Author: Suzanne B. Robotti

Suzanne B. Robotti

Suzanne is the President and Founder of MedShadow, and the Executive Director of DES Action USA.  MedShadow’s mission is to preserve quality of life by ensuring everyone has access to the risks, benefits and alternates to using drugs to manage healthcare. Read More

You may have heard of a new study that concluded that people diagnosed with adult ADHD were more likely to end up with dementia, especially if they choose not to treat it with medications. The headlines in the popular press were scary: “Adult ADHD may take a toll on the brain,” and so forth. Worse, some health sites have already embedded this possibly untrue information in articles. But don’t panic because there are good reasons to question the research. The study claimed that having a diagnosis of adult ADHD and not using medicines like Ritalin more than doubled the risk…

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Every fall I remember my son’s middle school experience of nearly being bullied by the principal and the teaching staff into taking Ritalin. When my son was 12, my husband and I arrived for the normal teacher conference a few weeks after he started at a new school. Two teachers told us flat out that he had ADHD. All his other teachers complained of his inability to sit quietly through a lesson and that his homework was incomplete. We explained that there had recently been seismic disruptions in his life and asked that he be given time to settle in.…

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News: Breast Cancer and Hormone Treatment We are presenting you news about  large study of published studies (meta analysis) that included more than 100,000 women, those who reported ever using MHT had a 26% higher relative risk for developing breast cancer compared with never-users. This confirms what has been known for about 20 years.  What is newly discovered is that the increased risk continues for 10+ years after MHT is discontinued. In real terms for every 50 50-year olds who are taking an estrogen/progestin combination, 1 woman in that group will have cancer caused by the MHT by the time…

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Think the only way to deal with a child who has ADHD is with a stimulant? Think again. More parenting skills and other resources can help your child out more than you might think. What causes hyperactivity and ADHD (attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder)? A combination of temperament, environment and parenting. The most important factors are parenting skills and resources, especially those that can help create some calm. You can learn them. “I would suggest we can head off many cases of ADHD in the first 2 years of life,” says W. Douglas Tynan, PhD, ABPP, director of Integrated Care at the…

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Billboards, TV ads and Internet pop-ups are increasingly promoting lung cancer screenings. Despite the touted benefits, should you go and have one done? Should you get screened for lung cancer? It certainly seems like it. Billboards, TV ads and pop-ups have increasingly appeared on my computer screen telling me that it could save my life. At the risk of bringing down the wrath of the arbitrary cancer gods, it won’t save my life. I’m a never-smoker. While I was raised in an envelope of secondhand smoke (every relative near and far smoked), I’ve lived as an adult in a smoke-free…

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A 6-question test purports to diagnose ADHD in adults. Can such a simple test screen for ADHD when many of its symptoms are associated with other ailments? I had a terrible time writing this ADHD blog today. While I was working, I was texting my sister, making a dentist appointment and helping my kid with his homework. I was restless and kept jumping to my feet for a glass of water or to let the cat out. Even when my blog was done, I couldn’t relax. There were just too many things on my mind. Thank goodness my husband made…

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With new studies piling up warning of risks of stimulants on kids, are the risks of ADHD meds worth the benefits? I’ve never hidden my concern about giving stimulant medicines to children, teens and even adults with ADHD. When my child was diagnosed ADHD, we took a long, considered view of ADHD meds and decided against them. Behavioral therapy is the first line of treatment and we went that route. But we circled back to reconsider meds many times, when notes came home from teachers complaining of his behavior; when we couldn’t, try as we might, get him to concentrate…

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My father’s grandfather, Francis Colgate Benson, was a pioneer in the treatment of cancer with radiation. He became a surgeon before the turn of the (last) century. By the end of WWI he became fascinated with the new field of radiology and worked on curing cancer with radiation. He died before America entered WWII. There is no way of knowing for sure, but family lore — and logic — has it that he died from the long-term effects of radiation exposure. As did Marie Curie, it’s believed. The pioneers of radiation didn’t realize the power they were working with and…

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ADHD Drugs Side Effects What’s the harm in using ADHD drugs to get a little help studying? If you actually don’t have ADHD, these stimulants can lead to nausea, headaches, high blood pressure, arrhythmia and other side effects, as I learned by reading Teresa Bergen’s great article ‘Smart Drugs’ on Campus: Too Easy to Get & Abuse. She explores the growing phenomenon of college students taking illegal prescription drugs — stimulants mostly — in order to focus more clearly and improve their grades. I wondered whether the kids who do have ADHD and are taking stimulants have the same risks for nausea, psychosis and…

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