Your story is interesting and gives much to consider. You seem to suggest that doctors now look for a pharmaceutical remedy for every ailment and that the drug is often worse than the original disease, both of which assertions I agree with. Especially when it comes to children.
My wife was living in her final days of life a couple months ago. I'd step out of ICU for a walk in the hospital halls every few hours. Several nights around 8:00-9:00pm when I was down in the lobby I saw our doctor fixing to leave for the day. Oh and he would be there next morning at 6:00am to do his morning rounds before seeing patients in his office. He was not one of the doctors in what happened. The Serotonin Syndrome happened 12 years ago under other doctors. I would hate to have his work load and hours. It would take a dedication above and beyond IMO.
There is a problem of doctors keeping up with changed discoveries from new research especially in supposed mental health related issues. ADHD ADD was around when I was a kid in the 1960's. I was one of the very few diagnosed as having it in my school. I didn't discover until about 1996 that I didn't have it at all. I have C.A.P.D. aka Central Auditory Processing Disorders. The symptoms mimic ADD ADHD but you can not treat a CAPD patient with ADD ADHD medications. CAPD is life long and is usually auditory and often optical processing damage. Thus a lack of concentration and some cognitive issues such as Anxiety and even Dyslexic symptoms.
The medication treatment for CAPD? Usually treating the primary cause such as chronic ear infections, sinus allergies, chronic tonsil inflammations etc. Ritalin is of no use. An antihistamine works much better.
Inner Ear disorders is most likely the number one culprit in adult anxiety disorders and the most misdiagnosed as being something else. They can be temporary or permanent. In my case the worse case scenario of damage took place as I grew older. The damage reached a point to where I began having Myoclonic Seizures /jerks/spasms/ in my upper torso at about age 36 when hearing certain sounds or experiencing certain auditory stimulation. I've been disabled since 1994.
Xanax controls the seizure for me and tones down my senses to a functional level. Over time learned some tricks to coping with it. Many go against the so called text book treatment. For example I avoid what triggers me if possible or limit exposure and it works. Now can you imagine what medications enhancing the neuro transmitters to my damaged processor would do? Like demanding a 64 MB RAM 1200MHZ processor to the same simultaneous functions of a 4GB 4MHZ processor. A crash will happen. Crash meaning seizures possibly, the dreaded brain fog where am I and how did I get here experience many with anxiety disorder complain about. Now both processors I mention can do the task given them with the same end result but one can not handle the task bombardment if you understand what I'm saying. Plus the potential for a Serotonin Migration would be there.
This is newer research. It's came from Vestibular Disorders research not mental health research. As such it has less pharmaceutical industry bias. Audiologist to not prescribe pills.
If I had a kid showing ADD ADHD symptoms I would take them to an Audiologist and a Speech Pathologist for CAPD Testing. I would also see an Occupational Therapist for eye coordination testing. I would if necessary give them a No DOZ caffeine pill as well when their behavior became ADD ADHD like and see if it changed their behavior for the better. If it does then ADD ADHD is more likely if not then CAPD is more likely especially if the childs medical history points toward damaging things like I mentioned.
The ADD ADHD epidemic is more likely a CAPD epidemic caused simply by an increase in technology placing much greater auditory and optical demands on persons damaged sensory processing system which in previous generations simply was not there and thus less symptoms showed up.
The classroom adaption is simple. Place the kid at the front of the room facing the teacher so the kid can read lips as well as hear. They have to be able to do both to understand what is being said in a classroom. Eliminate as many distractions as possible such as the group table classrooms we see today. Limit time at home on video games and TV shows where for example the cartoons are almost strobing. Learn a kids attention span and work within it rather than trying to fight it. When it is up have them doing something else productive or recreational but educational. Look at the childs shoes. See if they wear to one side and wear out fast say in less than a month or two due to breaking over. That points to eye/muscle coordination and the kid is waking off balance. I spent two years in Occupational Therapy in 7th and 8th grade. Watch the kid swing at a baseball. If consistent delayed swing, early swing, or ducking away from the ball is an issue after a few days I would say hey OK there again is an eye to muscle coordination issue. Simple things really.
I was in a special education school for two years of my grade school and got help. It bought me a few years time including a Navy enlistment and working till about age 36. I had classmates with every thing you could likely name including severe mental problems for a few. Many more were partially deaf, partially blind, Polio, CP, MD, you name it. One school of about 250 students served a six county area and all kids got help. A decade later Mainstreaming began to put kids who could be helped into a venue of daycare.
Getting back to medications you go up to a Shrink and say hey I think my anxiety is caused by my hearing and he likely will ignore you and go the antidepressant protocol for chemical and phobic causes. He likely never even heard of it because most Shrinks are still using 1950's research. The only change for their practice is newer medications.