & patchy thinness?

Any feedback would be wonderful.

 

[Weepy]

No hairloss in family, diffused thinner & patchy thinness?

Any feedback would be wonderful.

are you losing in patches? Are you abel to pull >15 strands of hair per pull?

 

[bigd]

I dont think I grab 15 total in a pull, no more like 5 or 6.

 

[goingoinbutnotgone]

The problem is not amphetamine toxicity, but that it diminishes blood circulation to the extremities...including the scalp.

 

[Old Baldy]

The problem is not amphetamine toxicity, but that it diminishes blood circulation to the extremities...including the scalp.

I was a Ritalin kid back in the sixties. (I couldn't sit still - so they gave me a chemical lobotomy [sp?]).

You're right, it diminishes blood circulation to the extremities, ESPECIALLY that grey matter inside your skull!!! :evil: :evil:

I took it for two years. When I got older I had fantasy dreams of butchering the counselor responsible for me having to take Ritalin!

My God, did I HATE that stuff.

 

[Dave001]

The problem is not amphetamine toxicity, but that it diminishes blood circulation to the extremities...including the scalp.

I was a Ritalin kid back in the sixties. (I couldn't sit still - so they gave me a chemical lobotomy [sp?]).

You're right, it diminishes blood circulation to the extremities, ESPECIALLY that grey matter inside your skull!!! :evil: :evil:

I took it for two years. When I got older I had fantasy dreams of butchering the counselor responsible for me having to take Ritalin!

My God, did I HATE that stuff.

It enhances working memory and boosts performance on standardized intelligence tests. So does amphetamine.

 

[Old Baldy]

The problem is not amphetamine toxicity, but that it diminishes blood circulation to the extremities...including the scalp.

I was a Ritalin kid back in the sixties. (I couldn't sit still - so they gave me a chemical lobotomy [sp?]).

You're right, it diminishes blood circulation to the extremities, ESPECIALLY that grey matter inside your skull!!! :evil: :evil:

I took it for two years. When I got older I had fantasy dreams of butchering the counselor responsible for me having to take Ritalin!

My God, did I HATE that stuff.

It enhances working memory and boosts performance on standardized intelligence tests. So does amphetamine.

This doctor disagrees with you. My reaction to Ritalin was the "zombie-like" behavior he mentions in the following link:

http://www.breggin.com/Ritalinprnews.html

Oh, it got me to sit still though! Maybe I was one of those individuals that fell to the "left of the bell curve" if you know what I mean.

Here's more concerns on Ritalin.

http://www.chiropracticresearch.org/NEW ... angers.htm

I am aware of its use in ADHD and boosting students' accomplishments in school, etc. However, I don't know that I had an attention deficit disorder, just couldn't sit still. I had straight A's in my classes before being put on Ritalin. I was just unruly. I could pay attention to what the teachers were saying, they just said it so SLOW! It did nothing for my memory. (Just my experience.)

Of course, in citizenship I got straight E's in behavior before being put on Ritalin. So it helped in that area. It helped the teacher and other students. It made me a sleepy, fogged idiot IMHO. (Although, I will admit that it didn't reduce my grades. You would have had the same problem Dave with the pace of my public school classes!!)

This is a long time ago Dave so my memory might be a little skewed (I know - I should use Ritalin - LOL), but they put me ahead a year in classes and were going to put me ahead another year, however, that same da** counselor said "no, he'll be too young to be put ahead that far".

Thanks counselor, give me Ritalin instead of pushing me ahead into more challenging classes?! (Pric*!!)

My book learning was good but my social skills were woefully lacking. So Ritalin at least helped in that area if becoming a zombie is a good thing.

Why I'm talking about this on a hair loss forum is unknown?! Maybe I do need Ritalin!? :hairy:

 

[Dave001]

It enhances working memory and boosts performance on standardized intelligence tests. So does amphetamine.

This doctor disagrees with you. My reaction to Ritalin was the "zombie-like" behavior he mentions in the following link:
[snip link]

I wouldn't expect to find much objectivity in a URL that has the name "Breggin" in it. ;-)

In any case, I was not disagreeing with you about your personal experience with Ritalin (how could I?), just commenting on stimulants in general. Caffeine enhances performance on objective psychometric tests as well. Net benefit/detriment is determined from much more than a narrow range of cognitive metrics.

It's always amusing when adults contemplate whether they have "ADHD". It's not a discrete psychopathology. Think you have difficulty paying attention? Ask a doctor. If he agrees, then you have ADHD!

 

[l3sstalkmor3rock]

dexedrine

see, I'm on 7.5mg of dexedrine daily, another amphetamine used to treat ADD. could that, being an amphetamine as well, add to hair loss?

 

[Solo]

Hey, Dave, take a breath, haven´t you heard that in some cases stimulants have the opposite effect in certain individues??


This is pretty well known. Amphetamines causing a guy to fall asleep, etc...

There was a highly logical biochemical explanation for this effect that I can´t remember, but certainly it´s common and widespread knowledge.

Maybe this guy is one of those...

 

[Dave001]

Hey, Dave, take a breath

OK. I hadn't planned to stop doing so anytime soon.

haven´t you heard that in some cases stimulants have the opposite effect in certain individues??

This is pretty well known. Amphetamines causing a guy to fall asleep, etc...

There was a highly logical biochemical explanation for this effect that I can´t remember, but certainly it´s common and widespread knowledge.

The prevalence of a "fact" is not always positively correlated with its veracity.

Here is a citation and abstract of a review from the National Institute of Mental Health.

Rapoport, J. L. and G. Inoff-Germain (2002). "Responses to methylphenidate in Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and normal children: update 2002." J Atten Disord 6 Suppl 1: S57-60.

Abstract: Since the positive effects of stimulants on disruptive behavior were described (Bradley & Bowen, 1941), further pediatric study has been limited almost exclusively to samples of hyperkinetic school-age children. Because these agents normally were viewed as arousing in their effects on the central nervous system, but were calming in their therapeutic effects on these children, stimulant effects on Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) were interpreted as being 'paradoxical.' Investigation of effects in normal children and adolescents and in those with disorders unrelated to Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), as well as in young adult samples, however, indicate that stimulants appear to have similar behavioral effects in normal and in hyperactive children. This brief report is an update (as of August 2002) on studies of stimulants in ADHD and normal children, with particular focus on MPH.

 

[Old Baldy]

It enhances working memory and boosts performance on standardized intelligence tests. So does amphetamine.

This doctor disagrees with you. My reaction to Ritalin was the "zombie-like" behavior he mentions in the following link:
[snip link]

I wouldn't expect to find much objectivity in a URL that has the name "Breggin" in it. ;-)

In any case, I was not disagreeing with you about your personal experience with Ritalin (how could I?), just commenting on stimulants in general. Caffeine enhances performance on objective psychometric tests as well. Net benefit/detriment is determined from much more than a narrow range of cognitive metrics.

It's always amusing when adults contemplate whether they have "ADHD". It's not a discrete psychopathology. Think you have difficulty paying attention? Ask a doctor. If he agrees, then you have ADHD!

You know the school doctor never said I had ADHD to me. Maybe back in the sixties they weren't as concise with the recommendation.

 

[Dave001]

[quote="Old Baldy":affad]

It enhances working memory and boosts performance on standardized intelligence tests. So does amphetamine.

This doctor disagrees with you. My reaction to Ritalin was the "zombie-like" behavior he mentions in the following link:
[snip link]

I wouldn't expect to find much objectivity in a URL that has the name "Breggin" in it. ;-)

In any case, I was not disagreeing with you about your personal experience with Ritalin (how could I?), just commenting on stimulants in general. Caffeine enhances performance on objective psychometric tests as well. Net benefit/detriment is determined from much more than a narrow range of cognitive metrics.

It's always amusing when adults contemplate whether they have "ADHD". It's not a discrete psychopathology. Think you have difficulty paying attention? Ask a doctor. If he agrees, then you have ADHD!

You know the school doctor never said I had ADHD to me. Maybe back in the sixties they weren't as concise with the recommendation.[/quote:affad]

It used to be called "minimal brain dysfunction" and "hyperkinetic disorder" and probably many other things at different times, though I don't know the history of its diagnostic evolution offhand. But again, I wasn't suggesting anything about you or your experience in particular, which I obviously wouldn't know the slightest thing about.