Metadata
- Authors: Paul Tough Eric Jason Martin Krish Seenivasan Brian St
- Full Title:: Have We Been Thinking About A.D.H.D. All Wrong? - The New York Times
- Category:: 🗞️Articles
- URL:: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/13/magazine/adhd-medication-treatment-research.html/
- Read date:: 2025-04-22
Highlights
That ever-expanding mountain of pills rests on certain assumptions: that A.D.H.D. is a medical disorder that demands a medical solution; that it is caused by inherent deficits in children’s brains; and that the medications we give them repair those deficits. Scientists who study A.D.H.D. are now challenging each one of those assumptions — and uncovering new evidence for the role of a child’s environment in the progression of his symptoms. (View Highlight)
the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or D.S.M., which provides a checklist of symptoms to use in diagnosing patients, including nine potential symptoms for inattention and nine for hyperactivity/impulsivity. (View Highlight)
The subjects who were given stimulants worked more quickly and intensely than the ones who took the placebo. They dutifully packed and repacked their virtual backpacks, pulling items in and out, trying various combinations. In the end, though, their scores on the knapsack test were no better than the placebo group. The reason? Their strategies for choosing items became significantly worse under the medication. Their choices didn’t make much sense — they just kept pulling random items in and out of the backpack. To an observer, they appeared to be focused, well behaved, on task. But in fact, they weren’t accomplishing anything of much value. (View Highlight)
The ones who took the medication didn’t do better on any of the tests than the ones who took the placebo, but when the researchers asked the subjects to evaluate their performance on the assessments, the ones who took Adderall believed they had done better. They felt more confident, even if their actual abilities didn’t improve. (View Highlight)
Historically, this is one of the main reasons people have taken amphetamines: They make tedious tasks seem more interesting. (View Highlight)
After the first year of treatment, the relative positive effects of Ritalin on behavior started to shrink, and by the end of the third year, they had disappeared altogether. (View Highlight)
The children who took Ritalin for an extended period grew less quickly than the nonmedicated children did. (View Highlight)
You can just stop taking them. “At some level,” Gabrieli told me, “these stimulants are not that far from Red Bull.” (View Highlight)
After three decades of studying stimulants, Swanson differs with many of his colleagues on their value. “I don’t agree with people who say that stimulant treatment is good,” he told me. “It’s not good.” He acknowledges that medication can often produce short-term improvements in children’s behavior. But, he says, “there is no long-term effect. The only long-term effect that I know of has been the suppression of growth. If you’re honest, you should tell kids that, look, if you’re interested in next week or next month or even the next year, this is the right treatment for you. But in the long run, you’re going to be shorter. How many kids would agree to take medication? Probably none.” (View Highlight)