Don’t you even stop for a minute and wonder why, of all the researchers, he’s the only one to run to all the news outlets with an angle he knows they’ll fall over themselves picking up? Can’t you see exploitation when you see it?

Researchers’ pharma ties are always questioned. How about questioning Pelham’s pet project, his summer camp for kids with ADHD. How about funding for that? How about selling manuals for that? Or setting up similar camps?

The “media” and some psychiatric pundits’ gullibility for grandstanders like this is extremely worrying. This isn’t a game. Real lives depend on it.

And you’ve misquoted Dr. Biederman, Dr. B. He’s always said that some children do outgrow it, so it’s best to try medication holidays on a regular basis to see.

I just don’t understand why you want to join the bandwagon of those providing misinformation. Don’t understand it at all. And why would you take Pelham’s word for it that behavioral techniques work as well as medication? Why would you not have read more credible experts, such as Russell Barkley, who has long laid out behavioral strategies that work, at least as far as reward-punishment go. (Note: For some people with ADHD, no behavioral strategy in the world is going to help them to listen better, process messages better, eliminate their risk of sleep apnea or restless-legs syndrome or even perhaps diabetes and hypertension, and all the rest.

I understand that the other researchers — who I trust infinitely more than this media gadfly Pelham — will be issuing a press release soon. I hope you will read it closely and present a more balanced view next time.

As for Therapy Patient’s question about exercise, even top ADHD expert and exercise proponent John Ratey, MD, says that if you need ADHD medication, exercise will probably not eliminate the need for it. It can, however, reduce the amount necessary. But again, this is nothing new. Competent practitoners and researchers have long advocated all the things that make and keep humans healthy — exercise, behavioral techniques, good diet and all the rest. It’s only the naysayers who make this into a black/white argument.

This question might be very naive, but I have wondered what effect an intensive exercise program might have on a 9-year-old (or 12-year-old) with ADHD. When I was a kid we used to get so much more physical exercise than kids get now. What if a child runs, or plays basketball, or swims intensively. Would that help the child settle down? My only experience is with dogs, not children, but certain dogs bounce off the walls and calm right down if you run them for 5-10 miles a day. Would that work with kids? I NEVER hear “exercise” as a prescribed activity for ADHD and I keep thinking it might help.

Intent-to-treat analyses revealed no appreciable differences
among the children based on their randomized treatment group assignment at 7 to
9 years of age.

So they admit to it (even if later they try to conceal it). Did you exaggerate a bit?

F

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