ADHD

Thomas Insel, MD, is the Director of the National Institute of Mental Health. In June of last year, he published, on the Director’s Blog, an article titled Are Children Overmedicated? The gist of the article is that children are not being overmedicated, but rather that there is an increase in “severe psychiatric problems” in this population. Here are some quotes, interspersed with my comments. "The latest estimate from the National Center for Health Statistics reports that 7.5 percent of U.S. children between ages 6 and 17 were taking medication for 'emotional or behavioral difficulties' in 2011-2012. The CDC reports a five-fold increase in the number of children under 18 on psychostimulants from 1988-1994 to 2007–2010, with the most recent rate of 4.2 percent. The same report estimates that 1.3 percent of children are on antidepressants. The rate of antipsychotic prescriptions for children has increased six-fold over this same period, according to a study of office visits within the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey. In children under age 5, psychotropic prescription rates peaked at 1.45 percent in 2002-2005 and declined to 1.00 percent from 2006-2009." ...

I was searching Google for effects of propaganda on the human psych, and stumbled upon this site. After reading a few stories, I felt I had to share my own. When I was in high school I was depressed. To the point where I was a walking text book definition. Failing grades, poor hygiene, isolation. All the signs were obvious.I had to go to rehab for drinking too much cough syrup.When I went to the doctor he diagnosed me with ADHD. I have never been a hyper person. always rather slow and calm.Than he tells me that he is going to just experiment with multiple drugs to see what works, and than diagnose me with whatever that drug treats.First drug was Vyvanse (lisdexamfetamine dimesylate)Its a new “abuse-free” amphetamine. Due to a coating of protein, the chemical can only dissolve in your stomach acid. Injecting, Smoking, or Snorting would not activate it.However the prescribed dose taken once a day was enough to make me a full effect of amphetamines, and I began losing alot of sleep. After having multiple panic attacks on this medication, I demanded the doctor take me off of it.He than gave me Focalin (Dexmethylphenidate Hydrochloride)Another new “abuse-free” drug. During my younger years I experimented with MDMA, and I would compare the feeling of Focalin with that of Extacy.When I got into college my doctor pulled me off of it saying that college kids are more likely to sell it, and that he must change my prescription.Next drug was Strattera (atomoxetine). I threw up every time I took it. It gave me intense piriods of happiness followed by extreme bursts of anger for no reason at all.I stopped going to the doctor, I stopped taking medications. I no longer trust the medical system, the pharm companies, or even the government. I’d rather suffer the depression untreated than go through what I went through in high school.On a side note, The experience made me drop out of school, and get my GED. That year, my school experienced a higher drop out rate than ever before. ...

On May 16, the New York Times ran an article titled Thousands of Toddlers Are Medicated for A.D.H.D., Report Finds, Raising Worries, by Alan Schwarz. Here is the opening sentence: "More than 10,000 American toddlers 2 or 3 years old are being medicated for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder outside established pediatric guidelines, according to data presented on Friday by an official at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention." The CDC official is Susanna Visser, MS, DrPh, Acting Associate Director of Science for the Division of Human Development and Disability, and she was speaking at the annual Rosalyn Carter Georgia Mental Health Forum. I have not been able to find the text of Ms. Visser's speech. (It will probably be published later.) Meanwhile, there is a good deal of information in Alan Schwarz's article. Here are some more quotes: "The report, which found that toddlers covered by Medicaid are particularly prone to be put on medication such as Ritalin and Adderall, is among the first efforts to gauge the diagnosis of A.D.H.D. in children below age 4. Doctors at the Georgia Mental Health Forum at the Carter Center in Atlanta, where the data was presented, as well as several outside experts strongly criticized the use of medication in so many children that young." ...

On April 22, I published a post on this general topic. In that article I pointed out that the notion of stimulant prescription drugs improving the driving of people who “have ADHD” was gaining traction. Since than I have come across two articles on this subject from Australia. (Thanks to Nanu Grewal for the links.) Both articles appeared in the Sunshine Coast Daily, and you can see them here and here. Apparently in 2009, four people, including five-year-old twin girls, died in a two-car accident. The driver of one of the cars had been prescribed dexamphetamine for the treatment of ADHD by a local psychiatrist, and was found to have had six times the prescribed dosage of dexamphetamine in his system at the time of the crash. ...

On April 11, 2014, journalist Alan Schwarz (brief bio here) published an article in the New York Times on this topic, titled Idea of New attention Disorder Spurs Research, and Debate. Alan has written extensively on the rising rates of the condition known as ADHD, and on the abuse of the drugs that are used to “treat” this condition. He has drawn a good deal of criticism from psychiatry’s believers. ...

In 2006, Laurence Jerome, a Canadian psychiatrist, and two colleagues wrote a paper titled What We Know About ADHD and Driving Risk: A Literature Review, Meta-Analysis and Critique. It was published in the Journal of the Canadian Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in August, 2006. The primary result of the meta-analysis was: "Current data support the utility of stimulant medication in improving driving performance in younger ADHD drivers." The study is lengthy and well-referenced, but in keeping with standard psychiatric practice, it conceptualizes and presents ADHD as a "…common psychiatric disorder…" with symptoms of "…inattention, impulsiveness and hyperactivity…" In other words, they present ADHD as something that a person has rather than as something that a person does. The problem with this approach is that it creates the impression that meaningful or significant correlations/effects have been found, where in fact all that has happened is an elucidation of the terms used. For instance, the authors refer to a study by Fried et al. (2006) and state: ...

In November 2013, the British Medical Journal published Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: are we helping or harming? by Rae Thomas, PhD, Psychologist, Australia; Geoffrey K. Mitchell, MB BS, FRACGP, PhD, Professor of General Practice, Australia; and Laura Batstra, PhD, Psychologist, Netherlands. The article is part of a series on the dangers of overdiagnosis. Here are some quotes: "Prevalence and prescribing rates for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have risen steeply over the past decade, partly in response to concerns about underdiagnosis and undertreatment." ...

Jeffrey Lieberman, MD, President of the APA, has expressed concern about the rise in the number of people being assigned a “diagnosis” of ADHD. He has put up a video on Medscape, Explaining the Rise in ADHD. There is a transcript with the video. Dr. Lieberman is responding to a December 14, 2013, New York Times article The Selling of Attention Deficit Disorder, by Alan Schwarz, and a December 18 editorial in the same paper titled An Epidemic of Attention Deficit Disorder. ...

BOOK PREVIEW Richard C. Saul, MD ADHD Does Not Exist: The Truth About Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder Publication date: February 18, 2014 ************************ Those of us on this side of the psychiatry debate have been saying for decades that the condition known as ADHD is not an illness, but is rather an arbitrarily delineated cluster of vaguely defined problems that children have acquired in various ways. We have also pointed out that psychiatry's labeling of this condition as an illness is simply another instance of their inexorable turf expansion, and that their widespread drugging of the individuals so labeled is destructive and disempowering. And, also for decades, psychiatry has been marginalizing us as unscientific mental illness deniers, who seek to put the clock back and deprive people suffering from this “illness” of the vital “treatment” that they so desperately need. ...

There’s an interesting article, recently published in Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy, on Springer Link. It’s titled Shooting the Messenger: The Case of ADHD, and it was written by Gretchen LeFever Watson, PhD, et al. Apparently some of the authors had noted in 1995 a marked increase in the “diagnosis” and “treatment” of the condition known as ADHD in southeastern Virginia. This is a large urban conglomeration of six different cities, including Norfolk, Portsmouth, and Virginia Beach. ...