Spencer Chestney Hines SPE 101 Adhd Medicine is too loosely prescribed General Purpose: To Persuade Specific Purpose:

: To Persuade you that ADHD Drugs are being prescribed too loosely Question Of Policy Organizational Pattern: I. INTRODUCTION A. Attention Getter: In the 1990s decade there was a 700% increase adhd medication prescriptions B. Relevance to Audience: These drugs are not only a problem among children but have also hit the streets and are being taken by college level students even if they dont have ADHD. C. Credibility Statement: Ive studied this subject before and I was someone who was prescribed ADHD medicine at a young age and was taken off. D. Thesis/Preview: Today I will tell you the dangers and addictiveness of these medications, Just how often these medications are prescribed, and how lax Dr.s are when they are determining who should be on these drugs.

TRANSITION: These medicines can be dangerous to the body and addictive especially at younger ages. II. BODY A. Drugs for ADHD can not only be dangerous for your body but also be physically addictive. 1. Causes an increase in heart rate leading to heart problems a. The drug is a stimulant so it makes your body Rush b. According to Tina Blue, Author of a long running website dedicated to the studies of ADHD medicines and its effects homestead.com, it can be stronger then large amounts of caffeine at even small doses Along with being dangerous for the body this drug can also be very Habit Forming 2. ADHD Drugs have an addictive quality a. According to the DEA quoted in an article from www.add-adhd.org , a long running website that dedicates its research to add and adhd, drugs like Ritalin can become habit forming if taken for a long period of time

b. without it.

You develop a mindset that you cant do something

TRANSITION: These drugs are being prescribed to children very loosely today compared to 20 years ago B. Too many children are getting prescribed some kind of ADHD medicine even though they may not have some form of it at all 1. Since 1990 there has been a 700% increase in ADHD medication prescriptions a. Nowhere else in the world is 10% of 10 year olds prescribed some kind of psychoactive drug. b. 6.5% of children 5 to 18 are on some kind of ADHD medication. Meaning theyre saying 6.5% of children and teens have some form of a mental disorder. According to Elizabeth Conen, an author for the health section of cnn.com, these medications are being prescribed at ages where it would normally be impossible to tell of such mental disabilities. 2. Children can get these medications prescribed at as young of ages as 5. a. The way a 5 year old acts could show signs of ADHD but only because thats how most 5 year olds act. b. TRANSITION: The way they are deciding if a child has ADHD or not is not being gone about correctly . C. Children are not being examined deep rnough to see if they have ADHD 1. Doctors should not prescribe medication on the first visit a. According to Dr. Ronald Ricker, a writer for huffingtonpost.com a website dedicated to health and medicine, 56% of misdiagnosed students were diagnosed on their first visit b. Prescribing children these medications who dont have the disorder can cause serious mental impairments when they get older Doctors are looking at too young of children 2. There is a large difference between a young 9 year old in 4th grade and an older 10 year old. a. Doctors look at how children should act according to their peers. b. A grade can have a student whos birthday isnt until late june that year while having a student who has already had a birthday that school year. And these students have a completely different maturity level

TRANSITION: All these things mean we should just be testing for these kinds of disorders more closely. III. CONCLUSION Summary/Review: These drugs are dangerous, overprescribed, and prescribed with little to no testing. A. Memorable Close: Its things like these that end up turning our kids into adults that need psychiatric help. We need to all be more cautious of what we put into our body and not believe everything we are told so quickly.

Things to Remember!!! Reference page should be separate from your outline References should have a hanging indent Double-check punctuation (especially at the end of each reference) Be sure to alphabetize your references, using the first character of each reference.