Marcela Gaviria and Martin Smith, Producers June 14, 2001 Rain Media 164 W 8th Street, New York, NY 10024 Re: "Medicating Kids" Documentary on Frontline (PBS) Dear Ms. Gaviria and Mr. Smith, Mr. Don Brown has shared your letter of 4/30/01 with me, and I am responding to it. In paragraph 4, page 1, you state: " he (Baughman) holds many views regarding "mental" illnesses that are clearly out of the mainstream." This charge is vague and non-specific, on purpose. All that pertains to the issue of "Medicating Kids" is whether they have an actual disease or not, one disease at a time, and this is a fundamental point that I have shared with the both of you repeatedly, both during the interview and by free exchange of e-mails and access to my web site. Later in this paragraph you say I was " helpful in explaining his views to us." I made very clear to you that my views or beliefs and those of others were not at issue, but that whether or not there was scientific evidence that ADHD is a bona fide disease was the issue. And yet at no time did you address the question: Is ADHD an actual disease having a characteristic, confirming, objective, physical/chemical abnormalityyes or no? (objective, demonstrable, abnormality = disease; no abnormality = no disease) In paragraph 7, page 1, you write to Mr. Brown: "Many of your other points deal with the existence of ADHD, and/or the efficacy of alternative therapies or treatments." You write this, glossing over the fundamental issue of the "existence," in science, of proof that ADHD is a diseaseone requiring any medical treatment at all. You slide beyond this, the fundamental question, and write: "Instead we focused on four real-world family portraits." Families, parents and patients themselves are not trained to determine whether or not they have a disease, or, if so, which disease. For that reason, your "four real-world family portraits" would serve no purpose but to further avoid consideration of the fundamental question: Is ADHD a bona fide disease, yes or no? In paragraph 8, page 2, you write, " partisans on either side of this very controversial issue took little comfort in our presentation." Here you portray diagnosis as a matter of belief, vote, consensus, religion, source of financial support, when, in the legitimate practice of medicine, it is one thing and one thing only: a matter of whether an objective physical abnormality is demonstrable or not. (objective, demonstrable, abnormality = disease; no abnormality = no disease) In final analysis, the "messengers" in the debate regarding ADHD and the psychiatric drugging of the 6 million, or so, children said to have it, are not the issue. As always in medicine, diagnosis comes first, and diagnosis starts with the question: (1) Is disease (some abnormality, any abnormality) presentyes or no? If yes, diagnosis goes to: (2) which disease? No child should be prescribed/subjected to medical or surgical treatment who has not been proved, beforehand, to have a disease/abnormality needing to be made normal, or, more nearly normal. We do not start insulin before confirmation of abnormality (high blood sugar)/disease. We do not start chemotherapy or radiotherapy before microscopic confirmation of malignancy. The NIMH, CHADD, the APA and AACAP say ADHD is a disorder by which mean disease, by which they contend their is an abnormality within the brain of the child. Not only do they not demonstrate an abnormality in their children/patients, nowhere in the medical/scientific literature of the world is their proof that ADD/ADHD as defined in any of the last four editions of the DSM (III, III-R, IV) is a diagnosable disease/abnormality. We have 6 million children, in the US, as nowhere else in the world, never demonstrated to be other than normal, prescribed drugs that are known to be addictive, dangerous and sometimes deadly. Controversy? I think this is a crime. We might argue about this. What is not arguable is the lack of objective evidence of disease/abnormality in any child said to have ADHD Do the children have a disease? Any disease? Where in the scientific/medical literature is the proof that ADHD is a disease? These are the fundamental questions. But you avoided all of them. You chose, instead to speak of the messengers, of CCHR, of me, of "partisans", of "real-world families," and of the "many parents struggling with what for them is a very personal, very serious decision " The media generally, and your program in particular, has failed the literally millions of parents struggling with the shock of hearing their child has ADHD, invariably characterized as a brain disease, due to a "chemical imbalance", invariably needing medication, perhaps for life. You failed them because you failed to ask: "Show me the abnormality." "Show me the lab, x-ray, or scan result that proves the child is abnormal." "Show me the article from the scientific/medical literature that describes the objective abnormality making of ADHD a disease, demonstration of which makes it a diagnosable disease?" Nor am I the only one prompting that you and others in the media ask and get answers to these burning (6 million children) questions. On November 18, 1998, the Panel of the National Institutes of Health Consensus Conference on ADHD issued the conclusion: "We do not have an independent, valid test for ADHD, and there are no data to indicate that ADHD is due to a brain malfunction" Translated, thisnot from me, not from CCHR, not from any other "partisan"--meant, there was no evidence that any child said to have ADHD, had a brain disease. And yet, there were, by then 4-5 million on DEA/INCB schedule II drugs by way of "treatment." And, allow me to tell you that these drugs are causing deathshow many we cannot be sure because reporting systems remain voluntary, which is exactly the way psychiatry and Big Pharma (world-wide pharmaceutical industry) want it. Further, as you well know, by way of e-mails from me right up to the time of your program, there has been no scientificin the medical/scientific, peer-reviewed journalsproof that ADHD is a disease having a confirmatory, objective physical abnormality--proof that children said to have it (now at 6-7 million) are other than NORMAL. Their first an only disease--contrary to all that is the scientific-ethical practice of medicine-- is that due to the drugs they are put on. As long as no abnormality/no disease can be found in children said to have ADHD, there is no such thing as "mis-diagnosis" or "over-diagnosis." The only way to understand the US, ADHD epidemic, is to know, as I testified at the Consensus Conference (11/17/98) that it is a "total, 100% fraud." There was no rebuttal. If it is the truth you seek, as well as to help the millions of parents struggling to understand their childs ADHD, and to know the right thing to do, you will convey to them the answer they need to the basic "Is it a disease or isnt it?" question. If you commit to such goals--but only then--call me. Sincerely yours, Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD 1303 Hidden Mountain Dr. El Cajon, CA, 92019 phone 619 440 8236 P.S. for your information I have enclosed my letter to the editor of the journal PEDIATRICS, published in the May, 2001, issue. Cc: Don Brown Jim Pagliarini, President, Twin Cities Television David Fanning, Executive Producer, FRONTLINE