Dachel Media Review: NYT Says NO to ADD
By Anne Dachel
Dec 14, 2013, New York Times: The Selling of Attention Deficit Disorder--The Number of Diagnoses Soared Amid a 20-Year Drug Marketing Campaign
After more than 50 years leading the fight to legitimize attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, Keith Conners could be celebrating.
Severely hyperactive and impulsive children, once shunned as bad seeds, are now recognized as having a real neurological problem. Doctors and parents have largely accepted drugs like Adderall and Concerta to temper the traits of classic A.D.H.D., helping youngsters succeed in school and beyond.
But Dr. Conners did not feel triumphant this fall as he addressed a group of fellow A.D.H.D. specialists in Washington. He noted that recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that the diagnosis had been made in 15 percent of high school-age children, and that the number of children on medication for the disorder had soared to 3.5 million from 600,000 in 1990. He questioned the rising rates of diagnosis and called them "a national disaster of dangerous proportions."
"The numbers make it look like an epidemic. Well, it's not. It's preposterous," Dr. Conners, a psychologist and professor emeritus at Duke University, said in a subsequent interview. "This is a concoction to justify the giving out of medication at unprecedented and unjustifiable levels."
The rise of A.D.H.D. diagnoses and prescriptions for stimulants over the years coincided with a remarkably successful two-decade campaign by pharmaceutical companies to publicize the syndrome and promote the pills to doctors, educators and parents. With the children's market booming, the industry is now employing similar marketing techniques as it focuses on adult A.D.H.D., which could become even more profitable. . . .
So pharma has been unscrupulous in marketing drugs and promoting a diagnosis?
That's nothing compared to the epidemic of autism they're responsible for. Amazing that the Times writes this!
The world, along with expectations, has changed, too. Now, instead of playing outside for many hours, kids have various (and more) activities after school. There are so many learning benchmarks, even in private school, that kids need special tutors and/or medications just to get through everything.
I have a child that does not want to be on meds (and is considered "mild")--yet we all know that our child can't focus well enough for tests, misplaces needed papers, doesn't attend to directions, and fails to complete homework or studying. We can definitely go through this without meds. Yet, we will need to find a college that doesn't require the SAT, a job that doesn't require endless tasks, and has some exercise built in or outdoors component, or is something that allows for going to bed late and sleeping in--the world isn't set up for this!
I learned that I was considered similar in the 1970s, and there were those who wanted me on meds. I didn't even learn of this until a few years ago. Perhaps the greater promotion of the drugs has led to the increased view of this difference in attention as being something needing medication.
Posted by: Beth | December 18, 2013 at 10:54 AM
Last night I saw a decent show by Amy Goodman w/Democracy Now on FSTV interviewing the New York Times journalist, a father suing Harvard because his son committed suicide after being prescribed Adderal, and another distance guest, who I think was a physician out of Canada who has written a book on the subject.
Posted by: Jenny | December 18, 2013 at 10:09 AM
A mildly vaccine damaged child (like mine was) can get a gluten intolerance (blood test confirmed anti-bodies) that leads to leaky gut and anemia (she was severely anemic). Many of us know the look and the behavior of these kids--dark circles under the eyes, chronic strep and tonsillitus infections, few friends and no best friends. But the most noteworthy part is the learning difficulties which are very monumental in my case, yet we made it through by constant streams of tutors and my working with her every night and every week-end. In college my husband took over and put her on Adderal and she stayed on Adderal through most of her twenties until she became pregnant. She needed the Adderal to function because she was so low energy. How many children would not be able to function without Adderal because of severe anemia? And once they get diagnosed for anemia the question is why and will a doctor take the next step and test for anti-bodies to get to the leaky gut... and the next question is why is this child's immune system so off...and then it gets back to the unmentionable which is the original MMR vaccine damage.
Posted by: Kapoore | December 18, 2013 at 09:12 AM
I think there has been a lot of drug pushing for profit and institutional convenience, but I can't help believing the increase in children who have trouble learning in a sit-at-the-desk environment, perhaps any environment, and performing on the expected level has been real and still largely pharma's responsibility. Is it possible they are willing to blame themselves for over-drugging rather than having a cause for the increase be sought? Do they see or expect the numbers of children who may qualify for such a diagnosis to do down?
Posted by: Jeannette Bishop | December 17, 2013 at 08:07 PM
Like autism spectrum -- there is a spectrum on this too.
There is the child that just won't pay attention, and focus to the child that zooms around the room and you have to peel it off the walls and constanly put it in it's seat.
Been there and done this as a teacher.
But as life goes on the kid that is consideried mild - seems to have a of car wrecks.
Maybe we should ask the car insurance people if there is an epidemic?
Posted by: Benedetta | December 17, 2013 at 07:48 PM
The question is sorting out how many are truly neurologically impaired vs. normal and caught in Pharma's web. It's hard to know.
Posted by: Linda | December 17, 2013 at 06:17 PM