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ADHD Drugs Aren't Doing What You Think, Scientists Warn (inverse.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Inverse: The study authors Lisa Weyandt, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at the University of Rhode Island, and Tara White, Ph.D., an assistant professor of Behavioral and Social Sciences at Brown University, started out investigating the effects of ADHD medications in students that actually have a diagnosable attention deficit disorder. They showed that in these students, there is decreased activity in the areas of the brain controlling "executive functions," which can make it hard for them to stay organized or focused. But because both authors work with college students, they soon became more interested in the misuse of Adderall. In students whose brains aren't affected by ADHD, does Adderall act as a supercharger? Does it make those areas fly into overdrive and unlock otherwise untapped intellectual ability, as all pill-popping students hope?
Weyant and White's double-blind, placebo-controlled study on 13 college students was a small sample, they admit, but their experiment had a rigorous study design. Neither the students nor the researchers knew who was getting Adderall and who was getting placebo sugar pill. The six tests evaluated different aspects of cognition, like working memory, reading ability and reaction time. While students on Adderall did make fewer errors on a reaction time test, it actually worsened working memory, as shown by a decline in performance on a task where they had to repeat sequences of numbers. In short, Adderall improved focus and attention -- but it didn't actually make anyone smarter. The research has been published in the journal Pharmacy.
Weyant and White's double-blind, placebo-controlled study on 13 college students was a small sample, they admit, but their experiment had a rigorous study design. Neither the students nor the researchers knew who was getting Adderall and who was getting placebo sugar pill. The six tests evaluated different aspects of cognition, like working memory, reading ability and reaction time. While students on Adderall did make fewer errors on a reaction time test, it actually worsened working memory, as shown by a decline in performance on a task where they had to repeat sequences of numbers. In short, Adderall improved focus and attention -- but it didn't actually make anyone smarter. The research has been published in the journal Pharmacy.
" Adderall improved focus and attention -- but it didn't actually make anyone smarter." Presumably, you are reasonably smarter already, being accepted in college. So the real benefit is focus and attention, not "smarter".
"Eve of Destruction", it's not just for old hippies anymore...
So these results are hard to generalize.
Sorry, I'll believe real scientists. We all know psychologies aren't scientists. After all, they are responsible for the horrendous torture that came about with asylums and their "scientific" methods.
I'd care if this from neuroscience; people who actually study the brain; not people who study emotions and then come up with some bullshit reason why x is y.
Weyant and White's double-blind, placebo-controlled study on 13 college students was a small sample, they admit
The quoted line is all you need to read to know there's nothing of value in the study.
I've had a lot of teachers whose specialty was in this area, and honestly this is kind of the equivalent of 'We checked, water is wet.' ADHD is basically a bandwidth problem--people with attention deficit disorders (there's several) lack the standard suite of preprocessing filters on their incoming data. These normally are present to basically try to get you to stick with what (the filters judge to be) the important stuff in the incoming data is--without these filters, you're attempting to drink from the proverbial firehose. Hyperactivity is the most common method by which the brain attempts to cope--"Maybe if we move really really really fast we can get all this sorted!"
There's other strategies, too, such as 'shut down' and 'increase processing power' which have their own relative issues and your attention is still going to be not working like what is classed as 'normal'--in some populations, ADD is normal, because assumptions about what is/isn't important in your environment tended to get selected against instead of heavily agricultural populations where we strongly selected for the ability to not be too bothered by spending many hours staring at the hind end of a draft animal... It's not shot; you can get hyperfocus and flow, where your attention is very tightly focused on doing a task, vastly more easily than the normal population.
There is, however, one thing about this that's surprising--and that's that you get the same kind of effects in normal people. One of the old methods for confirming an ADD diagnosis is that you had an atypical reaction to stimulants...which Adderall and Ritalin are. To be specific, they're amphetamines...
FYI: Working memory is basically the RAM of the brain--it's short-term holding for stuff you're processing and using, which is why it's called working memory. One of the things you check for if somebody who should be doing well in school but isn't? Is if their working memory is functioning correctly.
Focus and attention aren't anywhere near as important. You can only be vaguely paying attention and still retain a surprising amount of information, but you need your working memory to remember the start of a paragraph when you reach its end, and other things rather important to the ability to reason and make good choices.
So it's not just that it didn't make anybody 'smarter,' it actually managed to hose something you direly need working to be smart. Though, if amphetamines in general screw with the working memory, that explains so much about the life choices of amphetamine addicts...
Do they work on the people who need it?
You mean the drug prescribed for Attention Deficit Disorder treated attention deficit, but wasn't helpful in treating cognitive deficit? And that's why it doesn't do what people think it does? Umm... what?
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
they make big pharma and those who write the scripts for the drugs a lot of money
Chris, you need the money more than me. Keep it!
(I heard goat food is through the roof right now in San José! How many do you feed!?)
How much will you pay for the identity of the guy who wanted to pack you into a crate and push you out the back of a Hercules?
Remember when the cure for ADHD was an ass whoopin'? Pepperidge Farm remembers. Same goes for kids acting up in a restaurant. In the old days you took them out to the car. When they came back they weren't acting up anymore.
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
post
Trump can't be cured.
I'm glad we have scientists that brand speed and then sell it to people for profit, legally.
Wish they did it with cocaine and weed too, I'm sure we can find an excuse WHY it's a good idea. Just invent another imaginary illness, or "condition".
Sample size:13. End of story.
I dont give a good god damn how well designed some bullshit study was. The sample size is too small. The results are worthless. When sample size is ridiculously small, remember that correlation is not causation for celebration when a study was but mere mental masturbation.
I don't care how perfectly well you've set up your experiment. 13 people does not a respectable sample size make. It's all too likely that a fluke is majorly skewing the results. I don't even understand what this post is doing here. We should know better.
A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it well worth the effort.
Can you call yourself a scientist if you make that kind of broad assumptions and precent them as truth?
They're supposed to make you pay attention to what you're told, not to reflect upon it.
Working as designed.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Anti-drugs test for student as for sportsman, this is what we need.
What works best for exams is: studying all along the year at a sustainable rhythm, and keeping sleeping time under control (8-9 hours every nights). If you need doping product, you are doing something wrong!
Homeopathy on steroids. What's more interesting is that the targeted audience would be shocked and demand the burning of the Pharmaceutical company that would have sold pills tested in such "rigurous conditions".
Yet the article is very relevant showing the education quality of PhD graduates at the said diploma mills.
Here is the top youtube video showing ADHD vs non-ADHD child. Does the girl have ADHD or is she just anxious? Look at how she sits and how the boy sits. Count how many times the boy smiles and how many times the girl smiles (hint: zero). If the girl is the top example of ADHD, I can give 100 children ADHD interviews and classify a large portion as having ADHD. Of course I would be impartial and have no stake in classifying kids as having ADHD and charging for weekly counseling, writing prescriptions, etc.
Let's be honest. You can't placebo a pill like this where it has such an immediate and noticeable physiological effect. You'd know 100% whether or not you got a sugar pill or Adderall.
Adderall made me forget what a terrible student I am.
My parents wasted their money sending me to University when I might have instead gotten my shit together working part time and going to community college.
If I flip a coin heads 13 times in a row we can be fairly certain the odds are nowhere near 1/2.
I think that feeding psychoactive drugs to boys because their teachers don't know how to raise boys and are boring and dumb is going to produce adults that are angry, poorly educated, and anti-social. And what I "think" these drugs do seems to be exactly what they are doing.
I've actually hired a babysitter for myself just to keep me focused and to not get distracted. $14/hr sucks but it currently is the only way I can do work most days. I've tried quite a few ADHD drugs and they either have no effect or they make me drowsy. By drowsy I mean do not operate any motor vehicle drowsy. My doctor failed to mention that part.
... what people think: Enhancing attention and focus. It says, right there in the Metaarticle. So thanks for confirming that.
Sidenote: I'd stear clear from any medication, even when in a tough spot at college.
Lack of excersize, bad nutrition, bad sleep hygene, excess media consumption and consumerism are what I have found to correlate with symptoms generally regarded as "ADHD".
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
still looking for a good drug for my ADHD
Some advice:
#1 Nutrition. Stop any type of sugar. Like, don't freaking even touch the stuff for 10 weeks and you'll notice a significant difference in cognitive performance. Promise. Avoid processed foods, preferably like the plague. Learn to cook/prepare your own meals. Do paleo or some other hippster compliant diet if that helps you. I've become a bit of a salad expert. My salads are full meals with grilled veggies or mushrooms or seitan & tofu as topping. Shop organic and rather skip that next piece of expensive hardware your eyeing. I shop organic and am typing this on a refurbished ThinkPad. Wouldn't want it the other way around.
#2 Social Media: Stop it. No facebook, no whatsapp or instagram. I message with my girlfriend, my daughter and two to three of my buddies and that's it. It's basically email. Any more would be unhealthy. The only "addiction" I have in this area is slashdot (duh), and there I try to write meaningful comments (duh again). I'd like to tune down a little, but to be fair, the threads I join are ususally a meaningful and ongoing discussion, so it's not a complete waste of time - also due to us all leaning to the smarter side :-) . Although it does cut time away from my real life. Again: Facebookers are zombies. On the tram I sometimes the only one with his head up. I look out the window and muse, while others are addicted to their streams. ... Yes, I sometimes refresh my slashdot comments to see my ratings, but that's a habbit I'm working on to change. And I can, because I know how good real life feels vis-a-vis facebook and whatscrap.
#3 Media consumption: Stop TV and avoid anything else as much as possible. The lesser the better. A movie a quarter should be the rule of thumb. Seriously. Limit your video game time to one game and a maximum of 3 hours per week. Fill the gained time with excersize (see below). For gaming chose P&P RPGs with a group of friends or boardgames over videogames (on or offline).
#4 Excersize. This is a big one. Can't emphasize this one enough. My wellbeing directly correlates with how much excersize I have. Do martial arts, social dancing, yoga, calisthenics or something like that at least 3 times a week, better yet 4 or 5 times a week. Freeclimbing, boldering, paraglying and surfing (the real kind) are awesome too. I did Argentine Tango for 10 years, traveling around Europe and mingling with the scene of Tango-Bums/Tango-Nomads, at least 3 times a week which had the added benefit of meeting an abundance of very, *very* cute ladies and having the occasional intimate episode coming out of that, and now I'm moving into swimming and yoga. I'm doing this because now I have a girlfriend (Tango dancer/teacher) and the most amazing sex ever, which significantly lowers the attraction of Tango for me. :-) I just swam 800 meters this afternoon. Awesome. Excersize and make a routine or some sort of excersize an essential part of your life. Your ADHD will recede below percievable levels and people will know you for being a generally younger and healthier self. Your concentration and brain performance will rise significantly, I promise. And the ladies will start turning their heads too. I promise that aswell.
#5 Limit screen time. This is a big one for computer nerds like us. I work 20 hours/week. I earn enough. I live minimalistic (highly recommended) and would rather do yoga 90 minutes per day than sit in front of the screen 12 hours in a row. Doing part time helps you focus on automating your tedious IT work and focusing on the fun parts of reality. When I only sit for 4 hours per session max. it's way easyer for me to focus on that one technology than spreading myself to thin with 5 or 10 at a time (we've all been there). Again: Limit screen time. 6 hours per day should be enough for any expert who knows how to automate the tedious computer work, i.e. programm.
#6 Stay away from d
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
I am wondering if it is reasonably to give people sugar pills as a placebo to test these kinds of things. I would think that sugar does give people energy but perhaps less attention?
You'll say whatever it takes to justify your addiction. That's fine, just realize that's what you're doing.
Whether it is medically necessary or not, crackheads gonna crack.
I cured my son's ADD by whippin that ass for a week solid, multiple times per day, when he was in the 3rd grade. NEVER another complaint from another teacher or a call from a principal afterwards. Now he's still fucked up mentally, but at least he's isn't jumping around in your face screaming like an asshole asspie.
He can sit down, shut the fuck up, and stew in his own self loathing like the rest of us have to. THAT is life. It doesn't give a fuck about your feelings.
While students on Adderall did make fewer errors on a reaction time test, it actually worsened working memory, as shown by a decline in performance on a task where they had to repeat sequences of numbers. In short, Adderall improved focus and attention -- but it didn't actually make anyone smarter.
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
Being able to remember facts is not an indication of 'smartness'. Being able to connect facts into useful new constructs is.
Some of the smartest people I've known have had horrible short-term memory (think of the stereotypical absent-minded professor). Conversely, some of the less smart people I know have outstanding memories (they learn by wrote, after all) but they can't connect the dots to create any original ideas.
Gawd, I miss the days when tech was run by nerds who understood this (and other concepts like the Dunning-Kruger effect).
Really? I would have thought prescribing amphetamines to people would do exactly what you think. I must say - I'm surprised.
I don't care how perfectly well you've set up your experiment. 13 people does not a respectable sample size make.
Because you said so? Feel free to tell us which part of this you disagree with: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
We should know better.
Yes, yes we should....
Who gives a s**t if people are using it as an illegal drug and it's not monitored properly by an actual physician. As a parent of a child with Hyperactivity who tried everything before drugs, then had to find the right one for him, I have no sympathy.
In a person that needs it, it does what it's supposed to: take them down a touch so they can have a chance to make the right decisions. You don't always do that, but this drug helps people who have a genuine problem.
I'll also add a brief thanks for all the hoops I have to jump through with physical prescription only rules, no refill rules and other precautions the state had to add . . .