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I have known about Brain Training using computer games to stimulate short term memory and reflexes in geriatrics and it is even successful with Alzheimer's. I also read that along with fish oil supplements BT is being used as an alternative to Ritalin. http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110413/full/472156a.html I have recently read a report on a website set up by grieving parents that long term use of Ritalin and its consequential damage to the heart has been linked to over 189 deaths in children in a ten year period in the USA. As it wasn't a scientific site I added the usual pinch of salt and did a fast Google Search, using the keywords: Children + Death + Ritalin I got 15 pages of links to further evidence before they petered out see one below. I can't say I am surprised considering the increase in stress that Ritalin produces. The FDA say considering the number of children who take Ritalin these figures are 'statistically minute', less than about 0.0001% is thus 'negligible'!!! They plan to continue to recommend Ritalin for ADHD and ADD. Considering these were previously healthy children whose deaths were unnecessary I think that this response is outrageous. Then there are the unknown much larger number of children who are sustaining lasting damage to the heart as well as the brain [see stats for depression and suicides among people who were given stimulants, especially in the 15 to 24 age group] - which are well known results of long term use. I would be very surprised to if the FDA spokespeople and the executives of the drug companies ever give it to their own children. All children on Ritalin should be monitored for damage; and tested for allergies and sensitivities, especially to tar oil colourings and caffeine. The tiniest trace amounts of these had my daughter, and now my granddaughter climbing the walls for 5 days, then be depressed and tearful for two days [this went on until her late teens]. Provided I kept these out of her diet she was fine. Those who after testing are not found to have allergies or food reactions should be treated with drug free therapies. It might take much longer, and cost considerably more and there would be no guarantees it would work - but we would still have a living child at the end of it. http://biopsychiatry.com/methylphenidate/risks.html Apologies for my unscientific knee-jerk reaction to this topic, but if I lost my objectivity it might be because I was given amphetamines at the age of 12; not for ADHD but to lose weight. I am therefore acutely aware of the risks, having succumbed to several of them. [I remember too well the cycles of depression and the cravings when I stopped taking them, these lasted well over five years.] Best wishes Jo >