ADHD column drew responses

I fully expected my recent column on ADHD — in which I expanded upon noted Harvard psychologist (emeritus) Jerome Kagan’s contention that it is an “invention” — to stir the pot. Kagan said what I’ve been saying in this column and everywhere the opportunity has provided for more than 25 years. During that time, psychologists and psychiatrists have responded with vitriol and even threat, but when I have invited them to debate me, on their turf, at my expense, they have — to a person — become silent.

Said column drew opposing responses from mental health professionals, parents of children diagnosed with ADHD, and a few folks diagnosed with adult-ADHD. I’ve heard all the talking points before. The ADHD Establishment has been beating the same drums for as long as there’s been the diagnosis.

Several respondents informed me that saying ADHD does not exist is as absurd and untenable as denying the reality of cancer. Ah, but a, b, and c above do not appertain to cancer. Cancer’s symptoms are objective and quantifiable. The diagnostic symptoms for ADHD, on the other hand, are entirely subjective and unquantifiable. A physician can prove that someone has a malignant tumor, but no one has ever offered proof that someone “has” ADHD. As such, ADHD is not, as things stand, a reality. It is, rather, a construct and will remain so until proof of its biological reality is confirmed by peer-reviewed research. Until then, claims to that effect are spurious at worst, well-intentioned speculation at best.

It is telling to note that whereas billions have been spent trying to find a cure for cancer, no one is trying to find a cure for ADHD. In short, to equate cancer and ADHD is to equate horses and unicorns.

Caveat: The diagnosis may be bogus, but no observant person would deny that significant numbers of school-age children have pronounced difficulties with paying attention, impulsivity, completing tasks, and the other diagnostic signs of ADHD. Interestingly, according to every single individual to whom I’ve ever spoken who taught elementary school in the 1950s (well into the hundreds of such former teachers), this behavior pattern was not a significant issue in their classrooms. Most report that it was nonexistent.

In “The Diseasing of America’s Children” (Thomas Nelson, 2009), my co-author (behavioral pediatrician Bose Ravenel) and I point out that the behaviors diagnostic of ADHD are typical to toddlers. In other words, since the 1960s, significant numbers of children have brought toddler behavioral characteristics with them to school (also including behaviors diagnostic of oppositional defiant disorder and bipolar disorder of childhood. Our explanation is that 50 years of bogus professional parenting advice based on bogus psychological theory (in combination with early exposure to screen-based media and increasingly nonnutritional diets) has created a slew of behavior and developmental problems that were not significant issues in the classroom of the 1950s and before.