“Children and Adults with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder” (CHADD)
Promotes Pharmaceutical Agenda While Receiving 1 Million Dollars from Pharma
LOS ANGELES: The psychiatric watchdog organization Citizens Commission on Human Rights is warning that consumers nationwide are being mislead by CHADD, which recently made fraudulent claims about the medical validity of “Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder” (ADHD), calling it a “disease.” CHADD attacked a Virginia school board for sending out valid information about ADHD and the drugs used to “treat” it, including a warning by the United Nations about the dangers of ADHD drugs.
With more than $1 million in pharmaceutical funding in 2004-2005 alone, CHADD has a conspicuous vested interest in trying to convince parents of the validity of ADHD and the drugs used to “treat” it.
Among other facts cited, the memo sent by the Virginia school board states, “The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child has issued a strong warning against falsely labeling youth with the psychiatric diagnosis of ADHD and administering powerful ADHD drugs. The committee urges that other forms of management and treatment be used to address difficult behavior in children. The Commission recommended against the prescription of these drugs for anyone under 18.” The memo also lists some of the documented side effects of drugs such as Ritalin and Adderall.
CHADD asked that the memo be retracted and that a new one be sent out stating that ADHD is a disease and requires “treatment.” CCHR says that CHADD’s fraudulent promotion of ADHD as a disease, and their outrage at the school board’s informational memo, is due to the organization’s vested interests in drug companies that market the so-called “treatments.” CHADD also conveniently omits the recent FDA warnings that ADHD drugs can cause hallucinations, psychosis, stroke, heart attack and sudden death.
Despite CHADD’s claims, there are no biological tests, such as blood tests, chemical imbalance tests, brain scans, MRIs or X-Rays, which can confirm ADHD as a medical disorder requiring the administration of dangerous and potentially lethal psychiatric drugs. Pediatric neurologist, Dr. Fred Baughman, who has discovered real physical diseases, says that claiming ADHD is a “disease” or “neurobiological” is “a perversion of science and medicine and is a lie.”
In addition to the strong FDA warnings issued this year, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has warned that most of the material prepared for public consumption by groups like CHADD do not address the potential or actual abuse of Ritalin but instead portray such dangerous drugs as a benign, mild substance that is not associated with abuse or any serious side effects. In fact, the DEA classifies Ritalin and Methylphenidate in the same class of highly addictive drugs as cocaine, morphine and opium.
CCHR says the public has the right to know the truth about the dangers of these drugs, as well as the fact that there is no medical/scientific basis to validate ADHD as a disease. The watchdog group urges parents to demand that their right to fully informed consent be upheld and to applaud those individuals and groups that are fighting for informed consent and the right for parents to get all the information available, instead of that coming from groups that benefit from the child drugging industry.
The Citizens Commission on Human Rights is an international psychiatric watchdog group co-founded in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and Dr. Thomas Szasz, Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus, to investigate and expose psychiatric violations of human rights. Contact CCHR St. Louis at CCHRSTL@CCHRSTL.ORG. Visit CCHR’s website at https://www.cchrstl.org.