Comments: New ADHD Study Pimps ADHD Workplace Screening
I have this theory that the rise in use of drugs that promote wakefulness including the speed drugs prescribed for adhd as well as cocaine and meth is to some extent because Americans are required to work so many hours just to survive. And, as always when some condition starts getting press as hidden and underdiagnosed, you have to wonder how these guys know the condition is underdiagnosed. Furthermore, the big work place problem in this country is unemployment, not lack of productivity.
Posted by Sally at May 28, 2008 03:20 AM
Why bother with expensive testing? Why not just make stimulant treatment a requirement of the job? Let's wring all the productivity we can out of the poor buggers...
Posted by Jazz at May 28, 2008 05:50 AM
The good people from Shire (makers of Adderall, Adderall XR and Vyvanse) are already picking up the tab for the screeening:
PHILADELPHIA, May 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Shire plc , the global specialty biopharmaceutical company, today announced the launch of a 13-city mobile screening initiative for adults with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), a psychiatric disorder that affects approximately 4.4 percent of the U.S. adult population aged 18-44 according to the National Comorbidity Survey Replication, a nationally representative household survey. The screening initiative, launched in Atlanta, GA, is designed to help raise awareness that ADHD is not just a childhood disorder. Research shows it is estimated that up to 65 percent of children with ADHD will continue to exhibit symptoms into adulthood. Adults who think they may have ADHD can take the first step toward recognizing the symptoms of the disorder by answering the 6-question World Health Organization (W.H.O.) adult ADHD screener. The screening initiative, known as the "RoADHD Trip," is housed, transported and anchored by the RoADHD Trip Tractor Trailer which expands into a tented area housing eight self-screening stations...
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m4PRN/is_2008_May_12/ai_n25407447
Posted by Robyn at May 28, 2008 06:10 AM
The drug companies have been behind every single one of these mental health universal screening ideas. Like the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health. How about, before we start screening every citizen for mental health problems, if we first address the possibly-more-important issue of: mental health care coverage. Oh, wait: maybe we should put heath care coverage before that. No, let's just give these ADHD screeners and threaten people with their jobs.
Posted by Row1 at May 28, 2008 07:50 AM
We need to get back to the way America was. This report will help. You know like back when workers were given cocaine to be more alert and work faster...Cocaine was a safe drug and there was "no provable" harm or bad long term studies.
The bonus if they didn't show up to work they got ill. Days off would cause withdrawal unless you have the drug for a home stash. Dependant workers work harder, longer and speak up less than a person who is treated decent and not impaired. The more you abuse workers, the more abuse they'll take. Pretty soon they start to believe they aren't working hard enough ...not fast enough....not..... for good ol' animal farm. Its scary how bad we're looping back to turn of the last century behavior and human/worker rights/treatments and justification.
If this person doesn't want to take cocaine or insert any "new stimulant" they need to be fired because they don't want to work...."Look at what great medicine this company was willing to give them for free"....Because everyone's coworkers are slackers and need to do more of the share of the work...... Any worker who isn't in a severe manic state doing their job tasks is sick in the head....
Its not that the shill report is that bad, its that its a sign of how much we think we should force things onto another and that every should preform at this hard level of high performance. Anything less you know like working at a sane and careful pace is failure even though a few years ago that failure was considered a good performance level. Fanaticism at its finest.
The one poetic thing is as the over achievers age and they can't keep up they get swept under the rugs by the aggressive levels of work output they created. But even then, they won't get it.
Posted by h at May 28, 2008 08:33 AM
BTW on the subject of some reporters not reporting studies correctly, you might find Bed Goldacre's site interesting:
www.badscience.net
He also writes for the Guardian newspaper, mostly articles analysing misleading reporting in the national UK press on various health issues.
I have no connection with the guy - I just like his column and website...
Posted by DeeDee Ramona at May 28, 2008 02:58 PM
One of the most disturbing thing about this story, I think, is it's strong undertones of fascism. I believe one of the characteristics of a fascistic society is it's merging of the interests of business and government. The obsession with productivity at all costs seems to also be an expression of something similar.
I believe the hyper-competitive nature of the American job market today is part of the reason why so many people need drugs of a psychiatric nature just to get by. As more and more of the fruits of most people's labors are skimmed off the top by an elite few, people must engage in an ever-more brutal struggle just to get their piece of the constantly shrinking economic pie. I'm not sure of the exact statistics, but I'm pretty sure it is true that the U.S. already is one of the most productive countries on Earth, and Americans work more hours per week on average than just about any other country in the world.
For an influential, highly paid psychiatrist to be acting in the interests of government and big business at the expense of most individuals is certainly nothing new.
Posted by Kent at May 28, 2008 09:52 PM
As someone with the AD(H)D diagnosis -- and is not now on any medications -- what I find most worrisome about this study and the attendant publicity is that someone will realize that the most cost effective way to reduce the productivity lost to AD(H)D employees is to ensure that AD(H)D employees are not hired in the first place.
As it stands today the game plan for some one who is AD(H)D or has a psychiatric disorder is to get the job and somehow hang on until they are eligible for health insurance. Once you have the health coverage you can then attempt to get the care you need to ensure that you can keep the job. Of course you need to keep that job because it's the only way to get the care you need...
Speaking of the workplace, fascism and stimulants one could look at the sanctioned doling out of methamphetamine for the production line workers of Imperial Japan as a precedent.
Remember if you get it from the street corner dealer it's meth. If a doctor prescribes it, it's Desoxyn...
Posted by Sam Lowry at May 28, 2008 11:34 PM