Is It Time to Rethink Pediatric ADHD?

KQED's Forum

KQED

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 656 Ratings

🗓️ 27 June 2025

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A record high 7 million U.S. children have received an ADHD diagnosis, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But journalist Paul Tough wonders if we’re thinking about pediatric ADHD all wrong. For a recent New York Times Magazine feature, Tough spent a year talking to leading researchers who now say that standard treatments like Ritalin only help children behave better, not learn better – and even that effect wears off completely over time. We talk to Tough about why he says we need to reconceptualize diagnosis and treatment of ADHD. Guests: Paul Tough, contributing writer, New York Times Magazine Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:51.2	From KQED.
1:08.3	Yeah. From KQED. From KQED in San Francisco.
1:10.2	I'm Nina Kim. Coming up on forum, is it time to rethink how we diagnose and treat ADHD in kids?
1:17.1	Journalist Paul Tuff spent a year talking to researchers of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
1:22.1	and found many expressing concern over the disconnect between the science on ADHD and standard treatments for it,
1:29.8	like Ritalin and Adderall.
1:31.6	Meantime, the number of children receiving an ADHD diagnosis in the U.S. has reached
1:36.5	record highs.
1:38.1	We talked to Tuff about his findings and why he says we may be thinking about ADHD all wrong.
	...

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