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chairman Dr David Kupfer acknowledged that "[t]here is no current validated diagnostic test",* and another panel member noted succinctly that "the diagnosis is a mess".* chairman Dr David Kupfer acknowledged that "[t]here is no alone that are the basis of the diagnosis."*° current validated diagnostic test",* and another panel member Psychiatrist Peter R. Breggin, MD: "It is important for the noted succinctly that "the diagnosis is a mess".* Education Committee to understand that the ADD/ADHD diagno- sis was developed specifically for the purpose of justifying the use Lack of Validity of Diagnosis of drugs to subdue the behaviors of children in the classroom."” The "validity" of a diagnosis refers to the extent to which it * United States Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton: "Some of describes something that is real and can be proved. "Despite mil- these young people have problems that are symptoms of nothing lions of dollars spent on research over the past twenty years, much more than childhood or adolescence."* of it subsidised by hopeful drug companies, no one has yet been ¢ Psychiatrist Sidney Walker III, MD: "The medical able to identify this ‘disease’ called ADHD."* community has elevated Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and Incredibly, there are many highly respected professionals in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) to the status of various fields who publicly acknowledge that there is no proof of diagnoses, and most people believe these are real diseases. They the existence of ADHD. Consider the following... aren't, and doctors who label children ADD or ADHD don't have * Psychology professor Diane McGuinness, PhD: a clue what's really ailing them."” "Methodologically rigorous research indicates that ADHD and ¢ Educator and researcher Brenton Prosser, PhD: "The domi- hyperactivity as 'syndromes' simply do not exist." nant definition of the condition argues that it is physiologically * Neurologist Fred A. Baughman, MD: "We are not mis- based and is best treated with amphetamines, while there remains diagnosing or over-diagnosing, mis-treating or over-treating no biological basis for these claims." ADHD. It has been a total, 100% fraud throughout its 35-year * The 1998 Consensus Development Conference, held by the history."* US National Institutes of Health, came to this conclusion: "[W]e * Associate Professor Robert Reid, PhD, University of do not have an independent, valid test for ADHD, and there are no Nebraska: "[T]he causes of ADHD data to indicate that ADHD is due to are simply not known."” a brain malfunction."* * The Australian National The question remains as to why Association of Practising practitioners and the public alike Psychiatrists (NAPP): "[ADHD] is refer to "ADHD" as a demonstrable not an inherite 1 genetic disorder or There is no more fundamental disorder, when there Is ample evi- organic disease" and "scientific evi- . . ence that it is not. This phenome- dence to support ADHD as a disorder human right than the right to non was explained by Dr John is unproven".“° ily in rity. Jureidini, head of the Department of ¢ Psychiatrist Denis Donovan, MD: bod y teg ty. Psychological Medicine at the "ADD is a bogus diagnosis. Parents Women's and Children's Hospital, and teachers are rushing like lem- Adelaide, South Australia, in mings to identify a pathology... Our response to a question by a parlia- current pathologizing of behavior mentary commission: leads to massive swelling of the ranks "There is monumental literature of the diseased, the dysfunctional, the disordered and the dis- that takes as a given that ADHD is a neurobiological condition abled." and starts from there to talk about different forms of treatment. ¢ Physician William B. Carey, MD, of the Children's Hospital Once you have many thousands of articles published about of Philadelphia: "What is now most often described as ADHD in something, how can it possibly make sense for someone to stand the United States appears to be a set of normal behavioral varia- up and say This is not an entity’? I want to emphasise that I quite tions. This discrepancy leaves the validity of the construct in clearly acknowledge that there are children who are very doubt."” compromised because of difficulties with impulsiveness, attention « Psychologist John Breeding, PhD: "The diagnosis of ADHD and activity. I am not saying that these children are not suffering is, itself, fraudulent." or are not worthy of attention. I am saying that, as a disorder, * Tunku Varadarajan, Wall Street Journal deputy editorial fea- ADHD is a spurious entity."* tures editor: "[I]t's just as much nonsense-on-stilts as ADHD as it In distinguishing between literal and metaphorical diseases, was pure poppycock as ADD."* American psychiatrist Thomas Szasz notes: "[T]he suggestion ¢ Author Beverly Eakman: "These drugs make children more that, say, AIDS and ADHD...are radically different kinds of manageable, not necessarily better. ADHD is a phenomenon, not i —or, more precisely, that the latter is not a disease at a ‘brain disease’. Because the diagnosis of ADHD is fraudulent, it all—is politically so incorrect that it is dismissed out of hand." doesn't matter whether a drug ‘works’. Children are being forced Proponents of the biomedical model of ADHD are fond of say- to take a drug that is stronger than cocaine for a disease that is yet ing that they believe we are on the brink of discovering an aetiolo- to be proven."** gy; discovering that "ADHD" actually exists. But they have been * Psychologist Richard DeGrandpre, PhD, citing a study in saying the same thing for over 20 years. The fact remains that, in Pediatrics, a US medical journal, showing that 80% of children scientific terms, there is no validity to the construct of a "disease" reported as hyperactive at home or school showed exemplary called ADHD. behaviour and no signs of hyperactivity in the physician's office: "This finding is consistent with numerous studies showing, and The Lack of Informed Consent dozens of newspaper articles reporting, considerable disagreement There is no more fundamental human right than the right to among parents, teachers, and clinicians about who qualifies fora bodily integrity. A hallmark of most legal systems is that inno- diagnosis. This can only raise questions about the existence of cent people are protected from anything happening to their own ADD as a real medical phenomenon since it is these symptoms body without their consent. According to an article in the DePaul human right than the right to bodily integrity. The Lack of Informed Consent There is no more fundamental human right than the right to bodily integrity. A hallmark of most legal systems is that inno- cent people are protected from anything happening to their own body without their consent. According to an article in the DePaul NEXUS + 15 There is no more fundamental FEBRUARY — MARCH 2005 www.nexusmagazine.com