The Business of Attention Deficit Disorder 246
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "Alan Schwarz writes in the NYT that the rise of ADHD diagnoses and prescriptions for stimulants over the years have coincided with a remarkably successful two-decade campaign by pharmaceutical companies to publicize the syndrome and promote the pills to doctors, educators and parents. 'The numbers make it look like an epidemic. Well, it's not. It's preposterous,' says Dr. Keith Conners, a psychologist who has led the fight to legitimize attention deficit hyperactivity disorder for more than fifty years. Few dispute that classic ADHD, historically estimated to affect 5 percent of children, is a legitimate disability that impedes success at school, work and personal life. But recent data from the CDC show that the diagnosis had been made in 15 percent of high school-age children, and that the number of children on medication for the disorder had soared to 3.5 million from 600,000 in 1990." (Read on for more.)
"Behind that growth has been drug company marketing that has stretched the image of classic ADHD to include relatively normal behavior like carelessness and impatience, and has often overstated the pills' benefits. Advertising on television and in popular magazines like People and Good Housekeeping has cast common childhood forgetfulness and poor grades as grounds for medication that, among other benefits, can result in 'schoolwork that matches his intelligence' and ease family tension. The FDA has cited every major ADHD drug — stimulants like Adderall, Concerta, Focalin and Vyvanse, and nonstimulants like Intuniv and Strattera — for false and misleading advertising since 2000, some multiple times. And although many doctors have portrayed the medications as benign — 'safer than aspirin,' some say — they can have significant side effects and are regulated in the same class as morphine and oxycodone because of their potential for abuse and addiction. Meanwhile profits for the ADHD drug industry have soared. Sales of stimulant medication in 2012 were nearly $9 billion, more than five times the $1.7 billion a decade before, according to the data company IMS Health. 'This is a concoction to justify the giving out of medication at unprecedented and unjustifiable levels,' concludes Conners."
Business Plan (Score:5, Insightful)
The pharmaceutical industry won't be happy until everyone is on a handful of medications. One that supposedly "cures what ails you" and the rest to address the many side effects of the other drugs.
Get 'em early. Get 'em hooked. Get 'em for life.
This is the Problem. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Business Plan (Score:5, Insightful)
Not "cures", but "treats". You pay for a cure once. You keep paying for treatment for the rest of your life.
What is it then? (Score:2, Insightful)
Is it big pharma pushing doctors to prescribe more? Is it doctors too lazy/busy to do a proper diagnosis? Is it mothers, fathers and teachers who seek to explain bad behavior and poor discipline (which is largely their fault) on medical conditions? Is it our foods which have changed over to GMO based content over the same period of time?
I don't know, but I certainly want to know.
In the mean time, I tend to stick to basic foods to avoid as much problem as I can. Most dinners consist of salad and some kind of meat or fish and some other vegetables. Lunch is usually the same and breakfast is eggs, sausage or bacon and garden vegetables. Not much room for GMOs to creep in yet unless you count the feed that goes into the animals.
The root of the problem... (Score:3, Insightful)
Amazingly accurate estimate there (Score:5, Insightful)
I did a quick search to see how many children there are in the United State. The first number I found was 74 million [childstats.gov] (total of all children under 18, as of 2013).
5% of 74 million is 3.7 million. Since I doubt they are giving Ritalin to toddlers (yet), this estimated number of children with ADHD is amazing close to the number who are on a prescription.
In other words, those are probably not two independently-derived numbers. They're one. There is no independent estimate of what percentage of kids have ADHD: there's only a count of how many are on the meds. This is a classic trick from _How to Lie with Statistics_: when you don't have the number you want (how many kids actually have ADHD), use the number you have (how many are on the meds) and pretend there is no distinction.
This has the side effect of "showing" (with numbers!) that the diagnostic methods for ADHD are nearly perfect. By circular logic, QED.
Re:What is it then? (Score:4, Insightful)
Is it big pharma pushing doctors to prescribe more? Most likely, there are so many regulations and public pressure to lower the costs of their drugs, so they will make up the difference with increase volume. I mean we have TV adds full of commercials pushing superscription medicine, even if 80% of the commercial is about the side effects, to cure a minor condition.
Is it doctors too lazy/busy to do a proper diagnosis? Lazy, no. Over worked yes. In an attempt to try to get health care cheaper doctors usually take the brunt of the cost cuttings, insurance companies pressuring them to lower their rates, so they make it up by double/triple booking patients. Because they cannot afford to see 12 patients a day at 45 minutes apiece.
Is it mothers, fathers and teachers who seek to explain bad behavior and poor discipline (which is largely their fault) on medical conditions? Not necessarily their fault, society has changed the role of the traditional family. With both parents working full time, or a single parent family the norm, it makes it quite difficult to raise their children. Teachers have their hands tied behind their back on what they can do to discipline children. Then you combine media fear about strangers wandering suburban streets waiting to abduct your child, so they try to keep them safe by locking them indoors where they can only play indoor, without burning off the energy that kids have. Then if you kid is allowed outside and gets hurt or worse caused an other kid to get hurt, you are under pressure to explain yourself.
We have gotten to litigious in many areas, while the intent is honorable, it creates side effects much like the drugs do, that is sometimes worse then the cure they are trying to fix.
You can jump up and down and complain how greedy these people are, but that is the problem if you take people/corporations in the Macro sense, their main trends will be following going towards greed. However each individual has virtues too, however they are quite varied, and tends to get washed out when you calculate the overall trend.
ADD? (Score:2, Insightful)
Adult Discipline Deficiency... a better de-acronymization. Way too many diagnosed with ADD don't need medication, they just need boundaries and discipline.
Re:ADD = The Business of Curing Stupidity (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes, speed has that effect on almost everybody.
Re:Business Plan (Score:2, Insightful)
30 years ago there was no ADD, or ADHD you were considered hyper, no medication needed just lower his sugar intake and keep him away from sodas. Today, not so much. Seems like all my daughters friends are ADHD or on some type of med for something.
I quote Lazyboy
"how do I get that disease, it comes with a hot chick and a puppy".
Re:What is it then? (Score:2, Insightful)