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Ritalin Debate: Some Experts Doubt Existence of ADHD
Cybercast News Service (CNSNews.com) ^ | April 18, 2003 | Patrick Goodenough

Posted on 04/18/2003 12:38:09 PM PDT by FreeRadical

Pacific Rim Bureau (CNSNews.com) - The debate over attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and the drugging of children diagnosed with it has been rekindled in Australia, one of several countries to have followed the U.S. trend over recent decades.

A youth conference in the eastern city of Brisbane this week was told that no proof has been found that ADHD exists at all.

U.S. psychologist Dr. Bob Jacobs told the Youth Affairs Network Queensland conference that doctors and pharmaceutical companies had turned behavioral problems in children into a disorder.

He voiced concern that misdiagnoses resulted in youngsters being prescribed powerful drugs like Ritalin, which may affect their long-term mental and physical development.

In a radio interview afterwards, Jacobs - who is on the advisory board of the International Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology - said his conclusions had been made as a result of his own observations during many years in practice, working with children and families.

He cited cases where parents reported that their ADHD-diagnosed children could not pay attention - but then those same children could play video games for hours without being distracted.

Sometimes where parents made changes in the way they were doing things, the symptoms would go away.

"A real disease doesn't go away when somebody else does something," he argued.

Jacobs said experts had put labels on different behaviors and called them a disease.

"There's no proof. Nobody has ever presented any evidence of a condition called ADHD, except to say all these children are hyperactive; all these children are inattentive, and therefore they all have the disease. It's the 'and therefore' that I'm concerned about."

Jacobs acknowledged that many parents would disagree with him. Parents tend to believe what has become the mainstream view, in part because the drugs prescribed for ADHD do work in that they make the child more docile and more compliant.

"The child's not getting into trouble at school any more. The child's easier to manage at home, so we say, well this is great, it works."

Also, parents struggling with a behavior problem were made to feel better. Instead of feeling inadequate as parents, they felt they were now struggling with a sick child and doing the best they could.

Money trail

In the United States in 2001, pharmaceutical companies made more than $600 million in profits just on stimulant drugs used for attention deficit disorders.

"If ADHD doesn't exist, those hundreds of millions of dollars in profits go away."

"You have to follow the money," agreed Peyton Knight, legislative director at the American Policy Center, a Virginia-based think tank.

"It's big money," he said by phone late Thursday. "The more diagnoses there are every year the more Ritalin and other mind-altering drugs they are going to be able to market and sell."

Many would vehemently disagree with the arguments against the existence of ADHD, he said.

"But it's never been validated as a disease," Knight said. "It's arbitrary."

"The number of diagnoses has risen exponentially over the past decade. It's not like some epidemic is sweeping the nation like a flu virus. It's just a matter of diagnoses going up because of the popularity of diagnosing children with ADHD," he said.

"In today's society, parents look for the easy way out. If their kids are unruly, we give them a pill and it sedates them. That becomes a very easy thing to do and if a doctor tells them to do this, they feel good about it."

Knight said there was a fairly sizeable grassroots citizens' movement in the United States questioning these issues, and more parents and teachers were becoming aware of the problems.

Unfortunately a similar movement had yet to take hold in the scientific community, although there were some bold specialists who disagreed with the wider-held views.

One of them is neurologist Dr. Fred Baughman Jr., who in a 1998 letter to the then Attorney General Janet Reno, called the representation of ADHD as a disease and the drugging of millions of normal children "the single, biggest heath care fraud in U.S. history."

Massive increase in drug use

According to Baughman, 500,000 children were diagnosed ADHD in 1985 and between 5 and 7 million were today.

Substantial growth has also been reported in Australia, a country of just 19 million people, where it's estimated that at least 50,000 children are now on drugs prescribed for ADHD.

A report in the Medical Journal of Australia last November said Australia and New Zealand have the third-highest rate in the world of the drug use, after the United States and Canada.

Unlike the United States, where Ritalin (methylphenidate) is most often prescribed, in Australia dexamphetamine is more widely used.

University of Queensland figures show that legal use of dexamphetamine in Australia has risen from 8.3 million tablets prescribed in 1984 to 38.4 million tablets in 2001. Over the same period Ritalin prescriptions rose from 1.5 million tablets to 19.3 million.

The federal government early this year approved use in Australia of long-acting Ritalin-LA, which is said to be effective for longer than the usual four-hour period for standard Ritalin.

Rosemary Boon, a child psychologist in Sydney for more than 20 years, acknowledged in a recent article that the drugs were effective in settling the child and this benefited teachers, parents and classmates. But there was little benefit to the afflicted child, she added.

Boon does not argue that ADHD doesn't exist, but says it can be managed with the help of diet, exercise, behavior modification, stress management, identification of "triggers" of the symptoms, and a supportive family environment.

Critics list among the problems with drugs like Ritalin the fact children on them tend not to grow as tall as they might otherwise. There are also concerns that a child's intelligence, creativity and spontaneity may be dampened.

The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists says medication should not be the first line of intervention for the vast majority of children. Alternatives should be looked into first.

On its website, Novartis, the pharmaceutical company that manufactures Ritalin, describes ADHD as "a physical disorder caused by differences in how the child's brain works."

Novartis has an article in the April-May edition of its journal, Pathways, arguing for the existence of ADHD.

It quotes Prof. Russell Barkley of the Medical University of South Carolina as saying that ADHD is not overdiagnosed in the United States.

"We have more diagnosis now than before due to better public awareness and greater referrals," he said.


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: adhd; australia; drugs; education; health; ritalin; youth
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To: Lazamataz
Everybody's got a cool screen name but me. :o(

Yeah. My screen name is REAL imaginative! ;-)

221 posted on 02/20/2004 12:40:29 PM PST by Marie (My coffee cup is waaaaay too small to deal with this day.)
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To: cupcakes
I don't know if it will help you, but "The Out of Sync Child" is a book that was very helpful to me. It disusses sensory problems. My son was helped quite a bit by occupational therapy, although medication has been much more effective.
222 posted on 02/20/2004 12:43:23 PM PST by Politicalmom
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To: FreeRadical
bump
223 posted on 02/20/2004 12:43:31 PM PST by nkycincinnatikid
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To: Lazamataz
Laz,
I used to be like others here and then I saw what meds, once the right combo was found, did for my children's cousin. She is a completely different child for the better and believe me if any child had the kind of support and nurture to do better on behavioral restraints alone, it was this child.
I've also seen similar behavior to what those with ADHD go through with my mildly autistic son. He is not medicated currenlty, but like I noted a post or two up, I have considered it to deal with rages that are completely uncontrollable. The naysayers would do well also to recognize that some of us have other children who we can compare these children next too. Why would they think we had issues with discipline when our other 2 kids are just wonderful in behavioral areas? Until I dealt with my own child who can be impulsive to a dangerous level, hyper, non communicative, and out of control when angry, I never knew what it was like to deal with a child who is absolutely non-responsive to discipline. My son doesn't talk and this just adds to his raging and impulsiveness.
These conditions do exist. I do believe things like ADD are overdiagnosed, but certainly there are children who can not even be responsive to behavioral cues until their hormones or whatever are brought into right order.

224 posted on 02/20/2004 12:46:06 PM PST by cupcakes
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To: luckystarmom
Not this girl. I've always known I am a weak multi-tasker. I bet I would qualify for attention problems with the things that I exhibit as a female, but I've never been treated for it. I often wonder since I am this way and my husband is naturally this way as a man, if it contributed to our son being more prone to autism which is an extreme of your average boy.
225 posted on 02/20/2004 12:51:48 PM PST by cupcakes
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To: luckystarmom
BTW, although I have a difficult time with my son, when I say he's autistic, I always second that by describing him as boy times ten;-)
226 posted on 02/20/2004 12:53:20 PM PST by cupcakes
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To: FreeRadical
My mom and girlfriend being public school teachers, they can tell you that ADD does exist, but it is more rare than not. From what they tell me, the vast majority of kids on medication don't need medicine. They need parents who aren't afraid to be parents, not friends. A good dose of whoop-a$$ once in a while can work miracles in these kids. Discipline is critical for young kids IMHO. The lack of it turns them into irresponsible adults a lot of times. I got my butt spanked, and I turned out OK.
227 posted on 02/20/2004 12:55:06 PM PST by tx4guns (Guns don't murder people; stupid people murder people.)
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To: Mfkmmof4
Yup, we are having those issues with my autistic son. He is only 4 now and we are working hard to give him more time for behavioral things to work, but if he continues this even a year or two from now as strong as he is, we will have to do something to control him and at that time we will have to seriously consider medications.
I suppose you've had the "honor" of dealing with autistic rages? Or the insomniac autistic child--argh!
We are expecting another son and I gotta tell you I am downright scared that we will have a repeat with him. It is why we were really hoping for another daughter this time around.
228 posted on 02/20/2004 1:00:07 PM PST by cupcakes
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To: G Larry
BTDT--I'm home, have been for years. Hasn't done a thing to quell rages in my son.
229 posted on 02/20/2004 1:01:06 PM PST by cupcakes
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To: oldcomputerguy
That could be a component. I know for the longest time I couldn't figure out why my son would vomit a couple of times a week. We finally realized that he never outgrew the lactose intolerance to milk like the doctor said he would so we put him back on lactaid.
He also gets terrible rashes still if he eats too many acidic foods like oranges, orange juice, lemonade, etc.
230 posted on 02/20/2004 1:02:54 PM PST by cupcakes
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To: Noahs Rook
I watched as he walked home from the bus stop after school, and saw that a fly captured his attention...he followed it out into oncoming traffic trying to swat at it.

Did it ever occur to you that this behavior is normal for a child, especially a boy? It's a sign of immaturity, but also a male, lazer-beam focus that would make him a wonderful hunter, builder, warrior. I've seen boys climb into danger to achieve a small goal (see the bird's nest) without even thinking about the potential for disaster. It's a struggle for most male children to learn caution, but that's the male brain. It's something they have to develop into and be taught all at the same time.

231 posted on 02/20/2004 1:05:49 PM PST by Marie (My coffee cup is waaaaay too small to deal with this day.)
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To: Orangedog
I'll give you that. I have an awful hard time with my autistic son. My husband certainly handles him better, even if that means he has to be restrained to keep from banging his head or breaking toys.
232 posted on 02/20/2004 1:06:31 PM PST by cupcakes
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To: FourPeas
FourPeas,
Our stories sound similar. So much so. I had the same attitude as you and now I'm dealing with my autistic son and I plan to consult a doctor once I give birth to finally look into my situation as well. I have problems like your hubby does and have for years. It is something if I am to homeschool again next year I *MUST* address to be effective as a teacher to my children. It's hard to suck up your pride and admit you were wrong. You are a big person to do so.
233 posted on 02/20/2004 1:11:46 PM PST by cupcakes
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To: Corin Stormhands
My problem with the ADD diagnosis is that it's just to flip. My son was diagnosed with ADAD and I fought it for FOUR YEARS. Did he have issues? Yup. Was it ADHD? Nope. He was a celiac and nobody knew it. Something just told me that his behavior was a symptom, not a diagnosis. It took a long time to figure it out and a lot of doctors told me that I was wrong, but I didn't give up. Now he's calm, stubborn, happy, imaginative, bored and willful, but he's also managable... "normal."

Another thing that irritates the h#ll out of me are the mothers who tell me, "My little Johney's problems can't be food issues. I've tried eliminating everything I can think of and nothing works. My son's pediatric GI told me that it takes SIX MONTHS for the brain to BEGIN recovering from a food intollerance. He also told me that he has CURED EVERY CHILD WHO HAS COME TO HIM OF ADD, ODD, ADHD, etc by changing their diet for a period of one year. But one year is way to long for most parents and schools to wait, so they just medicate the kids and sigh and say that there's nothing else to do. ("I took my son off everything; sugar, red dyes, gluten, milk for a MONTH and he didn't improve..." It takes 6 months! That's like saying, "I've been pregnant for a whole month and the baby didn't come. I guess I need surgury to have it removed." These things take time, for the love of Pete!)

ADD symptoms are also the same symptoms a child will show when they are sick. When they are tired. When they are in chronic pain and can't even pinpoint, verbalize or understand what they are feeling they will act out. When they are hard of hearing or have a tummy ache. When their body chemestry is wrong or they are missing a vital mineral or vitamin. It's too darn easy to drug 'em into behaving and ignore the fact that there is a very high probablity that something else is wrong. We expect all kids to fit into this nice neat little package and get very upset with them when they won't comply. We insist that something must be wrong with their brains then pour medications into these same brains and say that we're treating their illness.

And it's the public schools that insist we fall in line.

234 posted on 02/20/2004 2:26:05 PM PST by Marie (My coffee cup is waaaaay too small to deal with this day.)
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To: Marie; Corin Stormhands
Sorry 'bout all the typos. Got </I>distracted</I> by a phone call! LOL!
235 posted on 02/20/2004 2:29:24 PM PST by Marie (My coffee cup is waaaaay too small to deal with this day.)
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To: Lazamataz
Hannity mentioned that there cannot be ADD because an ADD kid can play video games and not lose concentration.

That argument was absurd. Video games have such a high level of sensory output that it satisfies the ADD's need for a high level of sensory input.

I raised this with my son's teacher, and she gave the same stock reply you just did.

I then changed it to "plays chess" for over four hours without loss of concentration and maintaining an ability to sit quietly still, and the teacher's argument failed flat. Where's the sensory input in chess? ;)

You should have seen the look on her face. She clearly wasn't ready for THAT. She was dumbfounded, and her expression revealed it. (I still derive satisfaction from that memory.)

In most cases, it appears to be an internal discipline issue.

In fact, I always refer to ADD as "Adult Deficiency Disorder"--not enough adult supervision in the young kid's life.

236 posted on 02/20/2004 2:46:46 PM PST by sauron ("Truth is hate to those who hate Truth" --unknown)
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To: sauron
I then changed it to "plays chess" for over four hours without loss of concentration and maintaining an ability to sit quietly still, and the teacher's argument failed flat. Where's the sensory input in chess? ;)

Curiously, I, too, played a lot of chess. I have a particularly vicious case of ADD, to this very day. This might be something that ADD people do. We do a lot of mental gymnastics when playing chess. We're constantly analyzing patterns. Maybe that's the sensory input?

If you don't believe in ADD, ask my ex-wife. She'll tell ya. When I got on ritalin, as an adult, I became much easier to live with.

237 posted on 02/20/2004 2:53:46 PM PST by Lazamataz (I believe whatever the last poster tells me.)
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To: Marie
Supposedly allergies also play a big part in ADD/ADHD. A kid with allergies can have the same symptoms.

Unfortunatly, a lot of parents do medication as the first thing they try.
238 posted on 02/20/2004 3:10:31 PM PST by luckystarmom
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To: cupcakes
My daughter with cerebral palsy has had lots of issues with rage. How have you dealt with it with your autistic son?

The pediatrician and neurologist have been useless. The pediatrician has always advised us to use timeouts, and that should work. If it doesn't, then I must be doing something wrong.

I don't know if he's ever seen a kid with half a brain (literally), who is very tired, very smart, and can't talk at 4 1/2. I will say that my daughter is better now, at 7. She's talking better, and she handles being tired better. She also handles being disciplined better. I'll put her in her room now, and she does seem to calm down pretty fast.

239 posted on 02/20/2004 3:51:20 PM PST by luckystarmom
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