Countervailing Forces Against Ritalin Use in France

Vallée asks: How does France limit its children’s use of psychostimulant drugs? To answer, he looks at “countervailing forces” in French society that mobilized to check the pharmaceutical industry’s influence with respect to Ritalin, which is the only stimulant approved for children in France. The forces he identifies are government agencies, medical professionals, and consumers (parents).

Vallée shows how French child psychiatrists worked against industry efforts to market Ritalin in three ways:

How do marketers generally expand consumption of their drugs? The study identifies several methods including marketing and promotion; controlling the science that underpins the development of new products; constructing new medical categories and expanding existing ones; and funding consumer groups. (The story of how these tactics have succeeded in expanding the use of stimulant drugs by children in the United States can be found in my book A Disease Called Childhood: Why ADHD Became an American Epidemic.)

So how can the industry be tamed? How can those who oppose aggressive marketing of drugs for children become effective countervailing forces…

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