Pemoline 357using a placebo, but investigators who rigorously reviewed studies about mul-
tiple sclerosis fatigue found no evidence of pemoline improving weariness.
An instance is known of an elderly man taking pemoline to help him stay
awake during lectures, but the regimen seemed to promote prostate trouble.
Pemoline has been successfully used against narcolepsy.
Studies find pemoline about as effective as eitherdextroamphetamineor
methylphenidate in helping children with ADHD. Pemoline has been used
successfully against ADHD in teenagers and adults as well. Growth rates are
below normal in some youngsters with ADHD, and pemoline itself can tem-
porarily hold back such development but without long-term harm—young-
sters develop normal adult weight and height. Those deficient growth rates
may be treated with growth hormone. One study found, however, that pemo-
line seems to make the hormone treatment less effective in some patients. As
the age of ADHD patients grows, so can unwanted effects that they experience
from pemoline.
Animal experiments in the 1960s indicated that pemoline boosts learning
ability. The lure of a “smart pill” had understandable appeal to suffering stu-
dents and teachers, but when the drug was tested on college students, no
improvement in learning ability occurred. The same dismal outcome occurred
when elderly persons received the drug; indeed, some performed worse than
elderly persons receiving a placebo. Group results in still another experiment
showed either no improvement or worsening of learning scores when people
used the drug. In contrast, long-term daily administration of the drug seemed
to improve memory in some persons entering senility.
A review covering 10 years of pemoline reports found none attributing eu-
phoria to the drug, a lack that sets it apart from other scheduled stimulants.
Unlike some other stimulants, pemoline also seems to have little effect on
pulse rate or blood pressure.
Drawbacks.The drug can bring on tics and partial muscle movements, in
a particularly severe way if an overdose occurs. An instance is known of
muscle damage in an adult misusing pemoline. Pemoline is also known to
reduce appetite and salivation, increase crankiness, bring on headaches and
stomachaches, cause skin rash, and interfere with sleep. Hallucinations from
pemoline have been reported.
In rats and mice pemoline can cause self-harm behavior, and the amount
needed to induce such behavior declines when a certain kind of brain damage
is present, damage that is often seen in mentally retarded humans. Those
findings suggest that such persons receiving pemoline may need monitoring
to guard against self-injury. Long-term excessive usage may generate tempo-
rary psychotic behavior, but such an outcome appears untypical.
Probably the most serious unwanted results of taking pemoline can be hep-
atitis and other liver injury, injury so severe as to require a transplant. Damage
can continue to worsen after the drug is stopped, and people have died from
liver failure induced by pemoline. Victims tend to be children. Such an ad-
verse effect is particularly disquieting because it occurs at therapeutic dosage,
rather then being created by reckless abuse. A child can take pemoline for
months before harm is apparent, or alarming symptoms can arise after just a
week of use. Methylphenidate is suspected of contributing to liver trouble in