Ritalin recibe una alerta de la FDA

La máxima autoridad en seguridad de medicamentos de Estados Unidos lanzó una advertencia en estimulantes químicos anímicos como el Ritalin, informa hoy el New York Times.

"GAITHERSBURG, Md., Feb. 9 — Stimulants like Ritalin could have dangerous effects on the heart, and federal regulators should require manufacturers to provide written guides to patients and place prominent warnings on drug labels describing these risks, a federal advisory panel voted on Thursday.

The panel's recommendation promises to intensify a long-running debate about whether the medicines are overused. Nearly four million patients take the drugs to treat attention deficit disorder and hyperactivity, and committee members said they wanted to slow explosive growth in the drugs' use.

The committee's action was unexpected. The Food and Drug Administration had convened the panel to help it determine how to research possible heart risks of the drugs. The agency had not asked the committee to address the drugs' labels, and agency officials seemed taken aback by the votes, saying they would not act on the committee's recommendations anytime soon..."

Recordemóslo: las medicinas no son dulces. Y los niños no son pastilleros.