A boy who stops taking stimulants for "ADHD": commentaries on a Pediatrics case study.

ABSTRACT

This article presents eight commentaries on a case study published in the journal Pediatrics in 2001. The case study, introduced in Pediatrics to highlight the issue of adolescents' compliance with drug treatment in a "high-prevalence neurobehavioral condition," briefly describes an adolescent boy who announces that he no longer needs the methylphenidate he was prescribed for ADHD and had been taking for the last five years. We invited experienced professionals from the disciplines of psychiatry, psychology, counseling, education, and occupational therapy to comment on the case and make recommendations to the adolescent boy in the case study, his family, and professionals. Their commentaries highlight issues rarely discussed in the mainstream literature, including the extent to which ADHD is erroneously portrayed and vigorously managed as a disease; the lack of validity of the ADHD construct in adolescence; the widespread use of stimulants as performance-enhancing drugs; the need to respect an adolescent's gut instinct and developing decisions; the importance of family dynamics in ADHD-like situations; the need to ease stimulant withdrawal effects; and the human rights of children prescribed psychotropic drugs.