From the New York Times:

Nearly one in five high school age boys in the United States and 11 percent of school-age children over all have received a medical diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, according to new data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

These rates reflect a marked rise over the last decade and could fuel growing concern among many doctors that the A.D.H.D. diagnosis and its medication are overused in American children.

Wow.  Ya think?  Is it really any wonder considering that the psychiatric industry invents mental “disorders” based on self-serving motives rather than science?

And even more teenagers are likely to be prescribed medication in the near future because the American Psychiatric Association plans to change the definition of A.D.H.D. to allow more people to receive the diagnosis and treatment.

Common sense suggests that ADHD is often simply a behavior that is treated with chemicals, not for the benefit of the child, but for the adults who find the behavior intolerable.

A.D.H.D. has historically been estimated to affect 3 to 7 percent of children. The disorder has no definitive test and is determined only by speaking extensively with patients, parents and teachers, and ruling out other possible causes — a subjective process that is often skipped under time constraints and pressure from parents.

“There’s a tremendous push where if the kid’s behavior is thought to be quote-unquote abnormal — if they’re not sitting quietly at their desk — that’s pathological, instead of just childhood,” said Dr. Jerome Groopman, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and the author of “How Doctors Think.”

Psychiatric diagnoses, while shrouded with the mantle of science, are highly subjective and largely impossible to confirm by objective means.  The fact that there is no evidence of a physical cause is what defines it as a mental disease.  And the financial incentives to generate more patients are huge.

An A.D.H.D. diagnosis often results in a family’s paying for a child’s repeated visits to doctors for assessments or prescription renewals. Taxpayers assume this cost for children covered by Medicaid, who, according to the C.D.C. data, have among the highest rates of A.D.H.D. diagnoses: 14 percent for school-age children, about one-third higher than the rest of the population.

ADHD is treated with psychostimulants drugs that contain amphetamine or behave in a way similar to amphetamine.by increasing levels of dopamine and norepinephrine.

The medications — primarily Adderall, Ritalin, Concerta and Vyvanse — often afford those with severe A.D.H.D. the concentration and impulse control to lead relatively normal lives. Because the pills can vastly improve focus and drive among those with perhaps only traces of the disorder, an A.D.H.D. diagnosis has become a popular shortcut to better grades, some experts said, with many students unaware of or disregarding the medication’s health risks.

Of course, once the public starts catching on to their sleazy tactics to line their pockets, all the psychiatric industry needs to do is declare, “Oops.  We changed our minds” as they did when they removed homosexuality from their official list of mental disorders.  The public seems very understanding of that sort of sudden change of direction, never mind the destruction they do when they label people as sick who really aren’t sick at all…

[Adendum] On a slightly related note, the hospital where “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” was filmed opened a mental health museum.