G & S wrote:
It was very interesting reading your information about the considerations of using prescription medications to help individuals with ADHD. As I’m sure you know, there are many respectable controlled studies that show that children and teenagers that go untreated (unmedicated) very often find themselves involved with illegal drugs, crime and antisocial behievior. I have noted that ONLY with the proper dosing of stimulant medication, is my own child able to: proform well at school, keep friends, avoid problematic situations,be able to organize his daily routines, feel self comfident, and mature into the find and loving person he is today. I would be overjoyed to achieve these benefits without a medication, but I have found that ALL of the other recommendations for treating ADHD offer only very mild benefits.
I am very concerned that your recommendations lead the public to the false conclusions that medication is not needed at all for ADHD.
Sincerely,
G M , DDS
[Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
Dear G, having gone to dental school, you, just like all physicians, should know that with no objective physical or chemical abnormality, a disease cannot be said to be present. There is no such thing as a psychiatric disease--the contention that their is is a psychopharm market strategy. There is much that you obviously do not know about the dangers of Ritalin and the amphetamines, most importantly about their dangers and mortality rates. I hope for the end of the deception of the parents of the now 6 million and rising children said to have, believing they have a disease called ADHD. Sincerely, FB
]