In a landmark 1999 clinical study conducted by the Archives of General Psychiatry in the United States, 600 children diagnosed with Attention Defecit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) were found to respond much better to stimulant medication alone than they were to behavioural therapy.  While many use this information to justify prescription, the information must be buttressed by the fact that, according to the University of Michigan, at least one in five of all children living in North America are misdiagnosed with ADHD.

Government-funded regulatory institutions such as Health Canada have already noted a large number of cases describing side effects with regard to the medication and children. In 2006, an official advisory from the organization was issued describing the possibility of adverse psychiatric effects as well as a warning for patients with preexisting liver problems and overactive thyroid glands with regard to many ADHD medications on the market. Drugs like these are processed by the liver, and while a grown adult could handle it, adolescent livers may have some difficulty coping with a constant supply of a drug, increasing risk of organ failure or altered metabolism.

The past ten years in Canada have seen nearly 600 cases of negative reactions to these drugs, of which one-third were situations of severe depression in children under the age of 15. Each case is recorded, organized, and then filed into Health Canada as an adverse reaction report. Analysis provided by the Toronto Star found that the stimulants Strattera and Concerta were the second and third highest suspected causes of reported serious side effects suffered by Canadian kids taking any of the drugs during the ten-year span.

While there are no doubt negative side effects for some, there are many other children who enjoy the benefits of the drugs without any substantial side effects. A research study posted in the British Medical Journal on November 4 cited that consumption of the drug will not incur short term cardiovascular damage.  Children under the watch of proper doctors are in fact expected to flourish with their ADHD under control.

There are many risks to the introduction of such a powerful drug agent during a period where behavioural development is important, often resulting in mood swings or suicidal tendencies. In addition to its risk, the introduction of drug dependence at such an early age could lead to abuse at later ages of a variety of substances. Children begin to learn that problems should be dealt with the application of an external substance and thus relate drugs with solutions to challenges. It comes to no surprise that these medications are listed by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration as Schedule II Controlled Substances, implying a risk of dependence and addiction.

Pharmaceutical companies will of course prioritize sales of such drugs above safety and put responsibility upon government agencies to conduct the proper tests. However, federal regulatory agencies are only responsible for approving a drug on the basis of its fatality and toxicity, both of which are often provided by the pharmaceutical companies themselves. Furthermore, regulatory agencies often re-direct the responsibilities back to the companies claiming that since it is their product on the market, it is their responsibility. Health Canada, for example, is often criticized for its dearth of in-house pharmaceutical safety research.

Ultimately, the decision to medicate children or not comes down to parents. A recent article in the New York Times reported a tendency to prescribe stimulants to low-income children without ADHD as an easy solution to improve performance in school.  As one prescribing physician quoted in the article said, “We’ve decided as a society that it’s too expensive to modify the kid’s environment. So we have to modify the kid.”

British psychiatric researcher Malcolm Peet has another solution: nutrition. An incredibly large amount of psychiatric issues can stem from something as basic as blood sugar levels. Too much sugar, for example, can result in  short-term depression; too little and brain function decreases dramatically.  Dr. Lendon Smith, a best-selling author, reinforces this simple notion by linking lack of essential nutrients such as vitamins and minerals to a variety of different ailments.  Should the right diet be applied, according to Peet, many of the human body’s own hormonal organs can easily resolve symptoms such as lack of attention.  While these answers are the results of proper research, large-scale, long-term clinical studies to fully validate the proposals are still lacking.

In summation, ADHD and their respective medications still present a large ethical issue in which only continual, stringent research and enhanced social policy can resolve.  Until then, a more reliable prescription of a proper diet, good rest, and watchful mentors can aid children in need.

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Enter Victor Chisholm, McGill’s Undergraduate Research Officer and the coordinator of the conference since its founding in 2005.  Standing well above 2 metres tall – and often touted by the Dean of Science as “the tallest man in the room” – he glided around the lobby of the Arts building armed with a clipboard and keen observation, interviewing this year’s contributors about their research as well as maintaining constant communication with other organizers.  Every year the many fields of science are organized into six categories; each is asked to contribute five to eight projects, which are individually chosen by the supervising professors.  These subcategories – Biological, Earth System, Health and Social, Mathematical and Computational, Medical, and Physical Sciences – contributed a total of 49 presenters this year, each of whom faced three judges each from different scientific backgrounds, ultimately leaving two winners for each department.

“I leave the criteria to the judges,” Chisholm stated in an interview with The Daily when asked about what determines a winning project, “but typically it’s based on how [organized] the posters are, as well as the level of knowledge and commitment demonstrated by the students.”

But not all contestants found judging to be constructive, and some were not even aware that there were awards until a day before the conference. Eric Bellefroid, a U3 student in Geology spent countless summer weeks mining iron samples in the Yukon and felt his hard work did not receive the criticism he desired, as none of the judges were from his field.

“It would have been nice to been asked more questions about the data,” he said with a sigh, complaining about how he received empty looks of confusion rather than constructive comments – comments that potentially could improve “the research [that sucked up] all the free time [he] used to have.”

Bellefroid’s struggle struck a consistent refrain as I spoke to the presenters; the collection and processing of data for a formal research project is an integral and often stressful task. “What makes research so difficult is that there is no right answer… so you begin to critique yourself constantly over the quality of your data,” explained participant Joseph Lewnard as he stood next to his large Excel graph displaying data correlating the strength of 17 types of diseases with global temperature. Lewnard’s professor gave him the topic a whole year ago and despite the progress he has already made, he still faces further challenges with handling the massive quantity of data needed to solidify his correlation.

Naturally, a large part of the purpose of displaying research is peer review and when asked about what he thought of the other projects, Lewnard felt slightly intimidated and “quite nervous seeing everybody else’s research.”

On the other hand, presenter Asad Harris found the environment inspiring. “Other people’s research is quite impressive, and I like to think I can sometimes compare it to mine and draw from it,” Harris, a U3 student in Mathematics, asserted. His project of formula integration only took four months to complete and his topic was self-conceived, not assigned by a professor like many others.

For Harris, “it [was] just nice to see a summer’s work being put up and presented in front of everyone.” This sentiment was shared by many of those contributing to the conference.

In summation, there was little concern for awards, grants, or publishing opportunities, but rather a collective happiness that hours of hard work can be displayed and appreciated. No matter the winner, each project stands as an example to encourage undergraduates to not simply learn from a classroom, but rather to make discoveries in the real world environment. And with McGill’s Faculty of Science as the award-winning, knowledge-generating machine that it is, it’s events like this that are necessary to keep students engaged in a subject and faculty that are ever-evolving.

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Presentations of such diversity naturally attracted a large crowd, which resulted in a swarm of young undergraduates clamouring up the steps to occupy seats that were often filled in a matter of minutes.  At 11:30 a.m. each day, the heavy wooden doors at the entrance were closed, turning away many hopeful students disappointed by the lack of availability and the loss of opportunity to see his or her professor of interest.

“I had to skip my class for several minutes today because it gets [really] crowded,” explained Xavier Chen, a U0 student in Biology who was denied admittance on Monday.  Many other students shared the same struggle to acquire a seat for the half-hour lecture. Volunteers could only reply with a copy of the event’s schedule and a sombre apology.

So what really attracts such impressive crowds to the conference?  The soup or the science?  When the question was posed to some of those attending, the response was that the soup was often of equal importance as the science.

“A little bit of both for us,” answered Lydia, a U0 Biochemistry student, and her friend Jennesa, a U1 student in Physiology, as they enjoyed what remained of their potato leek soup on the front steps.  “It’s like a bonus that there is free food.” The conference was a first for both of the freshmen, who felt that “sitting here [made them] feel… a part of the campus.”

This begs the question: what if there were no soup?

“I would still probably go,” affirmed Lydia. “I really want to get to know the profs,” was a common theme voiced by the scores of students that encircled professors in the casual Q&A session where the soup of the day and sandwiches are finally presented. Plates emptied quickly and were immediately filled by dedicated volunteers sporting white t-shirts, shuffling behind tables while carefully balancing trays of small cardboard bowls of hot soup.

Regardless of the variety of topics each professor lectured upon, the scene in the museum lobby remained consistent: one esteemed professor flanked by students of varying age and majors intent on striking conversation, posing inquiries, or establishing relationships in the hopes of eventually working on research.

For Nigah, a U1 student in Cell Biology, “this was a really good opportunity to see what kind of teachers actually do research, and what research they are doing.”  For her and many others, Soup and Science presented a chance to “get to talk to [the professors] and maybe get the opportunity to actually work with them.”  But Nigah strikes a sharp contrast in comparison to the other students interviewed, as she was able to overcome the intimidation factor and speak with the professor about his research.

As the students slowly filed out to make way for an incoming class using the lecture hall, volunteers expressed surprise upon seeing that this year’s turnout was composed of primarily first years. They noted that typically there is more diversity when it comes to the age of those who attend the conference and expressed optimism that the Faculty of Science had such an involved class despite it only being the beginning of the semester.
Soup and Science was met with enthusiasm from both students and professors. One hopes, though, that the event and the professors’ words have served as lasting inspiration for the students even after the trays have been cleared and the lobby emptied.

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