Some Experts Doubt Existence of ADHD/ADD

[Guest guest]

Ritalin Debate: Some Experts Doubt Existence of ADHD

 

by Patrick Goodenough

 

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 heathcare

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.

CNSNews.com

Pacific Rim Bureau Chief

18th April 2003

 

PHILLIP DAY'S COMMENT: In my book, The Mind Game, we discuss the bogus nature of

many psychiatric illnesses. ADHD is one of the leaders. Every working day,

millions of children around the world are given mind-altering drugs because they

have been told they have a behavioural problem only drugs can solve. For the

full story of this pernicious drugging of our children for profit and control,

not to mention our elderly, please obtain a copy of The Mind Game.

 

http://campaignfortruth.com/Eclub/210603/CTM-adhddebate.htm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The complete " Whole Body " Health line consists of the " AIM GARDEN TRIO "

Ask About Health Professional Support Series: AIM Barleygreen

 

" Wisdom of the Past, Food of the Future "

 

http://www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest/AIM.html

 

PLEASE READ THIS IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER

We have made every effort to ensure that the information included in these pages

is accurate. However, we make no guarantees nor can we assume any responsibility

for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, product, or

process discussed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mail SpamGuard - Read only the mail you want.