Father of ADHD says it is a fictitious disease

In February of 2009, Dr. Leon Eisenberg died at the age of 87. Dr. Eisenberg was a noted child psychiatrist from 1954 until his death in 2009. His research in autism, attention deficit, separation anxiety and other types of child developments problems transformed formed child psychiatry into a new way of thinking. However, recently there has been an internet maelstrom that 7 months before his death of prostate cancer, he claimed that ADHD as a made up fictitious disease. Websites like Political Outcast, DC Clothesline and even a You Tube video are spreading this information, claiming that Dr. Eisenberg confessed that it was the money from the pharmaceutical industry that was a motivator for his and current diagnosis of ADHD and the medications that go along with the “disease.”

Having a son with ADHD and having done a ton of research on this “affliction” my son had to carry with him for the rest of his life, I was, of course, curious to see if this was a true claim. It was a very convincing article and the topic was all over my Google search (ADHD disease). As I started to read the articles I found that it was the same article, word for word, on 4 out of 5 sites, kind of like a chain letter. Upon further observation, the websites had articles about other conspiratorial topics like:

“Blame Unions for Public School Failures”

“Why Poverty is Mostly a Self-Inflicted Condition”

And a crazy guy named David Icke (not kidding) writing about the government having a secret court that steals children away from their parents.

Sorry I won’t post the links to those sites. Promoting ignorance is against my, well, common sense and human nature.

I don’t claim to be an expert on ADHD but I am a parent of a child that has ADHD and was treated for it by a psychiatrist and pediatrician. I’m not going to rant about the nutty professors - professing the conspiracy behind ADHD and other childhood mental and neurological disorders. These are what I have found with my son, who is now a healthy well rounded young man with ambition, dreams and passion.

ADHD is fake – False: There have been a ton of studies done on Attention Deficit in boys and girls. The truth is that there is a dopamine deficiency in these people that results in a short attention span, compulsivity, impulsivity, time management issues, organization issues and, in some cases, hyperactivity.

If your kid is diagnosed with ADHD you MUST put them on drugs – False: A parent can choose to go the medication route or not. Regardless of the path, medication is only a part of the “treatment” for Attention Deficit. Behavior modification has to happen with kids and adults with Attention Deficit. They do not innately know how to do certain skills and so must be taught the methods that will help them focus, stay still, control their time management, learn organization skills and control their compulsiveness and impulsiveness. The medication is to Attention Deficit what glasses are to bad eyesight – you need them to control and focus your sight. You could live without them but it could be a path of bumping into walls and falling into holes on your way.

Taking medication for ADHD makes kids addicted to drugs – False: Studies and statics have shown that kids that have Attention Deficit that has gone untreated, with or without medication, are more likely to have a drug or alcohol addiction. The dopamine deficiency makes these people prone to addiction and the innate need to have help in controlling their brain drives them to self-medicate. On the flip side, studies have shown that children and adults that have treated their Attention Deficit, with or without medication, do not become drug or alcohol addicts. Knowledge is power and in this case the more they know about how Attention Deficit can affect them the more they can control the tendencies.

People with ADHD are lazy, airheads or ditzy – False: They are smart, creative, ambitious and industrious but they have problems with focus, time management and organization. People with Attention Deficit need to be taught how to focus, how to re-focus, how to identify hyper-focus, how identify distractions, how to deal with time management, learn how to organize their workload, how to identify compulsivity, how identify impulsivity and do all of this in elementary school along with learning how to read, write, do math, and learn and follow rules.

Parent just give their kids medication to control them – False: Its been my experience that parents would rather NOT give their kids medication unless it is absolutely necessary. I see kids out there that do not have Attention Deficit or any other disorder behaving out of control. Its not medication they need its limitations. Kids with or without rules and routine will be out of control, you don’t need Ritalin to figure that out.

That is just me, as a Mom and as a person with Attention Deficit. Oh, did I mention it’s hereditary, nope not caused by too much sugar or not enough vegetables.

As for Dr. Leon Eisenberg, well, he was, of course, misquoted. His interview before his death was all in German so the literal translation was questionable and the direct quote “Adhd is a prime example of a fictitious disease” was done by Dr. Jerome Kagan, a critic of Dr. Eisenberg. http://www.snopes.com/politics/quotes/adhd.asp

For more, reliable, information about Attention Deficit take a look at the links below:

http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/adhd/guidelines.html

http://www.additudemag.com/additude/article/873.html

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/adhd/DS00275