The ADHD Explosion: Myths, Medication, Money, and Today's Push for Performance
"A new book,The ADHD Explosionby Stephen Hinshaw and Richard Scheffler, looks at this extraordinary increase [in ADHD diagnoses]. What's the explanation? Some rise in environmental toxins? Worse parenting? Better detection? Drs. Hinshaw and Scheffler... present some striking evidence that the answer lies, at least partly, in changes in educational policy." -Wall Street Journal"The ADHD Explosion, released this week by Oxford University Press, chronicles the steep increase in ADHD diagnoses in the US over the last two decades." -LA Times"This powerful, fact-packed survey is complex, thought-provoking, and urgent." --Publishers Weekly"This is a unique, highly informative, science-based, and hence incredibly useful book about ADHD and the numerous controversies surrounding it.  No disorder in recent times has been so controversial, so terribly misrepresented and sensationalized in the media, or so polarizing among the general public as this one.  The authors do a superb job cutting through the nonsense with facts to portray ADHD both sensibly and sensitively.  While a very useful book for parents and educators, professionals, students, and journalists will also find this book to be invaluable for its clear representation of what is known about ADHD and for its even-handedness and thoroughness in explaining the source of the many public and professional controversies."-Russell A. Barkley, PhD, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics, Medical University of South Carolina"If you think that ADHD is simply an invention of mental health professionals and the pharmaceutical industry, thenThe ADHD Explosionwill change your mind. This book elucidates the true personal and social costs of the syndrome for children, their families, schools, and communities."-Jeffrey E. Harris, MD PhD, Professor of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology"This is a wonderfully readable and very timely book, authored by two of the world's pre-eminent scientists. [...] They have produced the most thoughtful, scholarly, and simultaneously intuitively complete and 'commonsensical' exposition of 'what ADHD really is' to date. Despite the intricacies of the many lines of research that converge on this seemingly ubiquitous disorder, they have distilled these scientific complexities into a seamless, spell-binding story that accurately presents our current scientific knowledge about ADHD." -Peter S. Jensen, MD, President and CEO, The Reach Institute, Professor of Psychiatry and Vice-Chair for Research, Department of Psychiatry and Psychology, The Mayo Clinic"At a time when proposals about disability and health insurance policy have given intense focus to ADHD, it is important to have a clear sense of what the illness is, the consequences of carrying the disorder, the complex issues around the role that ADHD has taken in education and social interactions, and the opportunities for treatment of the condition. Anyone serious about tackling policy issues concerning ADHD should read this book." -Richard G. Frank, PhD, Margaret T. Morris Professor of Health Economics, Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School"In their well-written and thoughtful book, Hinshaw and Scheffler provide a nuanced view of theADHD Explosion. Provocative without being extreme, this book is thorough and sensitive, policy-relevant, and a major contribution to the literature."-Howard H. Goldman, MD, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore"The authors provide a wide-ranging and extremely thoughtful assessment of the causes and consequences of ADHD.  This book not only dispels many myths but also offers a tangible path forward for children, their parents, and governments." -Thomas Rice, PhD, Distinguished Professor, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health