Study Finds ADHD Medication May Actually Decrease School Performance

sad2One of the main selling points that pharmaceutical companies have used for ADHD medication, is that it is said to improve school performance among children and teenagers. However, a new study published in The Journal of Health and Economics suggests that ADHD medication is actually strongly correlated with a decrease in school performance.

The study was based out of Quebec, Canada, where an unusually high percentage of school-age children are prescribed ADHD medication. It is said that 44% of Canada’s ADHD prescriptions are written in Quebec, even though the region only consists of 20% of the country’s population. This highly concentrated area of medicated children offers a unique test sample for researchers who are studying the effects of these drugs.

Interestingly, the study found that when children were on ADHD medication, they were less likely to make it through school without repeating a grade, and their overall chances of graduating also decreased.

According to the overview of the study:

We examine the effects of a policy change in the province of Quebec, Canada which greatly expanded insurance coverage for prescription medications. We show that the change was associated with a sharp increase in the use of stimulant medications commonly prescribed for ADHD in Quebec relative to the rest of Canada. We ask whether this increase in medication use was associated with improvements in emotional functioning or academic outcomes among children with ADHD. We find little evidence of improvement in either the medium or the long run. Our results are silent on the effects on optimal use of medication for ADHD, but suggest that expanding medication in a community setting had little positive benefit and may have had harmful effects given the average way these drugs are used in the community.

The most over prescribed, unnecessary and problematic drugs on the market today are antidepressants, ADHD medication and opiate based painkillers.  Clinical depression and attention deficit disorder are both fabricated conditions that were made up by pharmaceutical industry insiders as a means of selling their products.  The medications that are currently on the market for these conditions have extremely harsh side effects and very low rates of success, yet they are still over prescribed by thousands of doctors.

People are depressed because they live in a society where injustice and exploitation run rampant not because they are “sick and need medication“.  This medication is even known to make people feel more depressed and in extreme cases even lead to suicide or violent outbursts.  Clinical ADHD is also a myth, children are supposed to be hyperactive, playful and disorderly, this is no “sickness”.

It was even admitted by one of the originators of the ADHD classification that the illness was “fictitious”.  On his death-bed Dr. Leon Eisenberg said “ADHD is a prime example of a fictitious disease.”  Eisenberg also said commented in his final interview about the dangers of misdiagnosis and over medication of ADHD in America.


John Vibes writes for True Activist and is an author, researcher and investigative journalist who takes a special interest in the counter culture and the drug war. 

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