It's a fact that ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) is an over diagnosed 'condition' that makes patients of children who used to be classified as 'difficult' or 'energetic'. Once the ADHD label has been attached, a child can become a customer for a drug such as Ritalin.
Even the World Health Organization, hardly an arch-enemy of the pharmaceutical industry, has grown concerned about the overuse of Ritalin and similar drugs.
But one researcher has lost her job for speaking out. Dr Gretchen LeFever, a clinical psychologist and associate professor in the department of pediatrics at the East Virginia Medical School, has been charged with 'scientific miscondust' and her computers have been seized.
Dr LeFever has been an outspoken critic of Ritalin use for several years, much to the embarrassment of her colleagues and the medical community. In 1999 she revealed that up to 10 per cent of children in south-eastern Virginia were being prescribed drugs for ADHD