The ADHD epidemic and the treatment of it by bombing kids out on prescription drugs is just another symptom of our sick society.
Many children are raised,in the main,by TV,computers and video games.Their parents have opted out of parenting with the encouragement of society.
How many kids are read to by their parents?How many kids read books?How many kids are compelled to get outside and play?How many kids are compelled to go to bed at a sensible hour?How many kids are fed on chemical laced junk instead of wholesome food?How many kids would rather drink carbonated,sugar laced lolly water rather than just water?

This is the lost generation and we are already seeing the effects in antisocial behaviour.Solution,for our fearless and stupid leaders - build more prisons.

You said that boys lose more in divorce and that feminism is partly at fault. My sister was deserted by her husband and was left with 3 children to support and parent. Two are boys, one with Aspergers.

Unfortunately her ex has not provided a good role model for them at all. For a lot of the time he has not wanted access visits, doesn't financially support them at all - even to the extent of not buying them birthday or Christmas presents.

I agree that kids need to run around more and not be medicated. I also think we live in a very odd society that damages us all and that this shows up most obviously in the problems kids show.

I do not think blaming feminism helps. Women looking after kids are the poorest group in our society. Usually they did not intend to end up as sole parents.

Feminism is all about women having the ability to work, be independent,use their talents, be treated with respect as well as to be able to look after themselves and their family financially as well as emotionally.

We need to look at the whole of society as to what is going on with our kids.

It's a dam shame all round.
Woman would rather spend 80% of their earnings on child care than to be for them.
I say it has got a lot to do with feminism.
They want to be 'free' and have kids at the same time.
It should be one or the other.
I am glad i did it the old fashioned way.
The system is overcrowded with kids born with disability.
There that many poisons available, like mcdonalds.
Not to mention a cocktail of illegal drugs.
The kids need a mother, full time.
I read somewhere the other day, about kids with low vitamin D levels.
It's free all you have to do is go outside.

The ADHD medication issue is a symptom of a society that seeks to absolve parents of responsibility partially by 'medicalising' children's behaviour. It does not help that the entire schooling system with precious few exceptions is still the workhouse / factory fodder model from the industrial revolution. Largely feminised, its organisation makes the "outcomes" for students easy to “measure”. Parents love it because they went through that system and (to paraphrase) "it didn't do me any harm" - so they are experts in promulgating an anachronistic system. Educators who challenge this are branded new fangled lefties.

The education system (read 'government') in general loves it because children's failure to learn can be splendidly lost in an an avalanche of bollocks sold to us as being just wonderful. Listen to the entire spin-doctored 'education revolution' blather. Go to your local school's website. (Don Watson is my hero!).

The ADHD issue is an indicator of an entire education system that increasingly fails young people. The indicators are the bureaucratic devices that seek to categorise and exclude rather than include. In categorising “problems” you can then categorise what governments and schools are doing to fix them - without actually doing it. Ask any teacher - nothing much ever changes at the classroom level. Symptoms include the astronomical increase in autism and Asperger's syndrome diagnoses, burgeoning special education enrolments (and yep, it's about 5:1 boys to girls), the failure of boys in general, the abysmal funding for education across the board, the building of new schools that are identical in political purpose and function to those of the 1890s. The threat of litigation and complaint means teachers find it easier to be stuck in the didactic workhouse rut. I once had to write a risk assessment for youngsters using play dough.

The killer is now schools and teachers have just that one little thing extra to do - take over the role of the parents.

This Post by Dr West is one of the most fatuous, self serving, ill researched articles I have ever seen. The material seems to have been scraped from articles in women's magazines from "natural" health nuts.

Other than being a senior lecturer in education at UWS, I cannot find his actual qualifications anywhere. Based on the intellectual poverty of the article, I am led to believe that none of them relate in any way to the field of ADHD.

Only certified child psychiatrists and not GPs are allowed to prescribe the medications.

There are specific tests that identify the various under lying causes of ADHD that are used for diagnostics, and very few practitioners prescribe based on behavioural issues alone.

The medications are generally stimulants that re inforce the higher level thinking skills that manage impulse control. The child is calmer because he/she has better control and not because of sedation.

The more insidious consequences of untreated ADHD is poor social skills, as the impulsive behaviour is considered inapropriate, leading to the social exclusion of the child. As a result the child learns coping mechanisms rather than social skills, leading to permanent social impediment as well as the education.

While the numbers might be increasing, and some of it might be due to lax diagnosis, much of it is to do with the increased awareness of the condition.

I personally know a child who after a low dosage treatment went from a disruptive under performer to a popular house captain at junior school, and went on to a top private school on a full acedemic scholarship.

So while Peter West is on his naturalist feel good campaign against the evils of ritalin, he might very well be condemning otherwise bright children to acedemic mediocrity and social obscurity.

This article and the first few comments are typical of the sanctimonious bullsh!t that ADD/ADHD (I prefer that term, as not all are hyperactive - some quite the opposite) kids and their parents have to put up with all the time.

Yes, *some* children are unnecessarily diagnosed as ADD/ADHD, that doesn't mean that ALL of them are. Their is good evidence that many men are diagnosed and treated unnecessarily for prostate cancer - does that mean that ALL prostate cancer is imaginary?

"Oh, but all boys are like that! It's bad parenting/schooling/society ..." Rubbish. There's inattentive, and there's the child who is observed staring out the window and fiddling with a pencil for two hours. Our son went spent the first few years of his schooling on a continuous downward spiral. His fantastic teacher worked with us on countless strategies to help him, all to no avail.

Then he saw a respected paediatrician (on an unrelated matter), and was finally diagnosed as ADD (*not* ADHD). After much wrestling of our consciences, we agreed with the paediatrician to try medication. We did not tell his teacher. The very first day he went to school, after starting the medication, his teacher knew straight away.

His school work and behaviour improved beyond recognition. Many years later, we all came to an agreement that he could slowly go off the medication if he wanted to.

I am absolutely positive that if our son had not been placed on ADHD medication, his quality of life today would be far, far worse.

So don't give me your sanctimonious claptrap.