After three years on the meds, the meds stop working.

Further there is now ovewheming evidence that amphetamines such as Ritalin and Adderall cause brain damage.

The truth is very hard to look at sometimes. Would we be helping our children or ourselves to only do whats easy, and not do the hard things? ….Like read the whole story, and learn the big words?

When a child is under pressure from parents, teachers, physician, psychiatrist and they are ALREADY on a powerful drug, exactly how would these kids manage to have a voice in the matter? They are to speak out against all those in authority when they are being told to take it and not complain? The kids are steamrolled. Everyone around them who is responsible for forcing the drugs on the kid pats themselves on their own backs.

Gina, I think Dr. B has grounds to question medicating kids, and you are so convinced of your own opinion that I doubt you are looking at the situation in an open-minded way. I don’t think you know “the truth” about this issue any more than Dr. B does so I just do not understand the bald “YOU ARE WRONG” statements from you.

Readers, please insert “Marlanka” for “Marilyn” in previous post.

And that’s it for me, Marlanka. You’ll have to get your stimulation elsewhere from now on. Sorry!

I do not understand the need to make things so much harder for people who suffer enough stigma as it is.

And Dr. B., the idea isn’t to criticize your parenting but to point out that when you write factually incorrect posts like this, your words have power and the ripple out in ways that can hurt people. You have a medical degree. You are a brain expert. So, when you castigate these researchers, CHADD, medications, and everything else, it carries weight.

The result? Vulnerable people are hurt. I can’t imagine that is your intention. Would you want someone to have told your child, when he was benefiting from medication after his parents best attempts to help him with schoolwork failed, that he was a tool of Big Pharma, that he had been brainwashed by the establishment who wanted to “turn boys into girls” or anything else, that he was seeking a “quick fix” from parents who just didn’t want to be parents? No, I don’t think so. But that’s where this kind of talk leads.

Moreover, I’ve had the honor of meeting some of the other MTA investigators (other than the egotistical, selfish Bill Pelham, that is), and I’ve never been so impressed with a group of scientists. Their compassion, their intelligence, and their generosity puts their pot-shotting critics to shame. But it’s not people like this who are loved by the media; the media likes people who make outrageous statements that completely lack nuance and play to their cognitive dissonance.

So, Dr. B., Marilyn, and anyone who wants to criticize the use of medications for people who truly benefit from them and who wants to criticize an organization that has helped so many people whom you will never meet because, presumably, you’re more interested in judging than understanding, please stop and think: Who are you serving? Where is your conscience?

The irony, Dr. B, is that if you had gone to the organization that you so unfairly criticize in your post, you would have gotten very good information on behavioral techniques that would have worked in conjunction with medication. And, you would have gotten educated about the proper use of medications, because so many treating physicians don’t bother; hence so many sad stories, like that from Princess. (If your son was taking Ritalin as of a few years ago, he was taking an outmoded medication, one known for causing unnecessary side effects.)

And Marilyn, I don’t know your goal in the blogosphere. My “fascination” with this topic comes from having a heart and having a mind that can see when people who have suffered, often for many years, get the right kind of help, that is a good thing. What more important goal can there be?

The mingy-minded among you automatically assume I am a pharma shill, etc. But you betray your own mindset, not mine. I’ve taken not one cent from pharma or anyone else. My book has been a labor of love, and if you doubt it, ask my accountant. I’ve worked very hard for 8 years to make a dent in ADHD Awareness, because I’ve seen the devastation wrought by both untreated ADHD and a society in denial.

And these days, I’m about ready to decide that the Internet is a lost cause. It is in too many ways the last refuge of the heartless and mindless — even among alleged medical professionals — and that’s too bad because there is such opportunity for enlightenment.

It is obvious from the paper that those originally treated with meds tended to stay on meds more than those who were not originally treated with meds.