L. Alan Sroufe in the NYT argues we might be entirely on the wrong track when medicating our children with substances like Ritalin:
To date, no study has found any long-term benefit of attention-deficit medication on academic performance, peer relationships or behavior problems.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/29/opinion/sunday/childrens-add-drugs-dont-work-long-term.html
He goes on to describe how (as usual) we treat symptoms instead of causes:
Putting children on drugs does nothing to change the conditions that derail their development in the first place. Yet those conditions are receiving scant attention. Policy makers are so convinced that children with attention deficits have an organic disease that they have all but called off the search for a comprehensive understanding of the condition.
Meanwhile the award, sorry, the money goes to:
The National Institute of Mental Health finances research aimed largely at physiological and brain components of A.D.D. While there is some research on other treatment approaches, very little is studied regarding the role of experience. Scientists, aware of this orientation, tend to submit only grants aimed at elucidating the biochemistry. Thus, only one question is asked: are there aspects of brain functioning associated with childhood attention problems? The answer is always yes. Overlooked is the very real possibility that both the brain anomalies and the A.D.D. result from experience.
The feedback loop closes:
The large-scale medication of children feeds into a societal view that all of life’s problems can be solved with a pill and gives millions of children the impression that there is something inherently defective in them.
And in case you wonder who is left over in this giant apparatus of billions of credits:
Drugs get everyone — politicians, scientists, teachers and parents — off the hook. Everyone except the children, that is.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/29/opinion/sunday/childrens-add-drugs-dont-work-long-term.html