Free Republic

The Heights School has the charitable mission of helping boys grow into good men. Its charity toward Jared changed his life dramatically. Then that change planted a seed in Dr. Sax and changed his life. The doctor’s changed life in turn led him to help others change thousands more lives – unless the heartless ACLU lawyers succeed in snuffing out those seeds.

Social justice theories have invaded the medical profession and Dr. Michael Anderson has a unique take. The New York Times highlights today the work of a doctor who considers prescribing Adderall a mark of social justice on behalf of poor students, giving them a leg up in an unequal society. The Times then goes on to cite sources who blame limited school funding and large classrooms for increasing ADHDdiagnoses. “Dr. [Michael] Anderson’s instinct, he said, is that of a ‘social justice thinker’ who is ‘evening the scales a little bit,’” reports Alan Schwarz for the New York Times. “He said...

Having a REALLY hard time with our family right now. Youngest has ADHD and is REALLY "strong-willed". HATES "authority". Older is sweet and passive. Hubby is passive, as well. Really hard, family dynamic, ATM. Found this vid. Pretty inspiring. Enjoy!

TUESDAY, Aug. 7 (HealthDay News) -- Use of powerful antipsychotic medications such as Abilify and Risperdal to control youngsters with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and other behavior problems has skyrocketed in recent years, a new study finds. Antipsychotics are approved to treat bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, other serious mental problems and irritability related to autism. But they don't have U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for ADHD or other childhood behavior problems, and their use for this purpose is considered "off label." "Only a small proportion of antipsychotic treatment of children (6 percent) and adolescents (13 percent) is for FDA-approved clinical indications,"...

You may think you know what an addict looks like - but growing numbers of suburban mothers are becoming hooked on prescription drug Adderall in the battle to be the perfect parent. Overstretched women across the US are turning to medication used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, which gives them the energy to keep pace with the frantic pace of their lives. Some mothers, who are often relatively affluent and usually aged in their late 20s and 30s, admit to stealing the drug from their children. Between 2002 and 2010, there was a 750 per cent increase in Adderall...

Early on a drab afternoon in January, a dozen third graders from the working-class suburb of Chicago Heights, Ill., burst into the Mac Lab on the ground floor of Washington-McKinley School in a blur of blue pants, blue vests and white shirts. Minutes later, they were hunkered down in front of the Apple computers lining the room’s perimeter, hoping to do what was, until recently, considered impossible: increase their intelligence through training. “Can somebody raise their hand,” asked Kate Wulfson, the instructor, “and explain to me how you get points?” On each of the children’s monitors, there was a cartoon...

THREE million children in this country take drugs for problems in focusing. Toward the end of last year, many of their parents were deeply alarmed because there was a shortage of drugs like Ritalin and Adderall that they considered absolutely essential to their children’s functioning. But are these drugs really helping children? Should we really keep expanding the number of prescriptions filled? In 30 years there has been a twentyfold increase in the consumption of drugs for attention-deficit disorder. As a psychologist who has been studying the development of troubled children for more than 40 years, I believe we should...

Yesterday, my entire afternoon got eaten by my panic over shortages of Adderall, the drug that changed my writing life from daily torture that I slogged through because I'm a hard worker to sometimes-hard work I love. Instead of writing, I wasted my time on the phone to a bunch of local pharmacies, and emailing my very good-natured doctor multiple times ("Can you prescribe in Mexico?"), and searching for Canadian pharmacies -- maybe one in Windsor where maybe I could get Gregg to pick me up 10 or 20 or maybe even 30 pills...in all the spare time he has....

Lawrence Guy is smart. You know this because in the spring semester of last year he got a GPA of nearly 3.5 in his classes at Arizona State, which allowed Guy, then a defensive tackle on the football team, to wear a patch on his jersey distinguishing him as one of the school’s “Scholar Ballers.” You know this too because when he grows comfortable with someone and his shyness falls away, the words spill out in torrents and his eyes shine bright. And then you see why his former football position coach, a grizzled-sounding man now working in the NFL,...

Amid what some claim is a growing epidemic of ADHD diagnoses, a study finds that almost one in four adults who show up in doctors' offices seeking treatment may be exaggerating — or even faking — their symptoms. Don't miss these Health stories AFP-Getty Images file Tired eyes? Try this quick fix Sleepless nights, whether caused by anxiety, hormones or a too-warm room, can make eyes look tired and puffy. Here's an easy way to wake up your tired peepers. Bearded dragons linked to food poisoning outbreak Famous lips: Real or fake? Adults with ADHD? 1 in 4 may be...

Geneva Fielding, a single mother since age 16, has struggled to raise her three energetic boys in the housing projects of Roxbury. Nothing has come easily, least of all money. Even so, she resisted some years back when neighbors told her about a federal program called SSI that could pay her thousands of dollars a year. The benefit was a lot like welfare, better in many ways, but it came with a catch: To qualify, a child had to be disabled. And if the disability was mental or behavioral — something like ADHD — the child pretty much had to...

British scientists have found the first direct evidence attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a genetic disorder and say their research could eventually lead to better treatments for the condition. Researchers who scanned the gene maps of more than 1,400 children found that those with ADHD were more likely than others to have small chunks of their DNA duplicated or missing....

Does Barack Obama have a learning disability (LD)? It seems like an outlandish question to ask, but the actions of President Obama suggest that he may suffer from one. Consider: Learning Learning is "the cognitive process of acquiring skill or knowledge." Intelligence is defined as capacity for learning, reasoning, understanding, and similar forms of mental activity; aptitude in grasping truths, relationships, facts, meanings, etc. or 1 a (1) : the ability to learn or understand or to deal with new or trying situations : reason; also :the skilled use of reason (2) : the ability to apply knowledge to manipulate...

LOS ANGELES -- Looks like Lindsay Lohan can continue to take drugs while in jail. It's OK since LiLo has a doctor's note allowing her to take daily doses to deal with ADHD and insomnia. TMZ.com reported today that Lohan's prescriptions were being processed hours after she was sent away for her 90-days sentence. She'll be allowed to take Adderall, a psychostimulant used to treat ADHD, and Ambien sleeping pills. The allowance is ironic since it's prescription drugs that have gotten Lohan "into this mess in the first place," TMZ reported. Smoking, however, is not allowed.

Researchers Say Precise Link Between Sweets And Violence Unclear We know candy is bad for your children's teeth. But could it also cause bad behavior later in life? CBS 2's Jim Williams looks at a new study linking kids and sugar to violent crimes. Laura Budill had her hands full with her sons, Nathan, 3 and Tyler, 2, at a Lincoln Park playground Tuesday. They were active enough without sweets; but with sugar? "Every child is different," said Budill. "For my children, I know that it causes them to act out in hyperactivity." So Laura only allows them to have...

ADHD Revised? Bethany Stotts, May 17, 2010 A new study conducted by Harvard researchers correlates certain pesticides with an increased risk attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children. Using a 95% confidence level, they determined that “For the most-commonly detected DMAP metabolite, dimethyl thiophosphate, children with levels higher than the median of detectable concentrations had twice the odds of ADHD (adjusted odds ratio: 1.93 [95% confidence interval: 1.23–3.02]), compared with children with undetectable levels.” They studied over a thousand children. “These findings support the hypothesis that organophosphate exposure, at levels common among US children, may contribute to ADHD prevalence,” state the authors...

CHICAGO (AP) - CHICAGO (AP) — A new analysis of U.S. health data links children's attention-deficit disorder with exposure to common pesticides used on fruits and vegetables. While the study couldn't prove that pesticides used in agriculture contribute to childhood learning problems, experts said the research is persuasive. "I would take it quite seriously," said Virginia Rauh of Columbia University, who has studied prenatal exposure to pesticides and wasn't involved in the new study.

I have debated over this issue for quite some time. My 7 year old son likely has some kind of ADD/ADHD. He is very hyper most of the time, very hard for him to pay attention and he gets easily distracted. I also think its affecting his relationships with fellow children. This issue was first brought up last year and i dismissed it right away, but the more i started to watch him the more i started to realise there IS something going on with him. He cant seem to control himself and gets over stimulated very easily. I have...

Two brain areas fail to connect when children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder attempt a task that measures attention, according to researchers at the UC Davis Center for Mind and Brain and M.I.N.D. Institute. "This is the first time that we have direct evidence that this connectivity is missing in ADHD," said Ali Mazaheri, postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Mind and Brain. Mazaheri and his colleagues made the discovery by analyzing the brain activity in children with ADHD. The paper appears in the current online issue of the journal Biological Psychiatry. The researchers measured electrical rhythms from the brains...

Some children and teens are more likely than their peers to become addicted to the Internet, and a new study suggests it's more likely to happen if kids are depressed, hostile, or have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or social phobia. Although an Internet addiction is not an official diagnosis, signs of a potential problem include using the Internet so much for game playing or other purposes that it interferes with everyday life and decision-making ability. (The diagnosis is being considered for the 2012 edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the "bible" of mental ailments published by...