LETTER TO A STATE LEGISLATOR CONCERNED ABOUT ADHD ‘EPIDEMIC’
Marion Crecco 1/24/01 Assemblywoman, 34th District Bloomfield, N.J., 07003 Dear Assemblywoman Crecco, I am sorry not to have responded specifically to the articles you sent; I have yet to read them. I continue to send writings to you on the lynch-pin of the fraud--that no scientific evidence exists to support ADHD behaviors as anything other than normal behaviors in normal children/persons/adults. The National Institute of Mental Health plans to begin drug trials in children two (yes, 2) years and up is devoid of scientific or medical justification, and should it proceed, should be viewed as criminal, with the appropriate filing of charges against those who author and perform the drugging and represent it to be legitimate 'research.' I urge everyone concerned about the caring, ethical treatment of our nation's children to write to the NIH and the new Secretary of DHHS and urged that it be stopped before the first normal infant/toddler is drugged. Shortly (if they haven't already) the journal SCIENCE, will publish my letter to the editor on this 'research,' referred to as PATS--the Preschool ADHD Treatment Study. I pointed out the problem--the same problem from which all ADHD practice and research suffers--that it doesn't exist--never has. My letter to SCIENCE: "Regarding the Preschool Treatment Study that Marshall describes in his article--there is no disease. No proof exists that ADHD is a disease with a validating abnormality. Yet the public is told it is a "disease" (1), that it is neurobiologic" (2) or "neurobehavioral" (3). W. Carey (U. of Pennsylvania), testified at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Consensus Conference on ADHD in 1998 that "ADHD appears to be a set of normal behavioral variations" (4). The Consensus Conference Panel concluded: "we do not have an independent, valid test for ADHD no data indicate that ADHD is due to a brain malfunction" (5). Every physician has the responsibility to distinguish disease from absence of disease and to communicate this to their patients and the public." I just testified by phone on the ADHD/Ritalin 'epidemic' to a special committee of the Wisconsin State Legislature. It seemed to work quite well obviating the cost of my being physically present. I would be happy to consult, in this way, whenever you say, with you and your colleagues of the New Jersey legislature. Sincerely yours, Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD Neurology, Child Neurology (board certified) El Cajon, CA, 92019