ADHD: TOTAL, 100% FRAUD
By Fred A. Baughman Jr.,
Neurologist, Pediatric Neurologist
Fellow,
1303 Hidden
Adhdfraud.com
Pediatrician/author/
T. Barry Brazelton [Washington Times, 3/?/03], breaths
life into the lie/illusion of ADHD as a “disease”/ “chemical imbalance”--one
needing a “chemical balancer”--Ritalin, Adderall—amphetamines-all!
All
physicians (psychiatrists included) study the normal (no disease) and abnormal
(disease) and are responsible for telling one from the other. When no abnormality/disease is present,
there is nothing to make normal; no need for medical treatment. A third to a half of patients seek help for psychological/psychiatric symptoms, and have
no abnormality/disease.
Psychiatry
and neurology were formally separated in 1948, psychiatry to deal with the
emotional and behavioral problems of
physically/medically normal individuals, and neurology to deal with
physical/medical abnormalities of the nervous system.
With
the production of psychiatric drugs in the 50’s and 60’s, the psycho-pharm cartel
began calling all things mental “diseases”—“chemical imbalances.” The American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) grew
from 112 “diseases” in 1952, to 374 in
the 1994—all invented. ADHD was it’s prototypical
“biologically-based” “disease.”
In a 1970, Congressional hearing psychiatrists insisted that “hyperkinesis” (a.k.a. ADHD)—was a disease.
John
Peters of the
ADD
was invented in 1980, but never validated as a disease.
ADHD
was invented in 1987, but never validated as a disease. The epidemic, nonetheless, had reached a half million.
In
1990, Alan Zametkin of the NIMH, using PET scans, reported that ADD
brains used 8% less glucose than
normals. But there was still had no test; diagnosis was based on
parents/teacher interviews. What’s more,
no one could duplicate Zametkin’s findings.
But this didn’t stop Ciba/Novartis, CHADD, or psychiatry, generally,
from chanting the “disease” claim.
In
their best seller, Driven to Distraction [1994] Edward Hallowell and
John Ratey, proclaimed: “… there is enough evidence
that neurochemical systems are altered in people with ADD…”
Speaking
of the PET evidence and knowing that no such thing had been confirmed, the NIMH
[1994] proclaimed: “the brain areas that control attention used less glucose…”
Turning
to CT scans, Nasrallah, et al [1986] found brain atrophy (shrinkage) in 58% of
young adults with
ADHD, but cautioned “.. since all of the patients had been treated with
psychostimulants, cortical atrophy may be a long-term adverse effect of this
treatment.”
From
1986-1998, nine MRI brain scan studies were performed on “treated” groups with
ADHD. All showed brain atrophy and all
concluded that the brain atrophy was due to ADHD. The possibility that their “treatment” was the
cause of the brain atrophy was dismissed.
Had
psychiatry and the NIMH truly sought to find abnormalities in ADHD they would
have scanned untreated individuals.
However, in 12 years (1986-1998) of brain scan research, they failed, or
refused, to do even one such study. They
did, however, persist in their claims that the brain atrophy invariably found,
but always in “treated” subjects, was proof that ADHD was a brain disease. Was this on purpose? Was it marketplace strategy?
At the 1998,
National Institutes of Health, ADHD, Consensus Conference, James Swanson and F.
Xavier Castellanos, of the NIMH, concluded: “…investigations provide converging
evidence that …ADHD… is characterized by reduced size in specific
neuroanatomical regions of the frontal lobes and basal ganglia.” But they uttered not a single word about all
of the ADHD subjects having been “treated”.
Baughman, an invited participant, asked: “Dr. Swanson, why
didn’t you mention that virtually all of the ADHD subjects… have been on chronic
stimulant therapy and that this is the likely cause of their brain
atrophy?”
Swanson: “I understand that this is a critical issue and in fact I am planning a study to investigate that. I haven’t yet done it.” (referring to the failure/reluctance to study an ADHD-untreated group since the beginning of brain scan research in the early eighties.)
William
B.Carey testified: “What is now most often described as ADHD…appears to be a
set of normal behavioral variations … This discrepancy leaves the validity
of the construct (ADHD) in doubt.”
On
Four additional MRI studies have been published between 1998 and the present—all, you guessed it, utilizing “treated” ADHD subjects, all affirming, time and again, that Ritalin/amphetamine “treatment” causes brain atrophy, not that ADHD is a disease.
Only the
Dr. Brazelton should have read this “research”
literature. With the ADHD epidemic at
6-7 million today, most of them “treated,” there is still no proof that ADHD is
a disease, and, of course, absolutely no objective means of diagnosing it.
On
Psychiatric
research has yet to prove me wrong.
Fred
A. Baughman Jr., MD, Neurology, Pediatric Neurology (board certified)
Fellow,
1303
Hidden
619
440 8236