YET ANOTHER “DIAGNOSTIC” TEST FOR ADHD–A “DISEASE”/ABNORMALITY THAT DOESN’T EXIST - Commentary by Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD

Fred Baughman MD comments:

YET ANOTHER "DIAGNOSTIC" TEST FOR ADHD--A "DISEASE"/ABNORMALITY THAT DOESN'T
EXIST

Friday, May 23, 2003

Kodak finds promising tool for diagnosing hyperactivity
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,505035099,00.html

By Ben Dobbin

AP business writer

      ROCHESTER, N.Y. ‹ Exploring whether photographic images can help
soothe stress led Eastman Kodak Co. to a chance finding: A man who exhibited
erratic temperature changes turned out to have attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder. 

[Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
"Erratic temperature changes, if abnormally
high and low would constitute a physical abnormality. However, ADHD has yet
to be validated as a disease, having, as it must a confirming physical
abnormality. How then, can it be said to be the cause of body temperature
fluctuations. This is getting the cart before the horse. We must go back
to the drawing board. Before we can say ADHD causes abnormal temperature
fluctuations, or afflicts 6-7 million U.S. children it must be validated as
a disease by finding a confirming objective abnormality and then, to
diagnose it a test must be devised to demonstrate that abnormality,
child-by-child]

      The discovery five years ago culminated this spring with Kodak
donating seven patents to a Massachusetts research hospital in hopes of
developing a new tool for identifying the neurobehavioral disorder that
afflicts millions of Americans.
      "The diagnosis of ADHD is highly subjective ‹ there's no definitive
test you can give someone that says they've got it or they don't," said Greg
Foust, a research manager in Kodak's System Concepts Center. 

[Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
The
DSM-IV criteria used to diagnose ADHD are entirely, 100%
subjective]

"What this technology allowed us to do was not only
definitively and objectively determine if someone had it but also get a
sense of the degree of the affliction." 

[Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
Foust and Kodac claim to
have technology with which to diagnose ADHD without having proven the
existence of a disease-confirming abnormality confined to those said to have
ADHD]

      Kodak scientists spied the unusual temperature oscillations in one of
72 volunteers in a 1998 study. The researchers were just starting to examine
whether images, sounds and other distractions are useful in reducing stress
levels or even treating psychiatric ailments such as depression. 

[Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
All
psychiatric ailments are subjective, wholly subjective. They are seeking to
develop diagnostic tests on entities, which, by definition are subjective,
and have no objective abnormalities to test for]

      Each volunteer, wearing headphones to block out sounds, was placed in
an empty room or in front of a blank computer or television for 10 minutes.
Temperature sensors were attached to their pinky fingers.
      Deprived of visual and audio stimulation, ADHD sufferers typically
become stressed as they look for an outlet, Foust said. That stress drives
changes in fingertip temperatures that appear to fluctuate differently from
non-ADHD patients, he said.
      "The way their temperature changed was very erratic," Foust said. "It
would tend to decline or rise in a manner that was very bouncy versus, in
non-ADHD persons, the temperature change was very slow without a lot of
oscillation."
      Two other people who displayed "jagged changes" in temperature
readings also were found to be stricken with ADHD.

[Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
"were found to be
stricken with ADHD" uses the language of medicine and disease where there is
no disease and furthers the "epidemic" and the labeling/affliction of
normals with what is a non-disease, assuring more with become psychiatric
patients-in-perpetuity. ]

      The disorder affects as many as 10 million adults in the United States
and between 4 percent and 12 percent of school-age children ‹ as many as 3.8
million youngsters. Its symptoms include short attention span, impulsive
behavior, difficulty focusing and sitting still. 

[Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
Unlike SARS, and
"mad cow" disease, there is no abnormality in ADHD, no confirmation of the
presence of actual disease, no proof whatsoever that these 10 million adults
of 3.8 million youngsters are other than medically normal. The first proof
we have that they abnormal/diseased, comes the moment the ingest foreign
compounds by way of "treatment". Said to have a disease when they do not is
a known lie--medical malpractice, drugging them with dangerous, addictive
drugs with "inform consent" based on a knowing deception is
battery--poisoning. They are normal until treatment begins and CHADD know
it.]

      Kodak did a follow-up trial in 2000 on 32 children ‹ half of them
diagnosed by doctors with ADHD ‹ and found its method to be at least 84
percent accurate in spotting the disorder. The current diagnosis process is
largely subjective because patients must be observed over long periods,
often in both home and school settings.
      In exchange for an $8 million tax benefit in this year's first
quarter, Kodak turned over its patented procedures to McLean Hospital in
Belmont, Mass., a pioneer in ADHD research affiliated with Harvard Medical
School. Kodak spokesman Anthony Sanzio said the hospital is much better
suited to advance the research. 

[Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
here we have the
psycho-pharm-government money trail that assures the victimization/drugging
of normal US children]

      If the technology leads to a commercial product, the hospital will
reap all the revenues.
      "These inventions could help lay the foundation for improving the
speed and accuracy of ADHD tests," said Dr. Martin Teicher, who runs the
hospital's development biopsychiatry research program.
      Experts not affiliated with Kodak or McLean cautioned that much more
research is needed. Dr. Mark Wolraich, professor of pediatrics at the
University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, questioned how well the
temperature process can distinguish "those with an anxiety disorder from
those with ADHD."
      Teicher said he doesn't think the Kodak method "should be construed as
a stand-alone test. It just adds some science to something that tends to be
right now very much an art."
      Kodak, the world's biggest photography company, is still testing
whether images can help alleviate psychological problems. But the results of
its work remain under wraps. 

[Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
there is the regular development of
"diagnostic" technologies for ADHD, the disease that could never be proved.
These assure furtherance of the illusion of a disease and the "epidemic" not
of a disease but of fraudulent medical labeling and drugging of individuals
all of whom are/were normal to the moment of ingestion of an amphetamine
they are told is necessary. It is necessary for no reason to make them a
profit-point, a psychiatric/mental health patient in perpetuity in the ADHD
fraud, the greatest health care fraud in US history. Both Teicher and
Wolraich, prominent figures in ADHD research know perfectly well ADHD is not
a disease, never has been, never will be ( it cannot ever be because of its
obligate subjectivity, that assured by its DSM IV definition. In 2000,
Teicher, et al reported on functional MRI relaxometry as a means of
diagnosing ADHD. This technique, like countless others said to diagnose the
never proved disease--ADHD-- has proved and diagnosed nothing while
perpetuating the illusion of a disease and the fraudulent labeling and
drugging of millions of medically/physically normal Americans. Excerpts:

Functional deficits in basal ganglia of children with ADHD shown with
functional MRI relaxometry. Nature Medicine. Teicher MH, et al.
2000;6:470-473. 4/21/00 "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /?>

As with most articles in the peculiar business of biopsychiatric research,
the article begins not with a statement of objectives but with a statement
of propaganda: “ADHD is a highly heritable and prevalent neuropsychiatric
disorder estimated to affect 6% of school-age children. It has never been
proven to be biologic much less genetic, that is heritable and it has never
been proved to be neuro anything. Additionally, a bit contrite over reports
from some sectors, high in CHADD membership, that 50% of schoolchildren have
it, they report the conservative, credible-sounding, “6%.”

Herein they report: “We developed a new functional magnetic resonance
imaging procedure (T2 relaxometry)…” This means that whatever their study
shows it will not yet have been replicated, i.e. repeated, i.e., validated.

They used 6 healthy controls and 11 boys with ADHD 9 years of age or so.
The healthy controls were deemed to be healthy by virtue of the fact that
they had no more than 3 of 9 possible inattention or hyperactivity-impulsive
criteria from the ever so scientific DSM IV. The controls it appears were
downright phlegmatic. “We included children with ADHD if they met criteria
for ADHD in a structured diagnostic interview (objective you say?), and had
at least 6 of 9 symptoms of inattention or hyperactivity-impulsivity.

Those who saw fit to publish this piece of psycho-pharm propaganda had a
duty they did not fulfill to ask the amount of money all interviewed
recieved from the pharmaceutical industry]

© 2003 Deseret News Publishing Company