Attention Disorder Often Missed or Ignored in Girls By JoAnne Allen WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Commentary by Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD (9-19-02)

Attention Disorder Often Missed or Ignored in Girls

[Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
they are the lucky ones]

Fri Sep 6,12:21 PM ET

By JoAnne Allen

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - By her own account, the first six years of school
were a struggle for Britney Joyal. She had difficulty paying attention,
completing assignments and maintaining enough concentration to stick with
soccer, ice skating or the gymnastics classes she loved.

"I would rush through tests just to sit there and draw on the back of the
paper, and then just sit there in my own dream world," said Britney, now 15.
"I knew, basically, that was a sign that something was wrong."

[Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
she now has the benefit of "biological" psychiatry, psycho-pharm cartel
hindsight]

At age 12 when she was in the sixth grade, Britney learned the reason
behind her inability to focus when she was diagnosed with attention deficit
hypertension disorder, or ADHD.

Her younger brother, Joseph, who is now 12, has the same condition, but was
diagnosed at age 9.

Commonly perceived to be a boy's problem, ADHD is a condition associated
with altered brain functioning and characterized by an inability to focus
on tasks, as well as by hyperactive behavior or inattention, or both.

[Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
whoever, from among the ADHD experts, told the author of this article
that "ADHD is a condition associated
with altered brain functioning," fraudulently misrepresented the scientific
status of ADHD to her. No evidence whatsoever exists that ADHD is an actual
disease due to a demonstrable physical abnormality within the child/person.
See the recent decision of Holland's Advertising Code Commission, striking
down the use of such statements about so-called ADHD in advertisements
(
Holland Advertisement Code Commission: ADHD not a Disease)
]

It is usually passed on genetically.

[Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
No physical abnormality in the
individual includes, no genetic abnormality. We have here, yet another
fraudulent mis-representation regarding the scientific status of so-called
ADHD. The person or persons conveying these lies to the reporter should be
indentified.]

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that up to 5
percent of school-age children suffer from ADHD.

[Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
Can the CDC, cite proof, within the medical/scientific literature that ADHD is a disease
having a confirming physical abnormality? If not, children thus labeled are
normal meaning no justification exists for their "treatment" with Ritalin
and other amphetamines, all Schedule II, controlled, addictive, dangerous,
sometimes deadly drugs.]

But researchers who study
the condition say girls often go undiagnosed and untreated, putting them at
greater risk than boys for long-term problems in social development.

[Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
Regardless of sex or age, there is no proof that ADHD is a disease
due to an objective physical abnormality. There is no proof that
children/persons thus diagnosed are, in the least, abnormal, diseased, prior
to consumption of the always-risky, always addictive psycho-stimulants
administered as "treatment." In medicine, where there is no disease, there
is no justification for medical treatment]

"People don't think it can happen in girls ... we're not looking for it,"
said Dr. Patricia Quinn, director of Washington's National Center for
Gender Issues and ADHD. 

[Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
Was it Dr. Quinn who uttered the false statements
above?]

"For years and years, we've been focusing on the hyperactive,
behavior-disordered little boy who might be restless and fidgety and acting
out," said Quinn, a pediatrician and ADHD researcher, who has authored
several books on the subject.

'SUFFER IN SILENCE'

Quinn said girls with ADHD may suffer more than boys with the condition in
part because their symptoms are more internalized, such as anxiety,
withdrawal, lack of focus, disorganization and forgetfulness.

Many girls with ADHD suffered in silence, according to Quinn, with their
problem often ignored or misdiagnosed by the educational and medical
communities.

"They sit in the back of the class. They don't raise their hands. They
don't call attention to themselves," she said, adding that research indicated
"we're missing about 75 percent of girls" with ADHD.

[Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
as if such
things as "They sit in the back of the class. They don't raise their hands.
They don't call attention to themselves," constitutes a disease.]

Quinn also said studies suggested girls who went undiagnosed were more
likely to have problems with low self-esteem and engage in risky social
behavior.

"Girls with ADHD are at greater risk of substance abuse than boys with
ADHD. They also smoke more and earlier," she said.

The researchers' theory is supported by the results of a recently released
Harris Interactive survey of more than 3,000 people that found that compared
with boys, girls with ADHD reported more difficulty in the development of
basic social skills, making friends and getting along with parents.

The survey -- sponsored by the Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. -- also found
girls with ADHD were three times more likely to be treated for depression
that their male counterparts.

Novartis manufactures Ritalin, one of the standard treatments for ADHD.
Critics contend the drug is overprescribed.

'REFERRAL BIAS'

The "acting-out" behavior sometimes displayed by boys with ADHD gets them
referred for clinical treatment earlier and in greater numbers than girls
"who sit there quietly with the condition," said Dr. Timothy Wilens, a
clinical researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

[Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
Dr. Wilens regularly states, without benefit of scientific proof, that ADHD is a
disease, due to a chemical imbalance of the brain. In an ad in the Novermber
20, 2001, Family Circle magazine, Wilens, a leading ADHD "expert" wrote:

"The disorder (ADHD) is related to an inadequate supply of chemical
messengers (neurotransmitters) of the nerve cells in specific regions of the
brain related to attention, activity inhibitions and mental operations."

Here again is the big 'lie.' Repeated often enough, anyone can be made to
believe anything, and psychiatry knows it. Propagation of this lie
throughout psychiatry and medicine has led to ADHD becoming the most common
diagnosis in the pediatric age group--at that, a "disease" that does not
exist. The readers of this article should be told how much money Dr. Quinn
and Dr. Wilens have been paid by Novartis, lets say, over the past 5
years.]

"Most clinics are finding anywhere from five to 10 boys to one girl, and yet
the epidemiology is closer to two to three boys for one girl," Wilens told
Reuters.

That bias underscored the need for "aggressive identification and
intervention" to address the gender disparity, Wilens added.

Emilie Joyal, the mother of Britney and Joseph, believes the experiences of
the children illustrate a "gender gap" in the detection of ADHD.

Her son's teachers realized right away he had a problem, Joyal said, while
Britney's inattentiveness and difficulty in school were attributed to her
being "just a daydreamer."

"The behavior my son exhibited was the kind of behavior you wanted to
correct. Britney, on the other hand -- very quiet, not hyper, but dreamy ...
always out of focus," Joyal said in a telephone interview from her home in
North Smithfield, Rhode Island.

"Britney lost a lot of time," her mother says.

"It took a lot of time and it took a lot of effort for the school to agree
to test her," said Joyal. "And it took a lot of detective work ... to
eliminate all the other possibilities before we realized that this might not
be an educational issue but a neurological issue."

[Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD: exactly what they
want you to believe, Mrs Joyal, but an absolute lie, a fraud. Led to
believe that you and your daughter have been stripped of your fundamental
right to informed consent; you have been lied to; defrauded.]