No one that I remember, said that there are NO cases where psychoactive drugs could not be useful. My mother was on them in the last stages of Alzheimers to control paranoid fantasies, and thank god that they enabled us to get her back as the person she was before the paranoia.
On the other hand, when you are dealing with normal childhood misbehavior, ADD begins to look like a diagnosis of convenience.
There are plenty of reputable psychiatrists who question the overdiagnosis. There just happens to be an article in this week's "New Times" (Los Angeles) in which quite a few of them are quoted. The article is about a UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute study of the feasibility of giving the drug to preschoolers. Now, since the child brain is not fully developed, it is no surprise to me that many people should question the pharmacological (or pharmaceutical industry) wisdom of dosing children unnecessarily with psychoactive drugs because of "behavior problems."
Don't really have time to get into the exquisite detail of your post.
This is just to clarify the past debate, although Wotjek will probably try to wiggle his way out of my characterization above.
Peter Kosenko ---------- Original Message ---------------------------------- From: Carrol Cox <cbcox at ilstu.edu> Reply-To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com Date: Thu, 31 May 2001 16:47:30 -0500
>
>
>Wojtek Sokolowski wrote:
>>
>> >
>> As far as Ritalin is concerned, however, I am unrepentent. In my book,
>> psychotropic durgs are the best thing since toilet paper. If you disagree,
>> try the _One flew over the cockoo's nest_ treatment.
>>
>
>I haven't followed this topic closely, but I do notice that people who
>are awfully "non-conformist" are also very knee-jerk in their reactions
>to psychotropic drugs. It's hard to tell the difference between many
>leftists and the editorial pages of the WSJ on this sort of thing.
>
>The fact that X number (probably a very large number) have been wrongly
>dosed with ritalin & other stimulants, and that X number (probably a
>very large number) have been wrongly diagnosed with hyperactivity (now
>called ADD) has _nothing_ whatever to do with whether hyperactivity as a
>distinct disorder exists, and whether that disorder can or cannot be
>treated, should or should not be treated, with ritalyn or other
>stimulants. Now I have known a number of children who were obnoxiously
>_over_ active, and if Wojtek is arguing that such can be legitimately
>fed psychotropics just for more adult peace, then he is wrong. And I
>have known overly active children (those of a colleague) who drove their
>teachers wild, and whose teachers wanted to dose them with Ritalyn. My
>colleague quite rightly resisted that suggestion, but undoubtedly other
>parents have not been able to resist successfully.
>
>But I also know that ADD (or some disorder of the sort currently
>labelled ADD) does exist, and I have known children who suffered from
>it. Some can be treated with diet (though the research is _very_
>conflicting on that), and most of the people who so confidently
>recommend diet are clearly ignorant of the difficulty of controlling a
>child's diet (or are to be put in the same list of candidates for the
>ash heap as the States Attorney and jury members in South Carolina who
>just sent a woman to jail for 12 years). And Ritalyn (or other
>stimulant) really does work for many of these children. Any one who
>doubts this is ignorant.
>
>When parents take a child to a clinic to seek treatment for
>hyperactivity, the clinic x-rays the child's whole body. A very high
>proportion of the parents of hyperactive children are abusive parents --
>understandably so. One characteristic of hyperactive children is that
>the act characteristically precedes (or so it seems) the thought -- at
>least follows the thought so quicly as to eliminate any possibility of
>consideration of results. Hyperactive children also often have broken
>bones from their own activity and not merely from being beaten by
>exhausted parents. Most of us, if the urge to jump from a high spot
>comes into our head, will stop to consider the possibilities. The
>hyperactive child is very apt to jump.
>
>Carrol
>