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WEEKLY NEWS 1: Medical Experiments on Kids

On Friday, September 10, the Pediatric Ethics subcommittee for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will tackle a complicated ethical question during their first meeting. The question: whether or not it is ethical to use healthy children, between the ages of nine to eighteen, in an experiment for a controlled drug.

The controlled drug is called dextroamphetamine and is intended to control the behavior of children diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Dextroamphetamine is not a new drug. It is found in other ADHD prescription pills such as Adderall and is often the active ingredient.

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) both suggested and designed this experiment and has conducted an experiment similar to this one 20 years ago. For this experiment, researchers are looking to use 14 children with ADHD, 14 children without ADHD, 12 pairs of identical twins and 12 pairs of fraternal twins.

Children who participate in the research would be given 10 mg. of dextroamphetamine one time a day and the parents of the participants will receive $570.

--Written by Sally Pak

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