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ADHD Does Not Exist: The Truth about Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder by Richard Saul
meelworm's review
It’s unfortunate that people like this have medical licenses. ADHD isn’t an experimental “new diagnosis” it’s been around for decades and there are thousands and thousands of studies to show that it exists and reseatching how to treat it.
Being skeptical & asking questions is always good, but when there’s 1 or 2 people who are going against an entire body of scientific evidence that’s suspicious!
Yes adhd has symptoms that overlap with other disdorders, but that isn’t reason enough to disclude it. Anxiety overlaps with ptsd, which overlaps with ocd, which overlaps with autism, and so on. There is no rule that says disorders can’t share symptoms, in fact many of them do.
Being skeptical & asking questions is always good, but when there’s 1 or 2 people who are going against an entire body of scientific evidence that’s suspicious!
Yes adhd has symptoms that overlap with other disdorders, but that isn’t reason enough to disclude it. Anxiety overlaps with ptsd, which overlaps with ocd, which overlaps with autism, and so on. There is no rule that says disorders can’t share symptoms, in fact many of them do.
envy4's review against another edition
4.0
I think this book has immense value. It can help a lot of people get a proper diagnosis. We still know so little about ADHD. But I don’t recommend this book if you want to learn more about ADHD itself.
He was also not very clear about whether or not he thinks ADHD is an actual disorder. I wish he entered the book with a chapter on just that.
He was also not very clear about whether or not he thinks ADHD is an actual disorder. I wish he entered the book with a chapter on just that.
june_buggie's review
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
I think this book raises a lot of very valid and good points about the over-diagnosis of ADHD.
However, it also leaves me with a lot of questions. I’d be really interested in hearing what the authors position on the matter is now, 10 years later. Has new revelations and information that’s been brought out swayed him away from his original argument? Or has it only been further supported?
I think the information in this book is very reflective of the information that was available and known 10 years ago, and I’d be very interested in seeing how what we’ve learned since fits into it.
However, it also leaves me with a lot of questions. I’d be really interested in hearing what the authors position on the matter is now, 10 years later. Has new revelations and information that’s been brought out swayed him away from his original argument? Or has it only been further supported?
I think the information in this book is very reflective of the information that was available and known 10 years ago, and I’d be very interested in seeing how what we’ve learned since fits into it.
alexisrt's review
1.0
This book is a mess.
It starts out from a reasonable premise: ADHD describes a symptom cluster and that it is already known to overlap with other disorders. People may jump to the conclusion that ADHD is the problem and stimulant meds are the answer without fully investigating.
The problem is, he doesn't have any good answers. The bulk of the book is comprised of brief chapters listing disorders or conditions that may present similarly to ADHD. Many of these are reasonable things to consider, and I would certainly hope that a child is checked for vision or hearing problems before jumping to ADHD. They don't, however, explain enough cases--sure, Tourette's or schizophrenia might have similar symptoms, but how common are they? The diagnoses he chooses are not all solid. He devotes a section to sensory processing disorder, another condition that is viewed by many clinicians as a symptom cluster and which is not in the DSM. He includes an example of a child with bipolar disorder--another controversial diagnosis (and if we're going to rail against the side effects of stimulants, lithium is no picnic either).
Then he throws the real curveball. No, ADHD doesn't exist, but a new disorder, NDI, does. What's the difference? Ah! This is neurobiological! We can explain it through neurotransmitter levels, and this will also explain why some people do better with stimulants and some with SSRIs! But he doesn't explain how that all works, and you cannot just invent a new diagnosis in 10 pages and fail to explain it. This one chapter may undo the entire book.
I wavered between 1 and 2 stars--because he is correct that patients need to be fully evaluated, some patients may well have something else, and if his statistics are correct, there's much to wonder about in the number of ADHD diagnoses and the number of stimulant prescriptions being written. Our healthcare system, and even more so our mental health system, is prone to seeing a prescription as a quick fix. Unfortunately, he treats it only as a categorization problem, without recognizing the social factors that are also driving this.
It starts out from a reasonable premise: ADHD describes a symptom cluster and that it is already known to overlap with other disorders. People may jump to the conclusion that ADHD is the problem and stimulant meds are the answer without fully investigating.
The problem is, he doesn't have any good answers. The bulk of the book is comprised of brief chapters listing disorders or conditions that may present similarly to ADHD. Many of these are reasonable things to consider, and I would certainly hope that a child is checked for vision or hearing problems before jumping to ADHD. They don't, however, explain enough cases--sure, Tourette's or schizophrenia might have similar symptoms, but how common are they? The diagnoses he chooses are not all solid. He devotes a section to sensory processing disorder, another condition that is viewed by many clinicians as a symptom cluster and which is not in the DSM. He includes an example of a child with bipolar disorder--another controversial diagnosis (and if we're going to rail against the side effects of stimulants, lithium is no picnic either).
Then he throws the real curveball. No, ADHD doesn't exist, but a new disorder, NDI, does. What's the difference? Ah! This is neurobiological! We can explain it through neurotransmitter levels, and this will also explain why some people do better with stimulants and some with SSRIs! But he doesn't explain how that all works, and you cannot just invent a new diagnosis in 10 pages and fail to explain it. This one chapter may undo the entire book.
I wavered between 1 and 2 stars--because he is correct that patients need to be fully evaluated, some patients may well have something else, and if his statistics are correct, there's much to wonder about in the number of ADHD diagnoses and the number of stimulant prescriptions being written. Our healthcare system, and even more so our mental health system, is prone to seeing a prescription as a quick fix. Unfortunately, he treats it only as a categorization problem, without recognizing the social factors that are also driving this.
goblinscribe's review
1.0
"ADHD isn't real. It must always be something else. Except sometimes it isn't something else: It's ADHD, but I don't like to call it that, so I made up an entirely new term that means the same thing. Also I know Asperger's isn't an accepted diagnosis anymore, but I'm going to keep using it anyway because I like it."
zeljana's review
2.0
There are better books out there on this complex issue. For example, [b:Scattered Minds: The Origins and Healing of Attention Deficit Disorder|39899253|Scattered Minds The Origins and Healing of Attention Deficit Disorder|Gabor Maté|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1549981519l/39899253._SY75_.jpg|182853]. This author puts out some interesting ideas, but overall I had an impression he is oversimplifying the issue.
lookitskatiex's review
1.0
ADHD is both under and over-diagnosed. Also, a lot of people with other disorders also have ADHD, notably people with BD. They aren't mutually exclusive.
Also, the disorder he threw out there has the same "cluster" of symptoms as ADHD? Dude just renamed it.
Also, the disorder he threw out there has the same "cluster" of symptoms as ADHD? Dude just renamed it.
steph_84's review
1.0
Who’s afraid of the Big Bad Ritalin? Not me, but this guy is apparently. Get over yourself and stop undermining the lives of thousands of people who have benefited from ADHD diagnosis, especially women and girls who have been under-diagnosed since the beginning of humankind.
It doesn’t matter if ADHD “exists”; it matters if meds help tackle the cluster of symptoms, so that people can be better people/parents/employees, which they abso-fricken-lutely do.
It doesn’t matter if ADHD “exists”; it matters if meds help tackle the cluster of symptoms, so that people can be better people/parents/employees, which they abso-fricken-lutely do.
shewantsthediction's review
informative
slow-paced
3.0
Title is misleading/clickbaity. Because of the title, I would never have read this book if I hadn't checked out every single book my library had on ADHD, but I'm glad I did. The author doesn't dispute the existence of ADHD (which has been scientifically confirmed to exist through brain scans), but posits that ADHD is merely a symptom, not a diagnosis itself. He offers a list of 14+ conditions ADHD may be a symptom of: everything from Tourette's to Autism to Mood Disorders. Considering the high rate of comorbitity amongst all these conditions, he's probably onto something here, and it was certainly an interesting change of perspective. Writing is dry/not great.