The call came in a report published by NHS watchdog Quality Improvement Scotland (QIS) last month, after it revealed that prescriptions for the behaviour-controlling drug rose from 69 per 10,000 children in 1996 to 603 per 10,000 children in 2003.
The findings in the 2004 health indicators report, A Focus on Children, also showed increasing regional variations in the prescribing rate for Ritalin.
Now NHS QIS will fund an audit of the care and treatment of children with ADHD and attempt to determine why some health authorities are prescribing higher amounts of the drug than others.
Dr David Steel, NHS QIS chief executive, said, 'The increase in the prescribing rate for ADHD drug methylphenidate (Ritalin) raises the important issue of what constitutes the appropriate level of prescribing in Scotland.
'We see significant regional variations, but until we have a robust, evidence-based assessment of what the appropriate level might be, no-one can say if this is the result of under-prescribing, over-prescribing, demographic and social variations, or some complex mix of all these issues.'
Ritalin prescriptions for children are also rising in England. Between 1997 and 2001 the number of prescriptions more than doubled from 921,000 to 2,085,000.
Janice Hill, director of the Overload Network, a charity that campaigns for drug-free alternatives for the treatment of conditions such as ADHD, said research had shown that Ritalin could cause shrinkage of the brain.
'If your brain is still developing, that's a major concern,' she said. 'We cannot use nursery and pre-school children as guinea pigs. It's a national scandal.'
Ms Hill cited nutritional and psychological interventions as alternative methods of treatment and urged the Government to compile a database to monitor the use of psychiatric medication in children under six years of age.
Robin Balbernie, a consultant child psychotherapist in Gloucestershire, said he believes ADHD is often misdiagnosed. 'Children are being placed under a lot more stress and subject to meeting targets [at school]. This can give ADHD-like symptoms,' he said.
