There’s no cure for ‘difficult’ boys

YOUR feature on Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) on February 22 needs some cautionary notes.

When a newly-defined “condition” affects nearly 10% of the population (in this case boys), it is probably not an illness but a part of the range of behaviours that was considered normal in the past.

Parents must not be coerced down this road as they have been in the US. There are many historical figures who would certainly have been “diagnosed” with ADHD. Mark Twain is a certainty. And I’m sure if you remember your school days, as I do mine, you know the boys who would have been given this label in the past. Most of those I knew harnessed it to become successful and well adjusted – even if the “treatment” of the day was to be beaten to pulp.

We may well look back on the mass doping of children with a mind-altering drug (speed) with the same sense of shame and disbelief that we recall the pulverising of the previous generation.

In your feature, the doctor implies that the teenage onset of many psychiatric disorders is linked to non-treatment of ADHD. There is no evidence of that. We have no idea of the long-term effects of doling out speed to children during the most sensitive years of their brain development. In fact, children being put on Ritalin are participating in one of the largest drug experiments in history. We need to look at the US and ask if that’s where we want to end up. There, the primary teacher who is having problems with a child virtually does the diagnosis and prescription.

Busy parents called to meet teacher. Serious problems with Johnny. I believe he should be investigated for X. In fact, unless he is, he cannot stay in this school.

Parents then find willing medical professional.

Diagnosis: Johnny doesn’t cope as well as other children with sitting like a turnip for seven hours of instruction every day, therefore he is mentally ill. Solution: why, let’s give him speed.

Did you know shyness has now also been classed as an illness in the US? It’s now called social anxiety syndrome.

And guess what? There’s a drug for it.

The ADHD/Ritalin debacle is a shame. Irish parents must resist this. I’m not minimising the difficulties parents and teachers face with children who are being failed by one-size-fits-all education. But don’t follow the US cop-out.

Tom O’Neill

Brownstown

Johnswell Road

Kilkenny