Attention Disorder or Not, Pills to Help in School

[groovedaddy]

CANTON, Ga. — When Dr. Michael Anderson hears about his low-income patients struggling in elementary school, he usually gives them a taste of some powerful medicine: Adderall.

The pills boost focus and impulse control in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Although A.D.H.D is the diagnosis Dr. Anderson makes, he calls the disorder “made up” and “an excuse” to prescribe the pills to treat what he considers the children’s true ill — poor academic performance in inadequate schools.

“I don’t have a whole lot of choice,” said Dr. Anderson, a pediatrician for many poor families in Cherokee County, north of Atlanta. “We’ve decided as a society that it’s too expensive to modify the kid’s environment. So we have to modify the kid.”

Dr. Anderson is one of the more outspoken proponents of an idea that is gaining interest among some physicians. They are prescribing stimulants to struggling students in schools starved of extra money — not to treat A.D.H.D., necessarily, but to boost their academic performance.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/09/health/attention-disorder-or-not-children-prescribed-pills-to-help-in-school.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20121009&_r=0

[DJ13]

1. So we create a generation of speed junkies?

And how is that supposed to improve our communities in the future?

[mbperrin]

2. I thought MDs had to take some child development courses?

Developmentally appropriate behavior does not need to be dealt with using drugs. In fact, the idea that a pill solves problems will create a whole generation of dependent people, not exactly a recipe for their success or ours, as a society.

What contempt he has for his patients and for the schools.

[groovedaddy]

4. Just say "No" to drugs...except when they're prescribed.

Sending a mixed message to kids? You bet!

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. OMG

How is this not malpractice??

[HiPointDem]

5. tell you another reason. economic collapse at the bottom, welfare 'reform' & the emergence of

ssi as one of the few forms of cash assistance still available to poor people.

only it requires the acceptance of a disability label and if the disability is mental/intellectual, a requirement to be on drugs.