A study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal shows that children whose parents have divorced are significantly more likely to be on the attention deficit disorder (ADD) drug Ritalin than children of married parents. Studying 5000 children who began in two-parent households and had not been prescribed Ritalin from 1994 to 2000, researchers found that the rate of eventual Ritalin use for children whose parents divorced during this time was 6.1 percent, compared to just 3.3 percent for children whose parents stayed together.
Researchers are entertaining several possibilities for this correlation. Most obvious is the possibility that divorce is sometimes traumatic for children, exacerbating behavior problems. However, they also believe that genetic components present in both parent and child may be connected.
"[A] second possibility could be that ADHD has a genetic component so the association between parental divorce and Ritalin use in children exists because parents themselves have personality features that make it less likely their marriages will last," suggested author Dr. Lisa Strohschein. "On the other hand there is also the very public perception that divorce is always bad for kids and so when children of divorce come to the attention of the health-care system--possibly because parents anticipate their child must be going through adjustment problems--doctors may be more likely to diagnose a problem and prescribe Ritalin.
"If this latter case is the real explanation, then there is the possibility that Ritalin is being prescribed inappropriately."
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