The ADHD Epidemic: How Profit, Not Science, Drives the Surge in Diagnoses

LOS ANGELES - EntSun -- A federal investigation has been launched into the 3.4 million American children being diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and their potential overmedication. The probe is part of a broader review of America's health, with an initial focus on children. The Citizens Commission on Human Rights International (CCHR), a mental health industry watchdog, asserts that this investigation is long overdue, arguing that children are being labeled with a disorder for normal childhood behaviors such as fidgeting, restlessness, and daydreaming and being drugged with powerful stimulants. CCHR further contends that parents are not informed that there is no biological basis for ADHD, which is heavily marketed as a neurobiological condition to justify the prescription of stimulant drugs.

CCHR ascertained that 58,091 children aged five or younger were prescribed ADHD drugs in 2020, according to the IQVia Total Patient Tracker Database.[1] Yet the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not approved ADHD drugs for children under six. A surge in calls to poison control centers due to ADHD medication-related adverse events from 2000 to 2021 underscores the dangers, with children under six three times more likely to be hospitalized than their older counterparts.[2]

The expansion of ADHD diagnostic criteria has been widely criticized. Critics argue that the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders (DSM) has been heavily influenced by pharmaceutical interests, raising concerns about the validity of the diagnoses. A study in PLOS Medicine revealed that 69% of the DSM-5 task force members had financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry, up from 57% in the DSM-IV task force.[3]

A Counseling Australia report detailed how the psychiatric field effectively created the ADHD market: "DSM-III and DSM-IV provided the diagnostic framework, academic psychiatrists validated its existence, and corporate interests marketed the condition aggressively." The DSM-III criteria for ADHD alone were projected to increase diagnoses by 23%. Dr. Allen Frances, former chair of the DSM-IV task force, warned that diagnostic changes fueled a "false epidemic" of both ADHD and autism, drastically increasing the number of children labeled with the disorder and prescribed stimulants to treat it.[4] By 2012, the number of American children prescribed an ADHD drug was six times the number in 1990.[5]

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ADHD symptoms are determined by APA member votes and include: easily distracted, misses details, forgets things, becomes bored with a task after only a few minutes, have trouble completing or turning in homework assignments, often losing things (e.g., pencils, toys, assignments), fidgets and squirms in their seats, on the go, and has difficulty waiting for their turns in games.

Many experts argue that these behaviors are simply characteristic of childhood, not signs of a mental disorder. Gifted children, in particular, face a heightened risk of being misdiagnosed with ADHD. According to Dr. Erik von Hahn writing in the American Academy of Pediatrics, gifted children may display behaviors that mimic ADHD, such as excessive questioning due to their curiosity or hyperfocus on specific areas of interest.

He further states that boredom can lead to inattention as well as feelings of depression. In such cases, "the child does not have ADHD or another disability, and the appropriate intervention is to provide needed stimulation. Otherwise, the child is at risk for academic and social failure despite superior potential."[6] He warns that mislabeling these children can lead to inappropriate interventions that hinder their development rather than support their needs.

Dr. Mary Ann Block, author of No More ADHD, wrote: "There is no valid test for ADHD. The diagnosis is completely subjective." And 'while some compare ADHD to diabetes, there really is no comparison. Diabetes is an insulin deficiency that can be objectively measured. Insulin is a hormone manufactured by the body and needed for life. ADHD cannot be objectively measured and amphetamines are not made by the body or needed for life."[7]

The late pediatric neurologist Dr. Fred Baughman, Jr., author of The ADHD Fraud: How Psychiatry Makes "Patients" of Normal Children, further criticized the practice stating that children are misled when they "believe they have something wrong with their brains that makes it impossible for them to control themselves without a pill."[8]

Peter C. Gøtzsche, MD, has also raised concerns about the broader implications of ADHD diagnoses and stimulants such as methylphenidate prescribed to treat it. He warns that stimulants can cause behavioral issues, specifically: Stimulants reduce overall spontaneous mental and behavioral activity, including social interest, which leads to apathy or indifference, and many children—more than half in some studies—develop depression and compulsive, meaningless behaviors.[9]

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Profit can drive ADHD diagnoses with stimulant sales projected to rise from $19.5 billion in 2020 to $34.8 billion by 2027.[10]

CCHR, which was established in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and professor of psychiatry Dr. Thomas Szasz, has long campaigned for children's rights, successfully advocating for federal legislation in 2004 that prohibits schools from forcing students to take psychotropic drugs as a requisite for their education. As the federal investigation unfolds, CCHR says there is hope that the widespread labeling of children as "mentally disordered" and prescribing psychotropic drugs will be recognized as a profit-driven practice harming children's health and future.

Sources:

[1] www.cchrint.org/psychiatric-drugs/children-on-psychiatric-drugs/

[2] www.cchrint.org/2023/09/25/3-million-children-at-risk-for-adhd-drugs-adverse-effects/; childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/emergency-calls-adhd-medication-errors-guanfacine-tenex/; Gary A. Smith, MD, DrPH, et al., "Pediatric ADHD Medication Errors Reported to United States Poison Centers, 2000 to 2021," Pediatrics, Oct. 2023, publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/doi/10.1542/peds.2023-061942/193956/Pediatric-ADHD-Medication-Errors-Reported-to

[3] Lisa Cosgrove, Sheldon Krimsky, "A Comparison of DSM-IV and DSM-5 Panel Members' Financial Associations with Industry: A Pernicious Problem Persists," PLoS Medicine, 13 Mar. 2012, pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3302834/

[4] Dr. Helen Bannister, "ADHD epidemics: The marketing of ADHD," Counselling Australia Magazine, circa 2024, magazine.theaca.net.au/articles/adhd-epidemics-the-marketing-of-adhd

[5] Dr. Helen Bannister, "ADHD epidemics: The marketing of ADHD," Counselling Australia Magazine, circa 2024, magazine.theaca.net.au/articles/adhd-epidemics-the-marketing-of-adhd

[6] Erik von Hahn, M.D., FAAP, "When diagnosing ADHD, consider possibility of giftedness in some children," American Academy of Pediatrics News, July 2012, sengifted.org/when-diagnosing-adhd/

[7] Dr. Mary Ann Block, "No More ADHD," 15 Sept. 2009, www.cchrint.org/2009/09/15/no-more-adhd/

[8] www.cchrint.org/2022/02/14/new-diagnostic-manual-with-adhd-listed-could-turn-childhood-into-a-mental-disorder/; Fred A. Baughman, Jr., MD, "Treatment of Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder," Journal of the American Medical Association, 12 May 1993, p. 2369

[9] Peter C. Gøtzsche, MD. "Critical Psychiatry Textbook, Chapter 9: ADHD (Part Two)," MIA, 14 Aug. 2023, www.madinamerica.com/2023/08/critical-psychiatry-textbook-chapter-9-part-two/

[10] www.cchrint.org/2023/09/25/3-million-children-at-risk-for-adhd-drugs-adverse-effects/; childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/emergency-calls-adhd-medication-errors-guanfacine-tenex/