Does Methylphenidate (MPD) Have the Potential to Become Drug of Abuse?

Nachum Dafny

Abstract

The psychostimulant methylphenidate (MPD) is the pharmacotherapy of choice for the treatment of attention deficit disorder (ADD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), narcolepsy, dementia, chronic fatigue and useful in providing relief from intractable pain. More recently students of all ages use MPD (Ritalin) as a cognitive enhancement to help them study and perform better during exams. Many of them abuse the drug for recreation. This chapter aims to provide a short review of the pharmacological property of MPD. MPD can elicit behavioral sensitization or tolerance – behavioral sensitization and tolerance are experimental markers indicating dependence. Some behavior experiments using an MPD dose response protocol demonstrated that MPD elicits behavioral sensitization and other studies reported behavioral tolerance. Our dose response study of chronic MPD dose response experiment demonstrated that the same dose of MPD in some animals elicited behavioral sensitization and in others animals behavioral tolerance.