|
DIDN’T TELL THE COUNTRY (ADHD AS FRAUD) by Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD, March 26, 1999 © Desipramine, a.k.a., Norpramine, a commonly used, tricyclic antidepressant, was the drug that killed Cameron Pettus* (Austin American-Statesman, March 21, 1999). He took desipramine because he hadn’t tolerated Ritalin. Would he have been safer on Ritalin. Would he have been alive today? Stephanie Hall (real name) of Canton, Ohio, also had ADHD. "Steph," eleven, was on Ritalin, an amphetamine, the most popular drug of all, for ADHD. It was the first day of school after Christmas vacation "Steph" took the increased dose prescribed because "her grades had fallen." She seemed fine. The family had been out pizza. She said "Love you!" to her parents, Mike and Janet Hall,** and went upstairs. The next morning, when "Steph" didn’t come down for breakfast with her sisters, her parents found her dead in bed—cold. Although the drugs used to treat ADHD are dangerous and addictive--whether or not to use them, how and when, is not the number one controversy. Whether ADHD is real or not--whether it is a bona fide disease, or a for-profit invention--is the number one controversy. In other words, were Cameron Pettus and Stephanie Hall normal all along. Are all the 5-6 million children in the US (as nowhere else in the world), said to be have ADHD—normal? Announcing the November, 16-18, 1998, National Institutes of Health (NIH) Consensus Conference on AD/HD, Jensen [1], of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) acknowledged the "Is it a real disease or isn’t it?" controversy "…AD/HD has been surrounded by long-standing controversy. This controversy surrounds the actual diagnosis of AD/HD—that is, whether the diagnosis simply ‘pathologizes’ (says is "abnormal") normal child behavior and whether it is a function of large classes, to busy parents, or the machinations of a medical/pharmaceutical cabal (partnership)." A 1994, Time magazine headline [2] asked "Doctors say huge numbers of kids and adults have attention deficit disorder. Is it for real." The controversy rages on because psychiatrists and researchers at the NIMH, Children & Adults with Attention Deficit Disorders (CHADD), Ciba-Geigy, (now Novartis--manufacturer of Ritalin) and the US Department of Education refuse to answer the question "Where in the scientific, literature are the one or few articles that constitute proof that ADHD is an actual disease with a confirmatory, physical or chemical abnormality?" Were your doctor to say that your child has cancer, diabetes or epilepsy, you would surely ask to see confirmatory test results—the biopsy result, glucose tolerance test, electroencephalogram—before starting treatment with necessary, if dangerous, drugs and therapies. If no physical or chemical abnormality is detected, the child is normal--the presence of disease has not been confirmed [3]. No pencil-paper psychometric test or behavior scale, like those handed to teachers and parents across the nation to diagnose ADHD, constitutes objective evidence and diagnoses real disease. Carey [4] of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia addressed the question "Is ADHD a Valid Disorder (disease) ?" This is a matter of whether or not proof exists. It is not a matter of belief, vote or consensus. Carey evaluated the sum total of the scientific literature and concluded "...common assumptions about ADHD include that it is clearly distinguishable from normal behavior, constitutes a neurodevelopmental (brain) disability, is relatively uninfluenced by the environment (home, school)... All of these assumptions...must be challenged because of the weakness of empirical (research) support and the strength of contrary evidence...What is now most often described as ADHD in the United States appears to be a set of normal behavioral variations... This discrepancy leaves the validity (of ADHD)… in doubt." Other invited speakers, including Swanson (U.C., Irvine) and Castellanos (NIMH) spoke of the biological theories they believe underlie ADHD. However, not one offered evidence of a confirmatory physical or chemical abnormality in children labeled ADHD. Without an abnormality--the children are NORMAL! On Tuesday, November 17, I [5] testified as follows "The (ADHD/Ritalin) "epidemic," has zoomed from 150,000 in 1970, to five million in 1997. Ritalin production rose 700% between 1991 and 1997. As a neurologist making "disease" vs. "no disease" determinations daily, I have discovered and described real diseases [6,7,8], but find no disease in children labeled ADHD...no abnormality. Without an iota of proof or credible science, the NIMH [9] has proclaimed…ADHD a "disease"… the children "brain-diseased," "abnormal." CHADD-- 35,000-strong, funded by Ciba-Geigy [10], manufacturer of Ritalin, has spread the "neuro-biological" lie. The US Department of Education [11], absolving itself of controlling the children and rendering them literate, coerces the labeling and drugging…" Having no proof with which to counter the scientific record (devoid of proof), the Consensus Committee Panel, in its Final Statement, confessed (p.3, lines 10-13) "...we do not have an independent, valid test for ADHD, and there are no data to indicate that ADHD is due to a brain malfunction." Did the Panel share their epidemic-ending conclusion with the press? The Nation? They did not. Their "confession"—the NIH "confession," was hopelessly buried within the "neuro-biologic" verbiage of the Final Report, leading one to doubt that Carey and I had ever been there, or that the legitimacy of ADHD had ever been questioned. The correspondent from National Public Radio said that it seemed to him that ADHD was "like the Supreme Court decision on pornography you know it when you see it." Panel Chair, David J. Kupfer, dutifully parried, "We’ll have to disagree." Panel members stumbled all over themselves trying to dodge the "Is it a disease, or isn’t it?" question. None really answered it. Their mandate, after all, is not to the public, or to science, but to the multibillion dollar "ADHD industry." Their duty is to build and maintain the illusion of ADHD as a "disorder"-"disease." As memories of the Consensus Conference fade, illusions of ADHD--the "disease" are alive and well and the "epidemic" rages on. Two major articles on ADHD have since-appeared in the esteemed, New England Journal of Medicine, perpetuating the illusion of disease and the victimization of millions of normal children, while doing nothing whatsoever to validate ADHD as a disease. No one, from the NIH, NIMH, or any other participating agency or institution, have elected to end the "epidemic" by forthrightly announcing to the public the main conclusion of the Conference, that "...we do not have an independent, valid test for ADHD, and there are no data to indicate that ADHD is due to a brain malfunction." As I had testified—unchallenged "It (ADHD) is not a matter of misdiagnosis or over-diagnosis, it is a total, 100% fraud!"
*medical advisor to the family, providing medico-legal testimony in the case of Cameron Pettus. I arranged legal representation for the family when they were unable to obtain it on their own. **medical advisor to the Hall family, trying, still, to assist them in obtaining legal representation. References (ADHD Consensus Conference)
http://home.att.net/~fred-alden/
[ Read My Guestbook!] [ Sign My Guestbook!]
This information is reprinted with the express written permission of |