ex-idaho

I just saw an ad for Adult Attention Deficit Disorder. I have always felt that there is a very high liklihood that A.D.D. was a creation of the pharmecutical companies and this new ad in my mind just help to confirm this.

The big argument against regulating the perscription drug industry is that it would stifle development of knew drugs. But if you look at the drugs that have been developed over the past few years they all have questionable uses. The state of Oregon did a comprehensive study that found that the most frequently prescribed drugs were also the most expensive and had much cheaper generic or over the counter alternatives like aspirin and Tylenol.

Is the pharmecutical industry inventing illness' in order to sell questionable creations?

Gurdur

Well, yes, it would seem so.
There has been a lot of medical criticism of the pharma industry lately for a new one, Female Sexual Dysfunctionality (or some such name; I'm translating from German).
Well, no; IMveryHO, ADD does exist --- it is simply massively over-diagnosed.

Really, send PM's to Dr Rick, Scigirl and Grizzly on this requesting their opinions, since it's a very interesting topic.

John Hancock

I've only glanced at drug company profit release by Public Citizen but this link has some interesting information. http://www.citizen.org/congress/refo...es.cfm?ID=9922

Martin

Carrie

Well the symtoms associated with A.D.D. were noticed long before there was a drug to cure them. Back in the early 1980's when I was in grade school, no one knew of A.D.D. But my teachers did notice I had some problems. The social worker at the school did an assessment of me and made a list of all my behaviors. I was a spaced out hyper kid with a bad temper who was impossible to wake up in the morning. All they told my mom to do was to keep me off sugar. When I was 20, I took the list to my doctor, and it matched up exactly with the list of A.D.D. symptoms. Doc said, "yeah looks like you have it," and he put me on Ritalin. Actually a generic version of it. And it does help me quite a bit. It doesn't help me remember things, but it does help me focus and helps me get going and get motivated. A lot of A.D.D. has to do with feeling very tired and bored. The Ritalin gets your brain going. I set my alarm to take it in the morning, and then I snooze for a while, and I automatically wake up about a half hour later because it makes my brain get going so that I can't fall back asleep. And it keeps me going for hours. Without it I am very spaced out, kind of like that "morning fog" feeling, but it lasts all day. So no, I don't think A.D.D. was invented so they could make a drug to sell like crazy. I do think that it's over prescribed though. I especially don't think kids need to take it every day all day. I just take it when I have important stuff to do, or when I'm feeling very spaced out.

Fisheye

Hmm...I've been diagnosed with ADD...I haven't sat down with a book in ages, because I can't 'get into' it...I'll read a couple paragraphs and go on to something else. I seem to do fine with message boards, the back-and-forth conversations and the interactivity seem to make it hold my interest. Still can't seem to read whole posts when they're paragraphs long, though. Haven't watched a movie at home in a while, can't hold my interest (even though I want to watch it). Theaters remove the distractions, so I can watch a movie there...I should start taking my medication again and see if that helps...

conkermaniac

I have never gotten it checked, but I probably have the disorder too. I can't concentrate on reading the long posts on this message board very well, nor can I read books for a prolonged period of time. I find myself daydreaming in class, even if I do manage to get straight A's. Is the problem serious, do you think?

Loren Pechtel

I agree that there is a lot of nonsense from the drug companies. I don't think most of it is about invented illnesses or questionable creations, though.

The problems the drugs treat are real, the drugs do treat them. Nothing questionable there. Often the older drugs are just about as good and *MUCH* cheaper, though.

As for the whole rash of things you seem to be comparing to aspirin: They are basically low-side-effect versions of aspirin. While we think of aspirin and it's relatives as almost perfectly safe the reality is that they have very definite risks in patients that need to keep using them every day.

Loren Pechtel

The problem with ADD is that it doesn't have an exact diagnosis. ADD is basically a too-much situation. There's no threshold that lets you clearly divide the sick from the well.

NialScorva

There's a list of behaviors. The person has to demonstrate them in 2 or more situations. I took the WAIS III as part of my diagnoses. While looking at the results, the doctor showed me a chart of the prototypical ADHD patient showing the descrepancy between tasks that did and didn't require sustained attention. In my case, they're not trivial differences, all of my scores were +2 to +3 or -1.5 to -2.5 standard deviations, divided exclusively with things requiring focus or auditory processing on the low side and everything else on the high side.

The diagnosis is a continuum and there's a lot of grey area and debate over where the line should be drawn, but there is definitely a diagnosis. Most psychology seems to be like that, though.

Jat

Well, yes, they are. Medicine shouldn't be about profit.