Doing battle with the ADHD-industrial complex

By Katherine Ellison:

As the mother of a teenager who got a diagnosis of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in 2004, I wasn’t surprised to read the new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that said the number of ADHD cases in children jumped by 22 percent between 2003 and 2007 – an increase of 1 million kids.

From the day my son started school, I’ve watched popular awareness of disabling distraction rise, to the point where it’s easy to believe the CDC estimate that one in 10 U.S. children – a total of 5.4 million kids – now has ADHD, as reported by their families. This might even be positive news, in that at least some kids who need medical attention are getting it. Except for one problem. Growing along with those numbers is one of the most aggressive, lucrative, bewildering and often just plain useless sales forces humanity has ever seen – call it the ADHD-industrial complex.

[...]

MORE

Advertisement