Joy Pullmann of the Federalist highlights a disturbing new report about the overmedication of children.

For decades, the U.S. medical system has delivered amphetamines to skyrocketing numbers of Americans without clear evidence a defined disorder exists or of any long-term effects, says a New York Times Magazine article out Sunday. One in nine American children has an Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder diagnosis now, including nearly a quarter of 17-year-old American boys. This record number is more than triple the diagnoses in the mid-1990s, says the Times.

“From 2012 to 2022, the total number of prescriptions for stimulants to treat A.D.H.D. increased in the United States by 58 percent,” writes Times contributor Paul Tough. “Although the prescription rate is highest among boys ages 10 to 14, the real growth market today for stimulant medication is adults. In 2012, Americans in their 30s were issued five million prescriptions for stimulants to treat A.D.H.D.; a decade later, that figure had more than tripled, rising to 18 million.”

The article explores a devastating mismatch between research and practice in addressing so-called ADHD. This includes the longstanding lack of evidence that ADHD is a biological condition, rather than a psychological or sociological one. Researchers have found no definitive brain scan differences or clear genetic markers for the list of symptoms labeled ADHD.

“Despite Ritalin’s rapid growth, no one knew exactly how the medication worked or whether it really was the best way to treat children’s attention issues,” Tough writes. “Anecdotally, doctors and parents would observe that when many children began taking stimulant medications like Ritalin, their behavior would improve almost overnight, but no one had measured in a careful, large-scale scientific study how common that positive response was or, for that matter, what the effects were on a child of taking Ritalin over the long term.”

Now scientists know, Tough says, that Ritalin retards children’s growth, making them shorter. They also know that after fewer behavioral symptoms in the first year or so, kids who take Ritalin or Adderall behave the same as kids who don’t. And despite some improved focus, ADHD-medicated kids’ learning doesn’t improve, say studies Tough cites.