ABSTRACT
ADHD, which has seen massive recent increases in diagnosis since 2000, is defined as a difficulty in paying attention, restlessness, and hyperactivity. By 2010, nearly one in three US children aged 2-17 had been diagnosed as suffering ADHD,1 and by 2012 the diagnoses of ADHD had risen 66 percent in the prior decade.2 Ballooning rates of diagnosis have been met with unprecedented levels of medical prescriptions, principally for the amphetamine pharmaceutical drugs Adderall and Ritalin. By 2011, 11 percent of all US children aged 4-17 were diagnosed with ADHD and 6.1 percent were taking ADHD drugs, and an estimated 8 to 35 percent of university students in the United States were using cognitive stimulants.3 Boys are diagnosed at nearly three times the rate of girls.4 About 80 percent of those children diagnosed with ADHD are using these medications.5 Children below the poverty line are diagnosed at higher rates, especially poor toddlers.6
