A Doctor With Common Sense, "ADHD Does Not Exist"

Over the course of my career, I have found more than 20 conditions that can lead to symptoms of ADHD, each of which requires its own approach to treatment. Raising a generation of children—and now adults—who can't live without stimulants is no solution.

This Wednesday, an article in the New York Times reported that between 2008 and 2012 the number of adults taking medications for ADHD has increased by 53%, and that in the case of young American adults, it has nearly doubled. While this is a staggering statistic, and points to younger generations becoming frequently reliant on stimulants, frankly, I’m not too surprised. Over the course of my 50-year-long career in behavioral neurology and treating patients with ADHD, it has been in the past decade that I have seen these diagnoses truly skyrocket. Every day my colleagues and I see more and more people coming in claiming they have trouble paying attention at school and at work, and diagnosing themselves with “ADHD.”

And why shouldn't they?

If someone finds it difficult to pay attention or feels somewhat hyperactive, “Attention-deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder” has those symptoms right there in its name. It’s an easy, catch-all phrase, which saves time for doctors to boot. But can we really lump all these people together? What if there are other things causing people to feel distracted? I don’t deny that we, as a population, are more distracted today than we ever were before. And I don’t deny that some of these patients who are distracted and impulsive need help. But what I do deny is the generally accepted definition of ADHD, which is long overdue for an update. In short, I’ve come to believe based on decades of treating patients that ADHD — as currently defined by the DSM and as it exists in the public imagination — does not exist.

Allow me to explain what I mean.

More Here: http://time.com/25370/doctor-adhd-does-not-exist/

Favorite

3 members favorited this

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Tara on March 16, 2014 at 11:35pm

And this article showed up in 'Time' magazine... go figure. I'm shocked, really.

Permalink Reply by Nikki on March 16, 2014 at 11:41pm

For sure there are too many diagnosed with ADHD. But every year my daughter was in school there were one or two kids who just made everyone in the class miserable because they couldn't stop chattering and couldn't sit still for a second. So what do you call those kids?

Permalink Reply by Tara on March 17, 2014 at 12:05am

BORED!

Permalink Reply by Nikki on March 17, 2014 at 12:17am

Yes, I'm sure some were. But not all. One mom actually moved out of state with her son because he had no friends due to his 'condition'. One girl I knew for years was kicked out of dance class, acting class and repeatedly told by the schools she may be expelled. The mother eventually caved in and medicated her but I think the mother was the cause of the girls problems, she just didn't know how to discipline her at all. She was kicked out of everything because she disrupted the classes and the other parents complained.

Permalink Reply by Tara on March 17, 2014 at 12:54am

Spoiled rotten brat syndrome might be the malady Nikki. That's not to say they are really sick or should be medicated, but the parents need to get a grip... over their children. It's called discipline!!

Permalink Reply by Nikki on March 17, 2014 at 1:15am

Yes, when meeting the parents of these kids it was easy to see what was really going on. Private schools and private children's activities don't have to put up with it and you are told up front that if your child is disruptive, they will be asked to leave. But the public schools can't do that but they really need to find a better solution.

Permalink Reply by Maria De Wind on March 17, 2014 at 9:25pm

It is parents who need to be disciplined, I wonder who many of them were teens themselves when pregnancy occured or are simply "absent" working parents

Permalink Reply by Tara on March 17, 2014 at 12:45pm

Huh... most doctors are Jews? I have never had one Jewish doctor in my life. Not everything is a Jewish conspiracy Dreg.

Permalink Reply by Nikki on March 17, 2014 at 10:29pm

You don't have to ask, you usually can tell from the name. I work in the medical field and there are no "Jewish doctors" in the group. But if there were, so what? If you think everything is a Jewish conspiracy then there are lot of conspiracies you are not aware of.

Permalink Reply by Tara on March 18, 2014 at 12:22am

LOL... that is rich! I find it funny how you changed the subject of the post and turned it into your own Jew bashing fest. And my post was not the only one that you hit here on 12160.

Either you are A. a hateful racist rabble rouser or B. a paid shill. Or maybe both!

Permalink Reply by Nikki on March 18, 2014 at 12:30am

Tara, he's so blindsided by hate he can't contribute anything but vitriol to the conversation.

Permalink Reply by Tara on March 18, 2014 at 12:59am

Yes, I agree Nikki. For me, the proverbial gloves are coming off because the 'bovine excrement' (as Mike Rivero calls it) has hit the fan.

"Something is rotten in the state of Denmark"...The phrase means "things are unsatisfactory; there is something wrong."
It is often (mis)quoted "There is something rotten in (the state of) Denmark."