Obedience Pills: ADHD and the Medicalization of Childhood

Every day across this great land of ours, children are swallowing pills for something called Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. This is still largely an American obsession, by the way-the United States spends several times as much on ADHD meds than all the rest of the world put together-although the rest of the world is catching up with us. The idea that millions of children-mostly boys-are walking around with defective brains that require them to ingest powerful psychotropic drugs every day of their lives in order to be able to cope with the quotidian tasks of childhood has become received wisdom.

Once upon a time, the mass drugging of children was the subject of spirited debate, but that controversy seems for the most part to have died down. The goal of this book is to re-ignite that controversy.

This is an outstanding and painstakingly researched treatise on ADHD that clearly exposes the hazards waiting to destroy your child. It should be in every pediatrician’s office and in every graduate student’s library.

Michelle Barrett, M. Ed., Founder, Del Dios Counseling Services

The shocking story of psychiatry’s abandonment of scientific evidence… A must-read for anyone currently living with a diagnosis of ADHD.

Bruce Cohen, University of Auckland, author of Psychiatric Hegemony