Ritalin foes lose two rounds against drug maker, APA

Federal judges in California and Texas find no conspiracy to wrongfully promote the drug, but more lawsuits are pending.

By Tanya Albert, AMNews staff. June 11, 2001.

Two of five lawsuits alleging a conspiracy to boost sales of Ritalin have been thrown out since March.

A federal judge in California was the first to dismiss a lawsuit against the manufacturers of Ritalin, the American Psychiatric Assn., and Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. The court said in April that a state law protects speech about an issue with public interest.

A federal judge in Texas dismissed a similar case in May, saying the allegations had no merit.

But other suits are still waiting to go before judges in New Jersey, Florida and Puerto Rico.

"If they're able to succeed with this, it opens the door for challenges to other subjective illnesses, for example allergies and asthma," said APA President Richard K. Harding, MD, a child psychiatrist in Columbia, S.C. "You need to use an element of diagnostic art to make certain diagnoses."

In all of the five cases, one or two families filed their suits as class actions, claiming that people taking Ritalin suffered damages because Novartis, which makes the drug; the APA; and CHADD worked together to develop, promote, broaden and confirm the diagnoses of ADHD.

The lawsuits claim that APA's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders -- which is used worldwide to help diagnose and treat patients with mental illness -- is unsound.

Maryland psychiatrist Peter Breggin, MD, who was the medical consultant on the lawsuit in Texas, the first one filed, said the list of behaviors associated with the disease are typical childhood behaviors and not a syndrome. He said the behavior can be controlled by teachers and parents without Ritalin. [...]