ADHD has been considered a medical disorder, treatable with drugs like Ritalin, but New York Times Magazine writer Paul Tough says recent studies question that assumption and treatment options.Also, Martin Johnson reviews a new tribute to Anthony Braxton, who Johnson says is one of the most polarizing figures in jazz.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
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This is Fresh Air. I'm Dave Davies. If you live in the United States, chances are good that you either are or know a parent whose child is being treated for ADHD, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Last year, the Centers for Disease Control reported that more than 11% of American children had been diagnosed with ADHD, a record high. For 14-year-old boys, the figure was 21%.
In a recent article for the New York Times Magazine, journalist Paul Tuff examines how ADHD is diagnosed and treated, often with commonly prescribed stimulants such as Ritalin and Adderall. Though they're regarded as highly effective and thus very popular, he finds three decades of scientific studies have raised questions about their efficacy and safety and about the nature of ADHD itself.
Some researchers think the notion that ADHD is a distinct, identifiable brain disorder may be wrong, or at least oversimplified, and that treatments other than medication should be considered. Paul Tuff is a contributing writer to the New York Times Magazine and the author of four books, most recently, The Inequality Machine, How College Divides Us. Paul Tuff, welcome to Fresh Air.
Thank you. Great to be here.
You write that in the early 90s, there were rising rates of ADHD diagnoses, about 2 million American kids in 1993, roughly two-thirds of them taking Ritalin. This provoked protests from some, particularly the Church of Scientology, you know, arguing that you're drugging our kids. You write that you didn't have to be a Scientologist to acknowledge there were legitimate questions about ADHD.
What were they?
At that point, the questions were pretty basic. We didn't exactly understand what this condition was and what treatments were the right ones to use. So Ritalin doctors could see, families could see that when kids took Ritalin, there was this, in many of them, this overnight change in their behavior. But we weren't sure why that was happening. And the diagnoses were expanding at such a great rate.
There was also a question of why that was, why suddenly it had doubled in just a few years.
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