I took Ritalin when I was young, and it never hurt me. It really helped me control myself. I have ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) which is worse than ADD because it has the hyperactivity thrown in too. Ritalin was the only thing that actually worked, so I'm all for it.

no drug use is completely safe. but yes, methylphenidate/Ritalin has a safer side-effect profile than many other psychiatric drugs. however, you are tampering with the dopaminergic system, which is fairly delicate (although certainly more robust than the serotonergic systems) and many people have described agitation and psychosis following ritalin use. there is no doubt that ritalin helps certain individuals and harms certain individuals; and let's not even discuss the abusive potential of ritalin.

the most important issue is accurately distributing the drug to those that would benefit from it. to do that requires 1) lots of medical knowledge, and we certainly don't know all about how dopamine works exactly and 2) decreasing the amount of "give them drugs until the behave" attitude found in many schools and families.

My brothers doctor informed me that Ritalin was completely safe for my brother