5 ms·

Children’s A.D.D. Drugs Don’t Work Long-Term

33 points by jhull 14y ago

jstalin 14y ago
I genuinely wonder how much of these sorts of behavior problems can be traced to external factors such as too much sugar in the diet, lack of exercise, and the over-stimulation (or under, depending how you look at it) of watching hours and hours of TV. I don't want to sound like a luddite curmudgeon, but it seems like so much of the ADD realm is about using drugs to "correct" problems but little attention is paid to other factors. The author of this article does say that socio-economic status plays a part (or at least is correlated), but no mention of diet or activity. Is anyone aware of any studies of ADD and related conditions that control for these factors?
- dmix 14y ago
  I recently read a quote about Julian Assange: > Sometimes he would stand up from his computer and perform a set of twenty or so jumping jacks, explaining to anyone present that short bouts of physical activity served a certain neurobiological function that made stimulant drugs unnecessary. I would also contend the fact we are now a "knowledge economy" is the reason why its become prevalent. We have to sit at desks longer and focus on singular tasks. Which is the bane of ADD.
- ericcumbee 14y ago
  There is also a genetic factor to it as well. 3 of my cousins were all diagnosed with ADD. and one of there children has also struggled with ADD type symptoms.
- Mz 14y ago
  I have seen such info. Dietary changes and nutritional supplements have a better track record than allopathic drugs. I don't have any links at my fingertips. It has been a few years since I hung out in places where that type thing was regularly discussed. But I know it works. I have two ASD sons and diet makes a big difference for them.
  - illuminate 14y ago
    "Dietary changes and nutritional supplements have a better track record than allopathic drugs. I don't have any links at my fingertips." There's a reason for that. "My kid has celiac" is the new fad, but the fad doesn't "cure" ADD.
    - Mz 14y ago
      It is more complicated than that. And I did not say it was a "cure".
- illuminate 14y ago
  "too much sugar in the diet" This, at least, is not the case. http://theincidentaleconomist.com/wordpress/sugar-and-candy-do-not-make-kids-hyper/ http://theincidentaleconomist.com/wordpress/sugar-and-candy-...
  - TechNewb 14y ago
    While it may not be too much sugar, it could be too few veggies. I find when I eat cabbage regularly I'm able to focus for longer periods of time. America should reintroduce veggies like cabbage back into their regular diet. Less meat, more veggies.
    - illuminate 14y ago
      Our diets could always be improved, I wasn't endorsing the current state of things so much as responding to the old canard about sugar causing hyperactivity.
dmix 14y ago
Could this not be solved by switching between different stimulants to offset tolerance?
- betterunix 14y ago
  That would probably be dangerous. The drugs prescribed for ADD can induce psychotic episodes, and cause mood swings, and otherwise have negative psychological effects. Switching between different stimulants could amplify the risk of such episodes, or complicate treatment should such a patient have such an episode. I would be a bigger fan of moderating the drugs. Don't use the drugs on weekends or holidays; use lower doses on days where it is OK to goof off a bit or days where the workload is light. I suspect that doing this with children would be a good lesson in and of itself, in that they can see that work and play can be separated and that the withdrawal symptoms from a drug can be overcome (this could also serve as a way to identify people who have some innate problem with drug dependence before they get into trouble). Of course, there is also the matter of school being so boring and so undesirable that children need to have pristine focus just to survive. Perhaps it would be best to solve that problem first, before using drugs to keep children focused on "busy work."
  - darkarmani 14y ago
    > Of course, there is also the matter of school being so boring and so undesirable that children need to have pristine focus just to survive. Perhaps it would be best to solve that problem first, before using drugs to keep children focused on "busy work." You do know that ADD is much more than focus issues, right? It's more of an executive function disorder. They can't focus on the right things when the want to. I'm betting most if not all can hyperfocus and lose track of time when doing something that engages them. What they can't do is manage priorities and turn that focus on and off when they want to.
ericcumbee 14y ago
I was diagnosed with ADD in the third grade. I think i was probably one of the last to be properly diagnosed as A.D.D before it became the catch all diagnosis. I spent a day worth of testing at my doctors office, and probably a week worth of testing over the next month at school taking different tests. I took Ritalin or Concerta (a long release form of Ritalin) from 3rd grade to most of the way through college. And i can say for a fact that i would not have made it through high school with out it. When i got to college im not sure what happened, i either outgrew the ADD, or adapted, i stopped taking it around the end of my 2nd year.
- cube13 14y ago
  My experience was pretty similar, though the testing was a lot longer and I was older(around the 6th grade). It was done over the course of a few months with interviews of my teachers and parents as well as with a couple of doctors. I'm still on the medication, though I only take it when I'm at work or need the concentration help.
- TechNewb 14y ago
  You didn't out grow it, I think the general high school education system is broken. Our society would like to think it's a children's medical problem, why students can't pay attention in class, when in reality it's the broken public education system. We need to rethink public education before we start drugging everyone to fit a broken system. The way that college is taught is much more humane. Good Noam Chomsky interview on the topic of education: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdNAUJWJN08 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdNAUJWJN08
  - josephlord 14y ago
    > You didn't out grow it Stated with such certainty. What evidence do you have that the commenter here in particular didn't develop in some way as they grew up? This doesn't take away from your views that there may be problems with the education system but to declare that there are no cases of real medical issues in this area seems a bit presumptive.
lancefisher 14y ago
My 5-yo son has a hard time behaving at pre-school. I think it has a lot to do with being bored, since he is far ahead of the other students. They are tracing letters, while he likes to write short stories. They are learning to count to 10, while he can multiply and divide. Nevertheless, we had him tested by a neurobehavioral specialist who believes he has ADD. The doctor recommended either drugs or neurofeedback. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurofeedback http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurofeedback I'm very hesitant to give my 5-yo any medication, but we are considering neurofeedback. I'm curious if anyone here has any knowledge or experience with it.
- Mz 14y ago
  Before you make any decision, please join a gifted list. Bright sudents who are suffering from "bored gifted kid syndrome" are frequently pathologized by teachers and other experts, who are usually unqualified to appropriately assess them. A grade skip, enrichment, homeschooling or some other means to challenge the child might be a more effective "cure". I know of kids who were distractable and never on task until enrolled in college at age 13 and things like that.
  - ericcumbee 14y ago
    I was gifted and ADD...there is actually a large correlation between the diagnosis of ADD and being classified gifted.
    - Mz 14y ago
      Yes that's true. And OCD, ASD, etc. But ADD is supposed to be a diagnosis of elimination. If you haven't found something else to account for the symptoms, after all else has been looked at, you classify them ADD. In contrast, professionals with little to no experience with gifted or twice exceptional kids frequently leap to conclusions. ADD is one of those conclusions. You can be both gifted and ADD. You can also just be bright, bored to tears and annoying the fool out of the adults around you.
  - lancefisher 14y ago
tomkin 14y ago
As someone with A.D.D., I kinda find this piece offensive. A lot of people not afflicted with A.D.D. like to give their armchair opinion on the effects, classification and understanding without having spent one day with A.D.D. I was diagnosed late in life, so I can't speak to the longer term, or even child-related effects of Concerta or Ritalin, but I can vouch for them as a 32 year old. Since taking prescription Concerta, I have started a successful business, become a more vocal and engaged citizen and have had much greater relationships with people in general. I do see the benefit in other therapies and methods of treatment, but this dialog is probably a step backward. My larger point is this: Don't let prejudice of big pharma allow you to "throw the baby out with the bath water". No one benefits from that mentality.
- sunwooz 14y ago
  Granted, I'm also an armchair doctor, but... The criteria for being diagnosed with ADD seems like it can be applied to every single human being on this planet. Am I wrong?
  - astral303 14y ago
    Just like with depression, everyone sometimes feels sad. It's the intensity and how much your life is affected by it that's the differentiating factor. There also often isn't a logical reason. When you have ADD proper, you just can't help it. For a person with ADD, if there was a gun held to their head to stay on a task, they will soon forget that there's a gun and become distracted. They can't help it. Their mind is racing. The only way to stay on task is to be constantly tapped on the head with the gun. At this point, it's the periodic reminder that's doing the trick. This is why people with ADD often require external structure to keep them focused. There's a lot of positives for people with ADD, such as increased creativity and out-of-the-box thinking. Problem is that a lot of societal institutions, such as school, are not adapted to it.
    - jamesbritt 14y ago
      Years back, when being treated for major clinical depression, someone asked how you could tell if someone was clinically depressed. Someone else (and I forget exactly where I was for this) said, "You respond well to anti-depressants." The average person, given various antidepressants (or at least certain ones; I've not kept up on all the research) would not get any benefit. Desipramine, for example, is not some all-around, casual-use pick-me-up. I think this is true for at least some ADD drugs; how does a person respond to stimulants? Do they calm down, or do they get wired? Ritalin and Adderall used to calm me down; so did black beauties when I was self-medicating. Eventually they stopped doing anything for me. Unfortunately there is, to my knowledge, no objective marker for various mental conditions. You have to try things and consider the context and see what works or doesn't, and you may never really know exactly why, or what the underlying problem is. ADD? Occasional distraction? Depression? Bad time in your life? Bi-polar? The lines are blurry.
mitchi 14y ago
Anyone with A.D.D who's taken drugs here? Do you remember what it feels like? I haven't taken any, how do they make life different? I will say this however, I've found that a moderate dose of alcohol (1 pint of beer) usually makes me focus better/more discipline and I'm able to resume working on my master thesis. Usually, I cannot work on it because it's almost over(in my head it's over) and I want to do something else. I am currently pursuing an academic career but I really feel that I would have been better at doing something simpler, like sports. Short tasks, competition, and recognition are very important for me.
- cube13 14y ago
  This reddit post is a great description of what it's like: http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/16joxj/people_with_adhd_what_adhd_is_like_how_does/c7wnp37 http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/16joxj/pe...
  - mitchi 14y ago
    "Normal people have like a mental secretary" So jealous
- ericcumbee 14y ago
  other than just being able to focus on the task at hand, i dont really remember feeling anything.
mistercow 14y ago
This is a massively irresponsible piece, and the author should be ashamed for having written it. A) The drugs work in the short term, and in the absence of data, the null hypothesis is that they continue to work in the long term. Making a strong claim like "ADD drugs don't work in the long term" without strong evidence is nothing short of scientific malpractice. B) The author claims there was "a well-controlled study" that showed "very clear" results that "medication" (which medication?) was ineffective after 8 years. Thankfully, we won't be burdened with analyzing this study for ourselves, because the author does not give a citation or any other way of tracking the study down. C) The author says that you can't fix all of the problems caused by ADHD with drugs. That's true, and any good doctor will tell you as much. Drugs are part of managing ADHD. They are not an entire solution. D) The author claims that these drugs are habit forming. This is simply false at the dosages used to treat ADHD. For many ADHD drugs (e.g. atomoxetine), it is false at any dosage. There's a more thorough destruction of the piece here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-harold-koplewicz/ritalin-gone-wrong_b_1244935.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-harold-koplewicz/ritalin-go...
- crusso 14y ago
  YMMV, but as a person who has been on ADD medication and started having to ratchet dosage up and up as my body built up tolerance, I started researching online for more information. I found that my situation was VERY VERY common for others taking ritalin/adderall/vyvanse-like drugs. Very conspicuously, whenever I read "official" research on these medications, the studies were always short term like 6 weeks, maybe 12. One of the drugs I was prescribed had been out for years yet the only study available was for 6 weeks. Isn't that odd? Wouldn't you think that with the drug's having been on the market for years and with lots of online accounts of decrease in effectiveness after a few months that someone would have done a study? Doesn't the FDA require any follow-up studies be done after a drug is released to show a lack of side effects or continued efficacy? It's really not surprising to me that now that medical practitioners are gaining years of experience prescribing these drugs that this long-term efficacy issue is going to become more of a subject of discussion.
  - mistercow 14y ago
malkia 14y ago
It could be that we are doing LEARNING the wrong way. It's only the last 2-3 centuries that kids were put under such stress.
tokenadult 14y ago
It's an opinion article, not news reporting. The New York Times is annoying in how often these days its brand is diluted by publishing opinion pieces on medical issues that don't have to meet journalistic reporting standards. Worse, the author of this piece is a known axe-grinder on the issues he writes about, and doesn't even have the respect of many of his colleagues in the Department of Psychology (he himself is in the Department of Child Development) at the University of Minnesota, where I attend the behavior genetics seminar most weeks during the school year. He is still stuck in the old days of child development theories that have since been abandoned. On the other hand, I will agree with the author, relating both to ADD and to other diagnoses, that most human behaviors have to be influenced by treatments that focus on the specific behaviors in addition to prescribed medicines. A both-and approach of supportive help for the behavior as well as the best validated medical treatment works better than merely taking the medicines. Learning to focus and direct attention appropriately is not easy, especially when many immediate relatives of the child, perhaps including both parents, may have many of the same issues. Slow and steady wins this race.

33 points by jhull 14y ago

I genuinely wonder how much of these sorts of behavior problems can be traced to external factors such as too much sugar in the diet, lack of exercise, and the over-stimulation (or under, depending how you look at it) of watching hours and hours of TV. I don't want to sound like a luddite curmudgeon, but it seems like so much of the ADD realm is about using drugs to "correct" problems but little attention is paid to other factors. The author of this article does say that socio-economic status plays a part (or at least is correlated), but no mention of diet or activity. Is anyone aware of any studies of ADD and related conditions that control for these factors?

dmix 14y ago
I recently read a quote about Julian Assange: > Sometimes he would stand up from his computer and perform a set of twenty or so jumping jacks, explaining to anyone present that short bouts of physical activity served a certain neurobiological function that made stimulant drugs unnecessary. I would also contend the fact we are now a "knowledge economy" is the reason why its become prevalent. We have to sit at desks longer and focus on singular tasks. Which is the bane of ADD.
ericcumbee 14y ago
There is also a genetic factor to it as well. 3 of my cousins were all diagnosed with ADD. and one of there children has also struggled with ADD type symptoms.
Mz 14y ago
I have seen such info. Dietary changes and nutritional supplements have a better track record than allopathic drugs. I don't have any links at my fingertips. It has been a few years since I hung out in places where that type thing was regularly discussed. But I know it works. I have two ASD sons and diet makes a big difference for them.
- illuminate 14y ago
  "Dietary changes and nutritional supplements have a better track record than allopathic drugs. I don't have any links at my fingertips." There's a reason for that. "My kid has celiac" is the new fad, but the fad doesn't "cure" ADD.
  - Mz 14y ago
    It is more complicated than that. And I did not say it was a "cure".
illuminate 14y ago
"too much sugar in the diet" This, at least, is not the case. http://theincidentaleconomist.com/wordpress/sugar-and-candy-do-not-make-kids-hyper/ http://theincidentaleconomist.com/wordpress/sugar-and-candy-...
- TechNewb 14y ago
  While it may not be too much sugar, it could be too few veggies. I find when I eat cabbage regularly I'm able to focus for longer periods of time. America should reintroduce veggies like cabbage back into their regular diet. Less meat, more veggies.
  - illuminate 14y ago
    Our diets could always be improved, I wasn't endorsing the current state of things so much as responding to the old canard about sugar causing hyperactivity.

dmix 14y ago

Could this not be solved by switching between different stimulants to offset tolerance?

betterunix 14y ago
That would probably be dangerous. The drugs prescribed for ADD can induce psychotic episodes, and cause mood swings, and otherwise have negative psychological effects. Switching between different stimulants could amplify the risk of such episodes, or complicate treatment should such a patient have such an episode. I would be a bigger fan of moderating the drugs. Don't use the drugs on weekends or holidays; use lower doses on days where it is OK to goof off a bit or days where the workload is light. I suspect that doing this with children would be a good lesson in and of itself, in that they can see that work and play can be separated and that the withdrawal symptoms from a drug can be overcome (this could also serve as a way to identify people who have some innate problem with drug dependence before they get into trouble). Of course, there is also the matter of school being so boring and so undesirable that children need to have pristine focus just to survive. Perhaps it would be best to solve that problem first, before using drugs to keep children focused on "busy work."
- darkarmani 14y ago
  > Of course, there is also the matter of school being so boring and so undesirable that children need to have pristine focus just to survive. Perhaps it would be best to solve that problem first, before using drugs to keep children focused on "busy work." You do know that ADD is much more than focus issues, right? It's more of an executive function disorder. They can't focus on the right things when the want to. I'm betting most if not all can hyperfocus and lose track of time when doing something that engages them. What they can't do is manage priorities and turn that focus on and off when they want to.

ericcumbee 14y ago

I was diagnosed with ADD in the third grade. I think i was probably one of the last to be properly diagnosed as A.D.D before it became the catch all diagnosis. I spent a day worth of testing at my doctors office, and probably a week worth of testing over the next month at school taking different tests. I took Ritalin or Concerta (a long release form of Ritalin) from 3rd grade to most of the way through college. And i can say for a fact that i would not have made it through high school with out it. When i got to college im not sure what happened, i either outgrew the ADD, or adapted, i stopped taking it around the end of my 2nd year.

cube13 14y ago
My experience was pretty similar, though the testing was a lot longer and I was older(around the 6th grade). It was done over the course of a few months with interviews of my teachers and parents as well as with a couple of doctors. I'm still on the medication, though I only take it when I'm at work or need the concentration help.
TechNewb 14y ago
You didn't out grow it, I think the general high school education system is broken. Our society would like to think it's a children's medical problem, why students can't pay attention in class, when in reality it's the broken public education system. We need to rethink public education before we start drugging everyone to fit a broken system. The way that college is taught is much more humane. Good Noam Chomsky interview on the topic of education: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdNAUJWJN08 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdNAUJWJN08
- josephlord 14y ago
  > You didn't out grow it Stated with such certainty. What evidence do you have that the commenter here in particular didn't develop in some way as they grew up? This doesn't take away from your views that there may be problems with the education system but to declare that there are no cases of real medical issues in this area seems a bit presumptive.

lancefisher 14y ago

My 5-yo son has a hard time behaving at pre-school. I think it has a lot to do with being bored, since he is far ahead of the other students. They are tracing letters, while he likes to write short stories. They are learning to count to 10, while he can multiply and divide. Nevertheless, we had him tested by a neurobehavioral specialist who believes he has ADD. The doctor recommended either drugs or neurofeedback. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurofeedback http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurofeedback I'm very hesitant to give my 5-yo any medication, but we are considering neurofeedback. I'm curious if anyone here has any knowledge or experience with it.

Mz 14y ago
Before you make any decision, please join a gifted list. Bright sudents who are suffering from "bored gifted kid syndrome" are frequently pathologized by teachers and other experts, who are usually unqualified to appropriately assess them. A grade skip, enrichment, homeschooling or some other means to challenge the child might be a more effective "cure". I know of kids who were distractable and never on task until enrolled in college at age 13 and things like that.
- ericcumbee 14y ago
  I was gifted and ADD...there is actually a large correlation between the diagnosis of ADD and being classified gifted.
  - Mz 14y ago
    Yes that's true. And OCD, ASD, etc. But ADD is supposed to be a diagnosis of elimination. If you haven't found something else to account for the symptoms, after all else has been looked at, you classify them ADD. In contrast, professionals with little to no experience with gifted or twice exceptional kids frequently leap to conclusions. ADD is one of those conclusions. You can be both gifted and ADD. You can also just be bright, bored to tears and annoying the fool out of the adults around you.
- lancefisher 14y ago

tomkin 14y ago

As someone with A.D.D., I kinda find this piece offensive. A lot of people not afflicted with A.D.D. like to give their armchair opinion on the effects, classification and understanding without having spent one day with A.D.D. I was diagnosed late in life, so I can't speak to the longer term, or even child-related effects of Concerta or Ritalin, but I can vouch for them as a 32 year old. Since taking prescription Concerta, I have started a successful business, become a more vocal and engaged citizen and have had much greater relationships with people in general. I do see the benefit in other therapies and methods of treatment, but this dialog is probably a step backward. My larger point is this: Don't let prejudice of big pharma allow you to "throw the baby out with the bath water". No one benefits from that mentality.

sunwooz 14y ago
Granted, I'm also an armchair doctor, but... The criteria for being diagnosed with ADD seems like it can be applied to every single human being on this planet. Am I wrong?
- astral303 14y ago
  Just like with depression, everyone sometimes feels sad. It's the intensity and how much your life is affected by it that's the differentiating factor. There also often isn't a logical reason. When you have ADD proper, you just can't help it. For a person with ADD, if there was a gun held to their head to stay on a task, they will soon forget that there's a gun and become distracted. They can't help it. Their mind is racing. The only way to stay on task is to be constantly tapped on the head with the gun. At this point, it's the periodic reminder that's doing the trick. This is why people with ADD often require external structure to keep them focused. There's a lot of positives for people with ADD, such as increased creativity and out-of-the-box thinking. Problem is that a lot of societal institutions, such as school, are not adapted to it.
  - jamesbritt 14y ago
    Years back, when being treated for major clinical depression, someone asked how you could tell if someone was clinically depressed. Someone else (and I forget exactly where I was for this) said, "You respond well to anti-depressants." The average person, given various antidepressants (or at least certain ones; I've not kept up on all the research) would not get any benefit. Desipramine, for example, is not some all-around, casual-use pick-me-up. I think this is true for at least some ADD drugs; how does a person respond to stimulants? Do they calm down, or do they get wired? Ritalin and Adderall used to calm me down; so did black beauties when I was self-medicating. Eventually they stopped doing anything for me. Unfortunately there is, to my knowledge, no objective marker for various mental conditions. You have to try things and consider the context and see what works or doesn't, and you may never really know exactly why, or what the underlying problem is. ADD? Occasional distraction? Depression? Bad time in your life? Bi-polar? The lines are blurry.

mitchi 14y ago

Anyone with A.D.D who's taken drugs here? Do you remember what it feels like? I haven't taken any, how do they make life different? I will say this however, I've found that a moderate dose of alcohol (1 pint of beer) usually makes me focus better/more discipline and I'm able to resume working on my master thesis. Usually, I cannot work on it because it's almost over(in my head it's over) and I want to do something else. I am currently pursuing an academic career but I really feel that I would have been better at doing something simpler, like sports. Short tasks, competition, and recognition are very important for me.

cube13 14y ago
This reddit post is a great description of what it's like: http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/16joxj/people_with_adhd_what_adhd_is_like_how_does/c7wnp37 http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/16joxj/pe...
- mitchi 14y ago
  "Normal people have like a mental secretary" So jealous
ericcumbee 14y ago
other than just being able to focus on the task at hand, i dont really remember feeling anything.

mistercow 14y ago

This is a massively irresponsible piece, and the author should be ashamed for having written it. A) The drugs work in the short term, and in the absence of data, the null hypothesis is that they continue to work in the long term. Making a strong claim like "ADD drugs don't work in the long term" without strong evidence is nothing short of scientific malpractice. B) The author claims there was "a well-controlled study" that showed "very clear" results that "medication" (which medication?) was ineffective after 8 years. Thankfully, we won't be burdened with analyzing this study for ourselves, because the author does not give a citation or any other way of tracking the study down. C) The author says that you can't fix all of the problems caused by ADHD with drugs. That's true, and any good doctor will tell you as much. Drugs are part of managing ADHD. They are not an entire solution. D) The author claims that these drugs are habit forming. This is simply false at the dosages used to treat ADHD. For many ADHD drugs (e.g. atomoxetine), it is false at any dosage. There's a more thorough destruction of the piece here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-harold-koplewicz/ritalin-gone-wrong_b_1244935.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-harold-koplewicz/ritalin-go...

crusso 14y ago
YMMV, but as a person who has been on ADD medication and started having to ratchet dosage up and up as my body built up tolerance, I started researching online for more information. I found that my situation was VERY VERY common for others taking ritalin/adderall/vyvanse-like drugs. Very conspicuously, whenever I read "official" research on these medications, the studies were always short term like 6 weeks, maybe 12. One of the drugs I was prescribed had been out for years yet the only study available was for 6 weeks. Isn't that odd? Wouldn't you think that with the drug's having been on the market for years and with lots of online accounts of decrease in effectiveness after a few months that someone would have done a study? Doesn't the FDA require any follow-up studies be done after a drug is released to show a lack of side effects or continued efficacy? It's really not surprising to me that now that medical practitioners are gaining years of experience prescribing these drugs that this long-term efficacy issue is going to become more of a subject of discussion.
- mistercow 14y ago

malkia 14y ago

It could be that we are doing LEARNING the wrong way. It's only the last 2-3 centuries that kids were put under such stress.

tokenadult 14y ago

It's an opinion article, not news reporting. The New York Times is annoying in how often these days its brand is diluted by publishing opinion pieces on medical issues that don't have to meet journalistic reporting standards. Worse, the author of this piece is a known axe-grinder on the issues he writes about, and doesn't even have the respect of many of his colleagues in the Department of Psychology (he himself is in the Department of Child Development) at the University of Minnesota, where I attend the behavior genetics seminar most weeks during the school year. He is still stuck in the old days of child development theories that have since been abandoned. On the other hand, I will agree with the author, relating both to ADD and to other diagnoses, that most human behaviors have to be influenced by treatments that focus on the specific behaviors in addition to prescribed medicines. A both-and approach of supportive help for the behavior as well as the best validated medical treatment works better than merely taking the medicines. Learning to focus and direct attention appropriately is not easy, especially when many immediate relatives of the child, perhaps including both parents, may have many of the same issues. Slow and steady wins this race.