In an effort to help poorer, disadvantaged kids do better in school, some doctors are prescribing drugs typically used to treat ADHD to children who don’t really need them. “I don’t have a whole lot of choice,” Dr. Michael Anderson, a pediatrician serving a poor community north of Atlanta, told The New York Times. “We’ve decided as a society that it’s too expensive to modify the kid’s environment. So we have to modify the kid.” The ADHD drugs, powerful amphetamines, can help children focus in school and push past some of the hurdles thrown in their way. However, they have some serious drawbacks, too—altering how young brains grow and develop. Experts believe these drugs can impact how the brain releases dopamine and other chemicals into the body, affecting motivation and desire. In rare cases, they also can raise the risk of heart attack and stroke, and—again, very rarely—trigger psychotic reactions. “It is sad that our field has deteriorated to the point where clinicians essentially would give up on therapeutic efforts that are enduring and more likely to cause meaningful changes in the brains of developing children and retreat to the use of non-specific and questionable psychopharmacology,” says Dr. Bruce Perry, an expert in child trauma. (Time)