Fox News TMZ says that Lindsay Lohan’s Adderall dependence — the result of a medical misdiagnosis — may have been the reason she went off the rails.
Read the full articles here: http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2010/08/20/adderall-unhinged-lindsay-lohan/
and here:
Adderall is a psychostimulant of amphetamine and dextroamphetamine that has been linked to violent behavior. The FDA requires stimulants such as Ritalin and Adderall to carry a boxed warning that states the drug is “a federally controlled substance because it can be abused or lead to dependence.”
In 2004, the FDA ordered that the packaging for Adderall include a warning about sudden cardiovascular deaths, especially in children with underlying heart disease.
In 2005, Partnership for a Drug-Free America released the findings of a survey which determined that 10% (2.3 million) of teens had abused Ritalin and Adderall.
The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University issued a report in July 2005 called “Under the Counter: The Diversion and Abuse of Controlled Prescription Drugs in the U.S.” stating that 15 million Americans were getting high on prescription drugs, painkillers and psychiatric drugs such as Xanax and the stimulants Ritalin and Adderall. They were abusing these drugs more than cocaine, heroin and methamphetamines combined. Teens who abused prescription drugs were 12 times likelier to use heroin, 14 times likelier to use Ecstasy and 21 times likelier to use cocaine, compared to teens that do not abuse such drugs.
For more information on the side effects of psychiatric drugs, go to http://www.cchrstl.org/sideeffects.shtml.