A paediatrician with several decades’ experience in the field, Dr Diller interviews young adults who have been prescribed Ritalin and similar medications in their formative years. He also shares his own insights in an honest, candid manner. I found some of his comments very thought-provoking. Here he is discussing one of the dillemmas we all face around prescribing:
“we gravitate toward simplification and reductionism – clear, yes-no answers. We think we then can know what’s going on and how to treat it. Granted, many advances in medical science have been made using this simplification (known as the medical model). A specific anatomic or chemical disorder leads to a specific treatment. But if we try to do this with ADHD, we wind up underappreciating the whole child and his or her interaction with the environment.”
Food for thought…