“You Keep Giving Adderall to my Son, You’re Going to Kill Him”

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The New York Times, in an extraordinarily lengthy front-page article, chronicles the descent of popular college class president, athlete, and aspiring medical student into...

Study Finds Music Therapy May Be Effective in Clinical Practice

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In a new study published in The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, Professor Sam Porter and co-authors, present the results of a music...

Teacher Wellbeing Matters for Student Mental Health

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Teacher’s personal wellbeing plays a role in students’ mental health outcomes, suggests a new study.

Baseball’s ADHD “Epidemic”

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8% of major league baseball players have been diagnosed with ADHD (double the rate in the general population) and prescribed stimulants; medications which are...

Drugging Toddlers for Inattention, Impulsivity, and Hyperactivity

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On May 16, the New York Times ran an article titled Thousands of Toddlers Are Medicated for A.D.H.D., Report Finds, Raising Worriesby Alan Schwarz.  Here is the opening sentence: "More than 10,000 American toddlers 2 or 3 years old are being medicated for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder outside established pediatric guidelines, according to data presented on Friday by an official at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."

Researchers Question the Utility of an ADHD Diagnosis

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A new article examines the usefulness of the ADHD diagnosis and suggests alternatives

More Children Receiving ‘Off-Label’ Antipsychotics for ‘ADHD’

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Over the past twenty years, the number of prescriptions for atypical antipsychotics written to children and young adults between four and eighteen has increased...

Hypotheses, Scientific Evidence, and On Being Compared to an AIDS Denier

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In today’s Boston Globe (April 14), Dr. Dennis Rosen, a pediatric lung and sleep specialist at Children’s Hospital in Boston, reviews my new book,...

Our Letter to Lancet Psychiatry

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This is the cover letter that Mad in America Foundation sent to Niall Boyce, editor of Lancet Psychiatry, requesting that the journal retract Martine Hoogman's study of "subcortical brain volumes" in those diagnosed with ADHD.

Towards a Ban on Psychiatrically Diagnosing and Drugging Children

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Instead of hope and enthusiasm for their futures, too many children now grow up believing they are inherently defective, and controlled by bad genes and biochemical imbalances. They are shackled by the idea that they have ADHD and then subdued by the drugs that inevitably go along with the diagnosis. Unless something intervenes, many of them will go on to pass their days on Earth in a drug-impaired, demoralized state.

Linking Screen Time, Smartphones, and Stress Among Young Adults

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New review ties increased screen time to increasing anxiety and depression among young adults throughout the United States.

Germany Rejects New ADHD Drug

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Finding that Shire's study of its successor to Adderall XR, Vyvanse, (lisdexamfetamine; known in Germany as Elvanse) was too short and did not look at the drug...

Amphetamines Have Long-Term Effects on Adolescent Brain, Study Finds

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A new study published in the journal Neuroscience finds that rats given regular doses of amphetamines during adolescence have brain and behavioral changes in adulthood....

Childhood Stress Alters Memory and Brain Structure

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Researchers from the universities of Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Illinois and New Orleans collected MRI scans and assessments of executive functioning and stress exposure from 61...

ADHD Drugs Linked to Prolonged, Painful Erections

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FDA regulators have updated the warning labels on methylphenidate products such as Ritalin, Focalin and Concerta to reflect reports of prolonged, painful erections (priapism)...

The Inherent Unreliability of the ADHD Label

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I imagine that everybody on this side of the issue knows by now that the eminent psychiatrist Jeffrey Lieberman, MD, Chief Psychiatrist at Columbia, and past President of the APA, called Robert Whitaker "a menace to society." The grounds for Dr. Lieberman's vituperation were that Robert had dared to challenge some of psychiatry's most sacred tenets! But in all the furor, it was largely ignored that in the same interview Dr. Lieberman had said something else that warrants additional discussion.

Researchers Reveal Misconceptions About ADHD

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A new article explains common misconceptions about ADHD that are held by teachers and mental health professionals and may lead to overdiagnosis and overmedication in schools.

Increasing Physical Activity in Schools May Improve Mental Health

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A new article suggests integrating physical activity throughout the day may help to address the mental health of students.

Spinning Straw into Gold: When Science Becomes Fiction

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In Grimm’s fairy tale Rumpelstiltskin, an impish little man helps a girl spin straw into gold. This story seems an apt metaphor for how legitimate neuroscience research can become transformed into sensationalist claims regarding the causes and treatment of ADHD.

Evidence for Chile’s School-Based Mental Health Program

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Chile’s Skills for Life (SFL) program, the largest school-based psychosocial intervention program in the world, has demonstrated improved behavioral and academic outcomes for elementary students identified as “at risk.” A team of Chilean and U.S. researchers assessed the SFL program and will publish their results in the October issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (JAACAP).
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My Diagnosis of ADHD and the Downfall That Followed

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A simple, one-time visit to an unfamiliar counselor resulted in my diagnosis of ADHD. That same visit started my avalanche of drug abuse. I was 19 years old when I was falsely diagnosed with ADHD, and it forever changed my life.

Children Taking ADHD Drugs More Likely to Take Antidepressants as Teens

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Adhering to a commonly prescribed medication for ADHD in children is associated with higher chances of being prescribed antidepressants in adolescence.

Antipsychotics for Childhood “Behavioral Problems” Skyrocket

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Researchers from Columbia University and other New York institutions found a dramatically increasing use of antipsychotics to treat ADHD and other behavioral problems in...

Rise of Antipsychotics in Children

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Researchers at Johns Hopkins explore the use of antipsychotics in children, finding a dramatic rise in off-label prescribing with little oversight or research into...

Extend Your Child’s ADHD Summer Drug Holiday to Infinity and Beyond!

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With school starting across the country, from the perspective of most kids, the fun is officially done. Summer by youthful definition is basically over. Meanwhile, parents nationwide are basking in this euphoric occasion. No longer will they hear every five minutes the astute yet shortsighted exclamation “I’m bored, there’s nothing to do!” Finally parents can switch their XM channel from Hits 1 back to Coffee House without being berated for being so old. But due to the popularity of the ADHD diagnosis, many parents also are debating whether to extend their child's ADHD summer drug holiday into the school year, or once again start drugging the child-like behaviors associated with the symptoms of the controversial ADHD diagnosis.