MALENESS AS A DISEASE:

The United States of Adderall (Lawrence Diller, 9/9/11, AOL Healthy Living)

Given the current CDC data, one can safely estimate (based on previously detailed distribution curves) that one of six 11-year-old white boys with medical insurance currently take a stimulant drug at least during the school week. Is this over medication or simply good medical care for children with a previously undiagnosed and untreated condition? What I do know is that we are the only society currently managing our under performing/misbehaving children with drugs to this degree.

While the diagnosis of ADHD/ADD can seem ephemeral, the production of prescription stimulants, whose use is closely tied to the diagnosis, is monitored by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Since 1996 the annual amount of Ritalin type drugs approved for production by the DEA multiplied 4000 times to 50 million kilograms, and for Adderall 10000 times to 26 million kilograms. In more common terms, 83,776 tons of legal speed were approved for production in 2010 equaling more than half a pound for every man, woman and child in America.

The U.S. is a signatory to a 1972 United Nations treaty monitoring the production and sale of potentially addicting substances. The U.N.'s International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) based in Vienna, monitors the production of legal stimulants worldwide. INCB data shows that in 2009 the U.S., representing 4 percent of the world's population, produced 88 percent of the world's legal Ritalin type drugs. Canada uses a third per capita of prescription stimulants compared to the U.S. -- Germany, one eighth, the U.K. one twelfth, Japan, one fiftieth.

These drug production amounts do not separate child from adult use and clearly there has been a surge in adult ADHD/ADD and their use of stimulants in America in the last decade as well. Still the CDC study marks a continued increase in the diagnosis and use of these drugs in children. Is this a good thing or a bad thing?

I suppose it comes down to values. Amphetamine when used (in low doses) immediately improves focus and attention in anyone (including ADHD/ADD children) who takes them. Specific behavioral interventions (especially by parents) and educational interventions (by schools and teachers) also improve the performance and behavior of ADHD/ADD children.

Pills, however, place value on efficiency -- they work quickly and are relatively less costly. The non-drug interventions value engagement with the child; they require more time, more involvement by adults and initially cost more money.

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