What an asshole...Part 2 (Misrepresenting ADD research)

Here's a Tom Cruise wanna be misrepresenting a bunch of data in the quest to show he's an idiot (and also show that ADD doesn't exist and drugs are bad).

While unfunded individuals and grass-roots groups are screaming at the top of their lungs about psychiatrists drugging our children based on made-up diseases, drug companies run hourly television ads to spread the false message of chemical
imbalances. That no blood is ever drawn to prove this imbalance and that no normal child has Ritalin or Prozac coursing through their veins hasn't stopped this catch-phrase from becoming our version of the flat-earth concept widely accepted 400 years ago.

While teachers and psychiatrists are paired up to
push drugs to "help" schoolchildren study, we also have TeenScreen partnering with psychiatrists coming in on the child suicide angle. Behind both groups are money-hungry billion dollar drug companies. It doesn't matter that TeenScreen identifies eighty-four non-suicidal teens for evaluation for every sixteen it correctly identifies (that's just more money for the psychiatric profession when they prescribe the drugs).

For today however, let's not even argue against this fabricated disease (Attention Deficit Disorder) or this sensationalistic worry about suicide (children are six times more likely to die in automobile accidents), but instead let's take a
stroll through the KNOWN side-effects of one drug which psychiatrists happily prescribe to millions.

Ahh and some biographical information about the author - seems like he's well qualified to have such a strong opinion about ADD.

John Carey has degrees in Chemical Engineering and Computer Science from Texas A&M, and has worked for a major oil company for over 20 years. As a humanitarian endeavor, he has researched extensively on the psychiatric drugging of children.

--Updated content from comments--
Some problems with his conslusions...

1. "What about fitting into society?
Studies prove that children on psychiatric stimulants for ADHD are 46% more likely to commit one felony, and 36% more likely to commit two or more felonies. "
This is ridiculous - It's more appropriate to say that people with ADD are more likely to commit crimes since they are the only ones receiving the medication (well besides narcoleptics), but to say that drugs are doing it? Maybe if people without ADD were given drugs and then in turn they commited more crimes. But if you reject the entire concept of ADD I guess he could be right ;)

2."In The Learning Mystique, Gerald Coles confirms a 1978 review of seventeen studies and they all agree: "stimulant drugs have little, if any, impact on…long-term academic improvement." A large percentage of these children become robotic, lethargic or depressed."
1978? wtf! Did ritalin even exist in its present form then?

3. "That no blood is ever drawn to prove this imbalance"
There are structural brain differences - what more of a test do you want? Also blood tests are continually being developed - for example one for anxiety recently.

4, "in the same category as cocaine, opium, and morphine."
DEA classification - this means there is a potential for abuse, not that the drugs can't help. Do you have any idea what we would do without morphine and its derivatives?! You try having surgery or chronic pain without it.

5."Will Ritalin improve your child's grades? If Ritalin could do this, don't you think that Novartis would announce this to the world? The vast majority of children on Ritalin have either NO improvement or their actual achievement scores deteriorate."
People given opportunities don't always take them. A lot of people who win the lottery go bankrupt and get divorced - winning the lottery isn't bad, how the person who wins handles it matters.

And a comment from a friend:
"He's the type of guy that won't look at the other side of the research...like kids who are not treated are more at risk for failure, dropping out, depression, etc"