ADHD: The Hoax Unravels
At the risk of stating the obvious, ADHD is not an illness. Rather, it is an unreliable and disempowering label for a loose collection of arbitrarily chosen and vaguely defined behaviors. ADHD has been avidly promoted as an illness by pharma-psychiatry for the purpose of selling stimulant drugs. In which endeavor, they have been phenomenally successful, but, as in other areas of psychiatry, the hoax is unraveling.
“CDC Warns that Americans May be Overmedicating Youngest Children with ADHD”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released new data indicating that as many as 75% of young children who are diagnosed with...
“Fructose Alters Hundreds of Brain Genes, Leading to Wide Range of Diseases”
A new study out of UCLA finds that genes related to Alzheimer’s and “ADHD” can be damaged by fructose, a sugar common in the...
NIMH Info for Parents on “ADHD” Misleading, Researchers Say
A new analysis of the information that the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) publishes for parents about attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) concludes that the children’s experiences and contexts are ignored and that medication is presented, misleadingly, as the only solution supported by research evidence.
Amphetamines Have Long-Term Effects on Adolescent Brain, Study Finds
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....
“Pediatricians Vary Widely in Diagnosing ADHD, Depression”
Researchers found that pediatricians vary greatly in how often they diagnose and prescribe drugs for ADHD and other mental health conditions. “The proportion of...
“Attention Deficit After Kids’ Critical Illness Linked to Medical Tubes”
Past research has revealed the children who get hospitalized in the intensive care unit are more likely to develop the symptoms associated with ADHD....
“Why are More Children Being Prescribed Antidepressants? Funding Cuts”
Eleanor Morgan writes in the Guardian opinions that the long waiting times for talk therapy and the increasing use of drugs in the UK...
“No Evidence Ritalin Makes a Difference Long Term for ADHD Kids”
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that, three years into an Australian study that is following 178 children with ADHD and 212 children without ADHD, the...
Relatively Younger Age Leads to ADHD Diagnosis
A study of 378,881 subjects aged 4-17 years by the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database found that the likelihood of receiving an ADHD diagnosis and treatment was...
“Half of US Preschoolers Diagnosed with ADHD Get Drugs, Is that Necessary?”
Laura McClure for Ted.com explains why giving amphetamines to children for behaviors deemed abnormal is a societal and public policy issue. “It’s a little...
“ADHD Meds Tied to Lower Bone Density in Kids”
A new study found that children taking ADHD drugs had, on average, lower bone density than their peers. This included children on common stimulants...
“Too Many PA Foster Children are on Psychiatric Meds”
For Philly.com, staff writer Stacey Burling reports on the PolicyLab analysis of psychiatric drug use among Pennsylvania children on Medicaid. “Many children in foster...
Omega-3 Screening for Psychiatric Symptoms?
There is a substantial body of evidence suggesting that not getting enough omega-3 fatty acids in your diet may be connected to a diverse array of psychiatric symptoms. In a new study published this month, psychiatrist Robert McNamara and Erik Messamore provide an overview of the evidence and call for screening of omega-3 deficiency in people experiencing symptoms associated with ADHD, depression, mood disorders, and psychosis.
“Early Behavior Therapy Found to Aid Children With A.D.H.D.”
“Children with attention-deficit problems improve faster when the first treatment they receive is behavioral therapy — like instruction in basic social skills — than...
“Misuse Of ADHD Drugs By Young Adults Drives Rise In ER Visits”
"It's no secret that stimulant medications such as Adderall that are prescribed to treat symptoms of ADHD are sometimes used as 'study drugs' aimed...
“Sugar May be as Damaging to the Brain as Extreme Stress or Abuse”
“The fact that drinking sugar or exposure to early life stress reduced the expression of genes critical for brain development and growth is of...
A New York Times Debate: Is the ADHD Diagnosis Helpful or Harmful?
I urge parents, doctors, educators and everyone concerned with the well-being of children to take a look at the debate on ADHD presented in the Times. The series of articles makes it clear that the hard line separating ADHD-like behavior from normal childhood reactions to environmental stress or normal developmental phases is beginning to soften. The number of ADHD diagnoses in the United Sates has exploded by 300 percent since 1983.
“The United States of Adderall (Part III)”
Lawrence Diller continues his series on the uses and abuses of Adderall. "You take some Adderall, go through withdrawal, build up tolerance, take some...
“I am 16 and the Education System is Destroying my Health”
“This is an article about how our education system is ruining young people’s lives. Nobody is listening to the teachers who say it, so perhaps someone will listen to me,” sixteen-year-old Orli writes in the Guardian. “Nothing is so important that it’s worth risking your health over, not even the piece of paper you get, age 16, to tell you whether or not you’re good enough.”
My Diagnosis of ADHD and the Downfall That Followed
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.
“The Guardian’s Bad Hair Day”
“No, cortisol in hair can’t ‘reveal future mental health risk’ in children.” HealthNewsReview gives a low rating to a recent story in the Guardian that reported that cortisol levels in children’s hair might be a useful mental health screening tool.
Duty to Warn – 14 Lies That Our Psychiatry Professors in Medical School Taught...
Revealing the false information provided about psychiatry should cause any thinking person, patient, thought-leader or politician to wonder: “how many otherwise normal or potentially curable people over the last half century of psych drug propaganda have actually been mis-labeled as mentally ill (and then mis-treated) and sent down the convoluted path of therapeutic misadventures – heading toward oblivion?”
“Cortisol Levels in Children’s Hair May Reveal Future Mental Health Risk”
The Guardian covers research out of Australia that found that levels of the “stress hormone” cortisol in the hair of 70 nine-year-old children corresponded to the number of traumatic events experienced by the child. “Childhood is an imperative and sensitive period of development, and when things go wrong it can have lifelong consequences, not just on mental health, but also on general health.”
Experts Decry Dangerous Use of Antipsychotics in Children
In a featured article for Psychiatric Services, psychiatrists from Dartmouth raise the alarm on the increasing numbers of children prescribed dangerous antipsychotic drugs. Despite the fact that data on the safety of long-term use of these drugs in this vulnerable population “do not exist,” the rate of children and adolescents being prescribed antipsychotic drugs have continued to increase over the past fifteen years.
