I was reading the Seattle Times the other day and came across the article describing  the link between sudden cardiac death in children and Ritalin, a popular ADHD drug.  The FDA response to this was essentially that the benefits outweigh the risks.  This is where our story take a dive off the deep end.  Just consider that for a moment, the benefits of giving children a drug that can control a behavioral “disease” outweigh the risks.  The risk we are talking about is death.  ADHD, whether you believe in it or not, is not a life-threatening condition, however they are telling us that increasing the risk of sudden cardiac death by up to 5 times, is worth it when compared to a child living with ADHD untreated.  And really, we are not even talking about ADHD untreated, we are just talking about not giving them a potentially life threatening drug.