# Before his death, father of ADHD admitted it was a fictitious disease - True? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 26, 2013, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-his-death-father-of-adhd-admitted-it-was-a-fictitious-disease-true/661997 "2013-06-26T23:32:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2013, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-his-death-father-of-adhd-admitted-it-was-a-fictitious-disease-true/661997/1 "2013-06-26T23:32:52Z")
[That’s what this article claims](http://www.whydontyoutrythis.com/2013/06/before-his-death-father-of-adhd-admitted-it-was-a-fictitious-disease.html). Is it a correct assertion? > [@](#): > > If you or someone you know has a child that has been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), chances are the child is actually just fine. At least this is what the “father” of ADHD, Leon Eisenberg, would presumably say if he were still alive. On his death bed, this psychiatrist and autism pioneer admitted that ADHD is essentially a “fictitious disease,” which means that millions of young children today are being needlessly prescribed severe mind-altering drugs that will set them up for a life of drug addiction and failure. > > Before his death, father of ADHD admitted it was a fictitious diseaseAs explained by The Sons of Liberty host Bradlee Dean, who also writes for The D.C. Clothesline, ADHD was merely a theory developed by Eisenberg. It was never actually proven to exist as a verifiable disease, despite the fact that Eisenberg and many others profited handsomely from its widespread diagnosis. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2013, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-his-death-father-of-adhd-admitted-it-was-a-fictitious-disease-true/661997/2 "2013-06-26T23:53:36Z")
Which part? That Eisenberg said it, or what he said was true? ---
**Author:** ![Strinka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/strinka/32/512_2.png) [@Strinka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Strinka)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2013, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-his-death-father-of-adhd-admitted-it-was-a-fictitious-disease-true/661997/3 "2013-06-26T23:54:36Z")
[Snopes](http://www.snopes.com/politics/quotes/adhd.asp) says “Partly true”. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2013, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-his-death-father-of-adhd-admitted-it-was-a-fictitious-disease-true/661997/4 "2013-06-27T00:35:00Z")
Do diseases really have fathers? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2013, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-his-death-father-of-adhd-admitted-it-was-a-fictitious-disease-true/661997/5 "2013-06-27T02:36:36Z")
It’s probably overdiagnosed, and certainly over-concluded (i.e., parents saying “He’s ADHD”, but without actually having a diagnosis). But there are some kids out there who are usually bouncing off the walls and incapable of useful focus, but who become temperamentally normal when given stimulants (the opposite of the effect of those drugs on most people). ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2013, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-his-death-father-of-adhd-admitted-it-was-a-fictitious-disease-true/661997/6 "2013-06-27T05:08:20Z")
Leon Eisenberg did not make any confessions on his deathbed. What apparently happened was that he gave an interview in February 2009 before his death on September 15, 2009. The interview, which was conducted in English, was translated into German and published in an issue of the German magazine Der Spiegel in 2012. Some readers felt that Eisenberg’s statements in this interview were saying that ADHD was a fictitious disease. But that was not said in the original English. What Eisenberg had actually said was that ADHD was overdiagnosed. In the multiple translations and second hand versions of this incident, some people apparently lost the distinction between some diagnoses of ADHD being fictitious and the disease itself being fictitious. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2013, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-his-death-father-of-adhd-admitted-it-was-a-fictitious-disease-true/661997/7 "2013-06-27T09:29:41Z")
The fact that that site promotes quack cancer cures ought to be a red flag about its credibility on other topics. ---
**Author:** ![FluffyBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecb155/32.png) [@FluffyBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FluffyBob)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2013, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-his-death-father-of-adhd-admitted-it-was-a-fictitious-disease-true/661997/8 "2013-06-27T15:03:56Z")
I would like the folks that claim it is not a real disease come deal with my adult stepson. Watch him struggle through life. Deal with the warnings from the Psychologist of suicide risk, watch his constant and repeating struggles, experience his frustration with the million things in life that for the rest of us are simple. Witness his inappropriate reactions, his tantrums , his explosions of anxiety and rage, and learn the hard way that the normal reaction to this wont fix or change him. He has been diagnosed by his family doctor using a simple but comprehensive list of questions. He then went through a Psychiatric evaluation where a board of Psychiatrists (behind a one way mirror!?) also questioned him for over an hour. He sees a psychiatrist monthly now to adjust meds and dosage. The difference for him is enormous, on a suitable med he can function like a normal person, without it he cannot concentrate long enough to listen to the end of a sentence, is ridiculously scattered, cannot focus on anything of use. He is nearly useless for any work without meds and other coping strategies (checklists, routine, and if I can ever get him to give it the time, the mental tools Cognitive Behavior Therapy teaches). At some time in the future the specific identifier ADHD may be put aside for something better; it may be split in to numerous disorders or absorbed into a larger spectrum. Like so many mental health disorders it is poorly understood, and needs more attention, not less. There are plenty of real people with real problems that the current scheme helps describe and treat. A lot of mental illness is dismissed by the ignorant as not real, due to weakness of character, and an issue of of discipline, etc. Mental illness is real, destroys lives, relationships, careers, productivity and is as serious a burden on society as cancer or any physical illness. Sorry if I am offtopic / drifting into IMHO, but I am so tired ignorant people dismissing what they don’t understand. Every time someone piously tells me my son shouldn’t be on medication/ just needs discipline I want to punch their ignorant teeth out. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2013, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-his-death-father-of-adhd-admitted-it-was-a-fictitious-disease-true/661997/9 "2013-06-27T15:40:25Z")
> [@FluffyBob](#): > > I would like the folks that claim it is not a real disease come deal with my adult stepson. Watch him struggle through life. Deal with the warnings from the Psychologist of suicide risk, watch his constant and repeating struggles, experience his frustration with the million things in life that for the rest of us are simple. Witness his inappropriate reactions, his tantrums , his explosions of anxiety and rage, and learn the hard way that the normal reaction to this wont fix or change him. > > He has been diagnosed by his family doctor using a simple but comprehensive list of questions. He then went through a Psychiatric evaluation where a board of Psychiatrists (behind a one way mirror!?) also questioned him for over an hour. He sees a psychiatrist monthly now to adjust meds and dosage. The difference for him is enormous, on a suitable med he can function like a normal person, without it he cannot concentrate long enough to listen to the end of a sentence, is ridiculously scattered, cannot focus on anything of use. He is nearly useless for any work without meds and other coping strategies (checklists, routine, and if I can ever get him to give it the time, the mental tools Cognitive Behavior Therapy teaches). > > At some time in the future the specific identifier ADHD may be put aside for something better; it may be split in to numerous disorders or absorbed into a larger spectrum. Like so many mental health disorders it is poorly understood, and needs more attention, not less. There are plenty of real people with real problems that the current scheme helps describe and treat. A lot of mental illness is dismissed by the ignorant as not real, due to weakness of character, and an issue of of discipline, etc. Mental illness is real, destroys lives, relationships, careers, productivity and is as serious a burden on society as cancer or any physical illness. > > Sorry if I am offtopic / drifting into IMHO, but I am so tired ignorant people dismissing what they don’t understand. Every time someone piously tells me my son shouldn’t be on medication/ just needs discipline I want to punch their ignorant teeth out. You can be as enraged as you want, but the guy who was a prime mover in initiating the concept said that it was important to understand the personal and social context of what was driving this behavior, and that in many cases (in the US) behavior modifying meds were being substituted for that heavy lifting. I glad that meds are working in your case, but when the guy who helped originate the diagnosis says that ADHD is vastly over-diagnosed and over-medicated it behooves us to pay attention. ---
**Author:** ![LMarie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c68b51/32.png) [@LMarie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LMarie)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2013, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-his-death-father-of-adhd-admitted-it-was-a-fictitious-disease-true/661997/10 "2013-06-27T16:23:45Z")
Don’t know if it’s true or not, but I do believe it’s over-diagnosed. Years ago, a teacher suggested that I have my son tested and medicated. She said he was very hyper in class and that he seemed to have trouble focusing. A few days later, I found out that she’d been keeping him inside during morning recess and lunch recess as punishment for an overdue library book. I knew about the book, but we couldn’t return it right away since he’d left it at a neighbor’s house and the neighbor moved and had yet to unpack and locate the book. I’d told the school this and had already paid the required fines, but he was still being punished and no one, not even my son, thought to say a word about his loss of recess to me. To make matters even worse, he was also on restriction at home for something unrelated and wasn’t being allowed to play outside. When we put two and two together, his hyperactivity in class made sense. His teacher and his parents were driving the kid crazy trying to suppress his energy by keeping him indoors during and after school! As an only child, he didn’t have an outlet for his energy, nor did he have time to interact with his peers outside of class. I recall the teacher originally being a bit miffed with me that I didn’t agree with her suspicions of ADHD, but I knew my kid and trusted my instincts more than I did her observations. After getting to the root of the problem, fixing the library issue and giving him time off for good behavior at home, he calmed down in class and was back to normal without meds. Now as a healthy, functioning, college-educated and highly focused adult who hates taking any kind of medication, I’m so glad I didn’t cave to the school’s pressure. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2013, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-his-death-father-of-adhd-admitted-it-was-a-fictitious-disease-true/661997/11 "2013-06-27T16:26:47Z")
> [@astro](#): > > Before his death, father of ADHD admitted it was a fictitious disease - True? Well, it would’ve been a hell of a trick for him to have admitted it _after_ his death. 🙂 But as noted, he admitted no such thing. Saying ADHD is overdiagnosed is a very different matter. For some reason, alternative loon sites just loove the idea of deathbed/near-death conversions invalidating facets of science and medicine. The one you hear most often is that Pasteur admitted on his deathbed that the germ theory of disease was wrong. [This is total bullshit](http://www.ratbags.com/rsoles/comment/pasteur.htm), but it’s constantly promulgated by germ theory deniers.\* \*I know, it’s hard to believe such people exist, [but](http://www.healingourchildren.net/Vaccine/vaccines_louis_pasteur_germ_theory.htm) they [do](http://www.homeopathyworldcommunity.com/forum/topics/louis-pasteurs-germ-theory). ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2013, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-his-death-father-of-adhd-admitted-it-was-a-fictitious-disease-true/661997/12 "2013-06-27T16:31:25Z")
> [@astro](#): > > I glad that meds are working in your case, but when the guy who helped originate the diagnosis says that ADHD is vastly over-diagnosed and over-medicated it behooves us to pay attention. Doesn’t everyone, everywhere (except those affected by ADHD) say that it is over-diagnosed and over-medicated? ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2013, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-his-death-father-of-adhd-admitted-it-was-a-fictitious-disease-true/661997/13 "2013-06-27T17:25:09Z")
Sorry, inappropriate. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2013, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-his-death-father-of-adhd-admitted-it-was-a-fictitious-disease-true/661997/14 "2013-06-27T17:59:13Z")
A scientist’s deathbed confession is utterly worthless without deathbed research and deathbed publication in a deathbed peer-reviewed journal. Seriously, though. Unless he admits to falsifying his research, or produces new research that contradicts it, any statement he makes is pure conjecture and has little to no value. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2013, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-his-death-father-of-adhd-admitted-it-was-a-fictitious-disease-true/661997/15 "2013-06-27T18:56:33Z")
I suspect too, it falls in the same category as other “diseases” like CFS (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) or Aspergers’. It’s pretty obvious that there are people that have _something_ and for some the collection of symptoms fit the description… But! There is no specific illness, no identifiable cause or specific test like AIDs or smallpox. As a result, the diagnosis is a match of symptoms against a list, and an arbitrary value for each symptom. In that circumstance, it’s easy to make the diagnosis fit preconceived notions. So is ADHD “real”? As real as you want it to be. ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2013, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-his-death-father-of-adhd-admitted-it-was-a-fictitious-disease-true/661997/16 "2013-06-27T20:31:49Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > I suspect too, it falls in the same category as other “diseases” like CFS (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) or Aspergers’. It’s pretty obvious that there are people that have _something_ and for some the collection of symptoms fit the description… But! There is no specific illness, no identifiable cause or specific test like AIDs or smallpox. As a result, the diagnosis is a match of symptoms against a list, and an arbitrary value for each symptom. In that circumstance, it’s easy to make the diagnosis fit preconceived notions. > > So is ADHD “real”? As real as you want it to be. This is completely wrong. ADHD is [understood](http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/495640_3) to be a disorder of neurotransmitter function, with heritability in the 80% range. I don’t know if we completely understand its genetic basis, but as of the date of publication of the linked article, the list of candidates was pretty short. While we don’t currently have a brain-scan based diagnostic tool, that’s an area of active research, and will be a serious game-changer when it lands. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2013, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-his-death-father-of-adhd-admitted-it-was-a-fictitious-disease-true/661997/17 "2013-06-27T21:31:36Z")
> [@ultrafilter](#): > > This is completely wrong. ADHD is [understood](http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/495640_3) to be a disorder of neurotransmitter function, with heritability in the 80% range. I don’t know if we completely understand its genetic basis, but as of the date of publication of the linked article, the list of candidates was pretty short. While we don’t currently have a brain-scan based diagnostic tool, that’s an area of active research, and will be a serious game-changer when it lands. This may be valid, but the link took me to a login. I tried googling similar details, but I got bored and distracted right away. > **[Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children - Symptoms and...](https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/adhd/symptoms-causes/syc-20350889)** > > This condition affects children and may continue into adulthood. It can include having a hard time paying attention, being hyperactive and being impulsive. Basically, a scorecard, still. The only physical medical test is “let’s make sure it’s not due to something else”. I’m not disputing that people exhibit the symptoms. It’s a syndrome, or a condition, or whatever… but in the narrow sense of “disease”, it’s not - at least as far as we can show today. It may turn out to be a genetic condition, or developmental abnormality, vitamin deficiency, or a combination, or one of several different things. Heck, there’s schizophrenia as another “disease”, a very obvious and distinct condition, and we still have no real diagnosis or test beyond “have an in depth interview with a shrink”. The real question is - if someone acts in a problematic way, can we address that problem while doing more good than harm? For some people yes, for some people no. If they CAN do a physical diagnosis (and it points to moer effective treatment) then yes, that will be a great service to those with the problem and to those whose normal childhood behaviour is misdiagnosed for the convenience of the lazy and misguided. ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2013, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-his-death-father-of-adhd-admitted-it-was-a-fictitious-disease-true/661997/18 "2013-06-27T22:20:58Z")
Odd. I don’t know why I’m not being asked for credentials, but here are a couple relevant parts: > [@](#): > > ADHD is, in most cases, of familial origin. Parents with ADHD have a better than 50% chance of having a child with ADHD, and about 25% of children with ADHD have parents who meet the formal diagnostic criteria for ADHD.[83] Twin studies have placed the heritability of ADHD in the range of 80%.[84] In a longitudinal twin study examining the size of genetic and environmental effects on ADHD behaviors based on maternal report at the ages of 3, 7, 10, and 12 years, the estimate of heritability was nearly 75% at each age, with hyperactivity at age 3 years being somewhat less related to later inattention and inattention at age 7 years being quite stable. The genetic factors explained 76% and 92% of the covariance between hyperactivity and inattention. This provides another line of support for the observation that behaviors related to ADHD (inattention to a greater extent than hyperactivity) do not improve with maturation. > [@](#): > > ADHD can be considered a disorder of neurotransmitter function, with particular focus on the neurotransmitters dopamine and norepinephrine. There has been extensive research conducted that demonstrates that dopamine is critical in the regulation of learning, as well as maintaining trained or conditioned responses and motivated (goal-directed) behaviors. Dopamine also plays an important role in working memory, the ability to “keep something in mind” for a brief period of time. Thus, dopamine can modulate neuronal activity related to motor activity that is guided by external cues and is goal directed. Dopamine plays an important role in the function of the prefrontal-subcortical system. Norepinephrine (noradrenaline) is involved in maintaining alertness and attention. Norepinephrine neurons are triggered by novel and important stimuli and are quiescent during sleep. Psychostimulant medications that increase the amount of central dopamine and norepinephrine are typically the most effective way to treat ADHD. I agree wholeheartedly that we need better diagnostic tools, but it’s misinformed at best to claim that ADHD is as “real” as you want it to be. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2013, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-his-death-father-of-adhd-admitted-it-was-a-fictitious-disease-true/661997/19 "2013-06-28T00:29:38Z")
> [@](#): > > The only physical medical test is “let’s make sure it’s not due to something else”. You can also test it by the subject’s response to stimulants. If they get even more hyper, it wasn’t ADHD. If they calm down, it was. ---
**Author:** ![deltasigma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e5b9ba/32.png) [@deltasigma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deltasigma)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2013, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-his-death-father-of-adhd-admitted-it-was-a-fictitious-disease-true/661997/20 "2013-06-28T06:46:31Z")
If anyone wants to debate the issue of the relative importance of having definitive biological criteria for diagnosing psychiatric illness rather than relying solely on symptoms, I have a thread in GD that deals with precisely that - \*\*[Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) vs. DSM ‘taxonomy’ - pick one](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=694887) \*\*edit: I’m not guaranteeing that I’ll participate much since I’m of two minds on the topic, but I’ll lurk [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-his-death-father-of-adhd-admitted-it-was-a-fictitious-disease-true/661997.md?page=2)