Hyperactive UK: warning as ADHD drug prescription rates soar 50 per cent in five years

Doctors using broader definitions of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, risk prescribing “unnecessary and possibly harmful treatment” to their patients, experts have warned.

Prescription rates for ADHD drugs such as Ritalin have soared in the UK in recent years, from 420,000 in 2007 to 657,000 in 2012. The condition, the symptoms of which include a short attention span and restlessness, is believed to affect between two and five per cent of school-age children.

However, in a study published in the British Medical Journal today, researchers from the Bond University in Australia point out that the clinical definition of ADHD has been expanded in recent years and urge doctors to be “conservative” when diagnosing the condition.’

Read more: Hyperactive UK: warning as ADHD drug prescription rates soar 50 per cent in five years

Before his death, father of ADHD admitted it was a fictitious disease

‘If you or someone you know has a child that has been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), chances are the child is actually just fine. At least this is what the “father” of ADHD, Leon Eisenberg, would presumably say if he were still alive.

On his death bed, this psychiatrist and autism pioneer admitted that ADHD is essentially a “fictitious disease,” which means that millions of young children today are being needlessly prescribed severe mind-altering drugs that will set them up for a life of drug addiction and failure.’

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