IMPORTANT FACTS

1. In 40 years, �biological psychiatry� has yet to validate a single psychiatric condition/diagnosis as an abnormality/disease, or as anything neurological, biological, chemically imbalanced or genetic.

2. The 1998 U.S. National Institutes of Health Consensus Conference on ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) found no �proof that ADHD is caused by a chemical imbalance.�

3. German child and adolescent psychiatrist Paul Runge says that if ADHD was biologically based, �a real, effective treatment would require a cure which influences only this specific biological disorder.� Such a treatment does not exist.

4. In 2002, a Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe report called for �stricter control� to be �exercised over the diagnosis and treatment� of ADHD and that more research be conducted into alternative forms of treatment such as diet.

5. Through the 1990s, the international production of methylphenidate (Ritalin) increased from 2.8 tons to 15.3 tons.

CHAPTER ONE Good Business, Bad Medicine

At age seven, Matthew Smith was diagnosed through his school as having Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). His parents were told that he needed to take a stimulant to help him focus. Initially resistant, Matthew�s parents were told that noncompliance could bring criminal charges for neglecting their son�s educational and emotional needs. �My wife and I were scared of the possibility of losing our children if we didn�t comply,� said Matthew�s father, Lawrence Smith. After being told that there was nothing wrong with the �medication,� that it could only help, Matthew�s parents yielded to the pressure.

On March 21, 2000, while skateboarding, Matthew died from a heart attack. The coroner determined that Matthew�s heart showed clear signs of small blood vessel damage caused by stimulant drugs like amphetamines, and concluded that he had died from the longterm use of the prescribed stimulant.

Despite psychiatric claims to the contrary, the practice of prescribing cocainelike drugs to the world�s children is far removed from conclusive science. There are an extraordinary number of distorted facts in the majority of the available
data. The following information presents an alternative perspective for concerned physicians.

In 1998, a U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) Conference of the world�s leading ADHD proponents was forced to conclude that there is no data confirming ADHD as a brain dysfunction. The conference admitted that, �our knowl edge about the cause or causes of ADHD remains largely speculative.� The National Institute for Clinical Excellence in the United Kingdom concurred: �� there is still controversy over the causes and diagnostic validity of ADHD.�

Dominick Riccio, Executive Director of the International Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology says, �They would need to show me a direct causal relationship between any brain chemical and
the symptoms of ADHD. � They have gone through the dopamine hypothesis. They have gone through the serotonin hypothesis. None of them has a causal relationship.�

Dr. Louria Shulamit, a family practitioner in Israel, makes it clear: �ADHD is a syndrome, not a disease (by definition). As such, it is diagnosed by symptoms. The symptoms of this syndrome are so common that we can conclude that all children�especially boys�fit this diagnosis.�

According to Dr. William Carey, a highly respected pediatrician at the Children�s Hospital of Philadelphia, �The current ADHD formulation, which makes the diagnosis when a certain number of troublesome behaviors are present and other criteria met, overlooks the fact that these behaviors are probably usually normal.�

Thomas Moore, author of Prescriptions for Disaster, warns that the current use of drugs like Ritalin is taking �appalling risks� with a generation of kids. The drug is given, he said, for �short-term control of behavior�not to reduce any identifiable hazard to [children�s] health.

Such largescale chemical control of human behavior has not been previously undertaken in our society outside of nursing homes and mental institutions.�

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