The Vancouver Sun should be given full points for writing an editorial this morning about the overdiagnosing of ADHD.
And full demerits for completely, totally, utterly missing the point.
The piece correctly points out the shocking and destructive rise in alleged cases being reported worldwide.
"U.S. doctors’ office visits for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder rose by 66 per cent between 2000 and 2010.
Yet as dramatic as that figure is, it’s dwarfed by one from Europe: According to one German study, the number of ADHD diagnoses between 1989 and 2001 increased by an astonishing 381 per cent."
The editorial then blathers on for several more paragraphs without ever once paying head to Basic Rule of Journalism 104 - FOLLOW THE MONEY!
Can you say Big Pharma, boys & Girls? Can you say Novartis?
This story is as old as the hills and twice as deadly.
Ever since some guy in a striped suit has been hawking his Dr. Winkler's Magic Elixir from cow town to cow town on the back of a covered wagon (not to mention on the Appian Way a few centuries earlier), the fearful rubes have been buying up this swamp water and feeding it to the kids.
This story is all about RITALIN, its manufacturers, it multi-million dollar marketing campaigns and the sops, gifts and kickbacks that doctors have been enjoying these last few years.
Money is the driver here - forget about the health of children.
