ODPRN report on stimulant use in the province

[Lorraine Bayliss]

The ODPRN completed a study for the use of stimulants. I am asking for your help and support in disseminating information on the final report titled, Landscape of Prescription Stimulant Use: Patterns, trends and geographic variation in Ontario,Canada.

http://odprn.ca/research/publications/prescription-stimulant-use-in-ontario/

1 in 78 Ontario received a prescription stimulant in 2017. almost 50% were children and youth.

[Anita Lambert-Lanning]

will do as possible, Lorraine. thx for this link.

anita l-l

[Lorraine Bayliss]

Hi Lorraine,

Thank you so much for sharing our recent publication with this group. They are clearly experiencing similar issues to the participants we conducted focus groups with. In the focus groups, there was overall agreement that pain management clinics are essential, yet not as accessible as they should be, with many participants experiencing years of being waitlisted before gaining access to these clinics.

We have shared the report with all of our stakeholders, including the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care and hope it resonates with the appropriate decision makers.

All the best,

Dana

Dana Shearer

Knowledge Broker

Ontario Drug Policy Research Network

St. Michael's Hospital | 250 Yonge Street, Toronto, O

[Anita Lambert-Lanning]

thx again, Lorraine.

Anita

[Lorraine Bayliss]

For me the issue was the over prescribing of Ritalin related drugs (stimulants) for school age boys. It seemed that areas in the province, that do not have as many if any specialists, tended to be areas where there was a higher rate of prescribing. It appears to correlate with areas that had fewer specialists where there was a greater likelihood of "over prescribing".

There is a movement in both the US and here in Ontario called "the conscious child" where there is a real effort on the part of educators and parents to not use these drugs as a quick fix to control student behaviour. These drugs are not without side effects. I am not an advocate for using behaviour modifying drugs before looking at the environment and the child's learning style/needs to build for student success.

in addition there are more men using this type of drug in middle age as a means to focus more when making presentations???

As a former educator this concerns me when it comes to children. There may be grandparents in our group who witness this happening for their grandchildren.