Re: New hyperactivity drug study ignites debate among doct...

[Guest guest]

I agree. There are alternative treatments available. When my mother was teaching, several children responded to the simple treatment of drinking a cup of coffee at home before school. Another good treatment is recess: let the kids get out and run around some. I mean, who hasn't felt a little stir crazy after sitting around for several hours? Getting up and exercising is great for that feeling.

Many people have long worried about the long term affects of these drugs. Even South Park did at least one episode about it.

What a lot of people don't realize is that ADD/ADHD was the medical fad of the 1990's, just like Autism is in the 2000's. Just like Autism, the definition for ADD/ADHD was made sufficiently loose and broad that virtually any child could have been diagnosed with it.

That's only part of the story.

The government decided that ADD/ADHD was an "epidemic" that needed to be squelched immediately. How did it do this? By setting up programs to help families get diagnosis and pay for the meds. Anyone surprised that shortly after this legislation passed that the number of diagnosis and number of kids on meds shot up something like 5 times? Simply put, doctors and therapists suddenly had a vested interest in calling kids ADD/ADHD because they could get federal money for providing treatment and therapy. Pharmacists also made out because they had lots of new prescriptions to fill. There are rumors of collusion between the medical profession and pharma companies to increase the number of prescriptions written. I'm not sure about that. I don't know how much stock to put in those, but what the government did was bad enough.

Most of this was indeed the fault of the parents. They were too busy playing Keep Up With the es (correction: in the 1990's it was Outdo the es, debt be damned), to spend time with their kids or see that they exercised and ate right. Also forget about looking into alternative treatments for ADD/ADHD.

That said, there were a few cases that needed medicine or intensive therapy. However, that number was small compared to the number of diagnosis made.

In a message dated 3/27/2009 12:35:49 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, no_reply writes:

While it hurts me that these lazy parents might have stunted their children's growth by putting their children on these drugs, it pleases me that they have paid out money for years and years for drugs that essentially do not work. Feeling the pinch at the grocery store? Make dinner for $10 or less.

[Guest guest]

" Another good treatment is recess: let the kids get out and run around some. I

mean, who hasn't felt a little stir crazy after sitting around for several

hours? Getting up and exercising is great for that feeling. "

I agree totally with this, however sadly some schools use loss of recess/play

time as a punishment; which personally I have always felt they are making a rod

for their own back. As in child has pent up energy they haven't had chance to

expel, a more appropriate form of punishment would be to loose some reward,

something the child liked that would actually mean something; like computer

time, or some treat, etc.

>

> I agree. There are alternative treatments available. When my mother was

> teaching, several children responded to the simple treatment of drinking a cup

of

> coffee at home before school. Another good treatment is recess: let the kids

> get out and run around some. I mean, who hasn't felt a little stir crazy

> after sitting around for several hours? Getting up and exercising is great

for

> that feeling.

>

> Many people have long worried about the long term affects of these drugs.

> Even South Park did at least one episode about it.

>

> What a lot of people don't realize is that ADD/ADHD was the medical fad of

> the 1990's, just like Autism is in the 2000's. Just like Autism, the

definition

> for ADD/ADHD was made sufficiently loose and broad that virtually any child

> could have been diagnosed with it.

>

> That's only part of the story.

>

> The government decided that ADD/ADHD was an " epidemic " that needed to be

> squelched immediately. How did it do this? By setting up programs to help

> families get diagnosis and pay for the meds. Anyone surprised that shortly

after

> this legislation passed that the number of diagnosis and number of kids on

meds

> shot up something like 5 times? Simply put, doctors and therapists suddenly

> had a vested interest in calling kids ADD/ADHD because they could get federal

> money for providing treatment and therapy. Pharmacists also made out because

> they had lots of new prescriptions to fill. There are rumors of collusion

> between the medical profession and pharma companies to increase the number of

> prescriptions written. I'm not sure about that. I don't know how much stock to

> put in those, but what the government did was bad enough.

>

> Most of this was indeed the fault of the parents. They were too busy playing

> Keep Up With the es (correction: in the 1990's it was Outdo the

> es, debt be damned), to spend time with their kids or see that they

exercised

> and ate right. Also forget about looking into alternative treatments for

> ADD/ADHD.

>

> That said, there were a few cases that needed medicine or intensive therapy.

> However, that number was small compared to the number of diagnosis made.

>

>