General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Big Pharma Sells Risky Meds We Don’t Need for Disorders It Made Up That We Don’t Have [View all]arithia
(455 posts)ADD is a genetic condition marked by physical changes to the brain. It shares multiple mutations with Bipolar disorder, so many so that the two diseases are often mistaken for one another in cases of early onset Bipolar.
It is also marked by widespread lack of dopamine in the brain across the patient population. Lack of dopamine in the brain can cause various long term health problems outside of the "mood disorder "spectrum, including severe ones like Parkinsons disease. (Lack of dopamine creates stress on the brain. Stress affects cell function, mutation, reproduction and telomere decay. Stress and depression can quite literally break your body if left untreated.)
It is, in fact, a real disorder.
Those "amphetamine salts" you feel to be criminal dosing? They normalize brain function in children with the disorder, as revealed by numerous MRI studies. Many of them do so by normalizing dopamine levels to where they should be, others do so by stimulating specific brain regions.
Feel as strongly as you like, Socal31, but it wont change the fact that ADHD is real and the medications that treat it work.