Questions Remain About New “Smart Drug” Modafinil Safety
A number of news outlets have been reporting on a review of modafinil, labeled the new "smart drug," this week. The review in question summarized the recent literature on the drug but others have claimed that the authors underestimated potential side-effects.
‘Take Your Pills’ is a Fascinating Look at the Adderall Craze
From The Michigan Daily: Netflix's new documentary "Take Your Pills" examines the historical, cultural, social, and systemic factors that have shaped the ever-increasing rates of...
ADHD Medication Use Rising Dramatically, Especially Adults
A report released today by Express Scripts, the nation's largest prescription drug manager, offers "the most current and comprehensive analysis of ADHD medication use"...
The FDA Is Hiding Reports Linking Psych Drugs to Homicides
In my wildest dreams, I could never have imagined being drawn into a story of intrigue involving my own government’s efforts to hide, from the public, reports of psychiatric drugs associated with cases of murder, including homicides committed by youth on the drugs. But that is precisely the intrigue I now find myself enmeshed in.
Long-term Safety of ADHD Drugs Has Never Been Studied
Even though about 10% of American children have been diagnosed with ADHD and most are taking stimulant medications for it, Boston Children’s Hospital researchers...
Psychologist Who Set Standard for Diagnosing ADHD Dies at 84
From The New York Times: Keith Conners, the psychologist whose work established the first standards for diagnosing and treating what is now known as attention...
Hopeless But Not Broken: From George Carlin to Protest Music
From CounterPunch: Although people are often pathologized and shamed for feeling hopeless, hopelessness is sometimes a natural reaction to an oppressive political climate. George Carlin...
ADHD Drugs Compensate for a Deficit of Attention to Schools
The New York Times describes a growing trend among doctors: prescribing medication to fix a "made up" diagnosis in children, in order to compensate...
The ADHD Diagnosis is a War of Semantics, Waged on Children
Since I am new on Mad in America, I will tell you; my mission is to debunk the ADHD diagnosis. My goal is to add common sense to a world where drugging kids for acting like kids is all the rage. When discussing ADHD with concerned adults I share how little is required to earn a diagnosis of ADHD. Learning just how non-scientific the diagnosis actually is, for many, is a shocking discovery.
Medicating ADHD: Diagnosis and the Long-Term Effects of the Medications
Robert Whitaker appears on Science for the Public on March 20, 2013, speaking about how the ADHD is diagnosed and why users of medications...
Study Reveals Inconsistency in ADHD Diagnostic Determinations
Researchers compare differences between research and clinical diagnoses of ADHD and explore the consistency of clinical determinations over time
Did the No Child Left Behind Act Boost ADHD Diagnosing?
The increasing use of psychiatric medications in toddlers, particularly of stimulants for ADHD, is explored by journalist Josiah Hesse on Substance.com. Looking into possible...
Prescription Drugs in Great Lakes Don’t Dilute as Expected
Concentrations of pharmaceuticals in Lake Michigan are undiluted two miles from treated sewage outfalls, according to research published in Chemosphere. Research has linked pharmaceuticals...
Drug Treatment of ADHD – Tenuous Scientific Basis
From Tidsskriftet: Over the past three decades, there has been a dramatic increase in the diagnosis and pharmacological treatment of ADHD. Recent systematic reviews reveal...
Antipsychotic Drug Use Among ADHD-Diagnosed Foster Care Youth Is Increasing
Research in the Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology finds that "Over the last two decades, the increased use of atypical antipsychotic medications, often...
Psychostimulants Harm Performance, as Well as Neuroplasticity
A review of "potential neurobiological ramifications of the popular cognitive enhancers," in Frontiers of Systems Neuroscience, finds that stimulants reduce performance at higher dosages, and...
Is Binge Eating Disorder Just Another Made-Up Disease?
If a person binges habitually, upon sensing certain stimuli the pancreas prepares the body with insulin, and simultaneously, the stomach prepares by getting more acidic. This means that for many of us, the drive to binge is a physical need. Therapy blames the patient for “bad coping” when all she is doing is responding to her body's signals.
Shire Seeks to Overcome European Resistance to ADHD Medication
Bloomberg reports that "The European debut of a pill to treat children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder faces a major hurdle: convincing people the...
“Kids in Foster Care Three Times More Likely to be Diagnosed with ADHD”
PsychCentral presents a new study from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that found that foster care children are three times more likely than other children on Medicaid to receive a diagnosis of ADHD. Overall, more than one in four children in foster care receive such a diagnosis. CDC statistician Melissa Danielson interpreted these results as revealing a “substantial need” for more medical and behavioral services for kids in foster care.
Funny/Sad Video About Overmedication, ‘Immature’ Kids
A YouTube video called “Drugs for Kids” takes a rather tongue-in-cheek approach to the overmedication and overdiagnosis of kids. Studies reveal a correlation between how young...
CDC Reports Increased Psychostimulant Prescriptions in Women of Reproductive Age
Psychostimulant prescriptions have increased by 344% (from 2003 to 2015) for women of reproductive age (15-44 years old).
Effects of Psychotropic Drugs on Developing Brains: Protocol
Animal studies have raised concerns about SSRIs and ADHD stimulants inducing lasting abnormalities in the developing brain. Researchers from the University of Amsterdam are...
Chew on This: FDA Embraces Big Pharma; Takes Aim at Big Gum
May 8th in the USA Today: “WASHINGTON (AP) — Wrigley says it is taking a new caffeinated gum off the market temporarily as the Food and Drug Administration investigates the safety of added caffeine.” Really? Major Tranquilizers, Amphetamines, Benzodiazepines, and Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors have all been approved by the FDA for the treatment of “mental illness.” These drugs are being prescribed to youth, some as young as 3 and 4 years of age. My Big League Chew is more dangerous than Uncle Jim’s Seroquel or my big brother’s Adderall?
“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...
After a Turbulent Childhood, on a Path to a Healthier Life
In this piece for The New York Times, Emily Palmer describes the life journey thus far of Charles Louis, from being prescribed two psychiatric medications in...
