[LifeGoesOn]

Had an argument with a friend recently regarding this.

I was diagnosed with it as a child and took Retalin to correct the problem. To my parents it 'appeared' to work at the time.

The more I think about it, the more I am doubting taking my son to get him reviewed and put on the same drugs. Why? Because I may have been a better student, but is it ever a good idea to drug a child?

I am struggling with this at the moment. I found a post on a medical site that stated the following:

"There are no miracle drugs. Speed--these drugs are forms of speed--don't improve human life. They reduce human life. And if you want less of a child, these drugs are very effective. These parents have also been lied to: flat-out lied to. They've been told that children have a neurobiological disorder. They've been told their children have biochemical imbalances and genetic defects. On what basis? That they fit into a checklist of attention deficit disorder, which is just a list of behaviors that teachers would like to see stopped in a classroom? That's all it is. . . ."

That shook me to the core, that is the ONLY reason I am even considering taking my child to a specialist.

Have any of you had similar doubts regarding this?

[Henndigo]

PS despite popular opinion often presented in shows like "A Current Affair" ADHD is not actually overdiagnosed. Overall, it's underdiagnosed because in girls the condition often presents differently without the more obvious hyperactivity traits. As a consequence boys get picked up and girls get overlooked since their symptoms are often not obvious. There have been some studies that indicate that large numbers of children with ADHD never actually receive any treatment or therapy.

I do think there can be a problem though with inappropriate treatment of ADHD by some medical professionals and also perhaps wrong diagnosis for conditions that look like ADHD. Sometimes I don't think the evaluation process is thorough enough. However, this is nothing to do with whether or not ADHD exists, it's to do with the quality of the medical professionals involved. These would be issues in any other area of medicine.