Approximately 6.4 million children have received the ADHD diagnosis . Two-thirds of those with a current diagnosis were receiving prescription stimulant drugs like Adderall, Ritalin or Concerta. Annual sales last year of these drugs reached $9 billion.
These ADHD numbers are disturbing, but my 20 years’ experience in what’s been called “the Ritalin Wars” tells me that nothing leads to substantive change except the deaths of children. My cynical prediction is based on participating in the FDA Prozac and children’s suicide hearings of 2004-5. When people learned that the FDA knew of seven negative Prozac studies that hadn’t been shared with the public, a woman at the hearings, whose son committed suicide on the drug, pointed to an FDA official and alleged, “You killed my son!”
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