The ADHD Drug Problem: How Medication Tricks Patients into Doing the Boring Things (and How It Has Nothing to Do with Attention)

 

“The differences in attention can be day and night depending on whether you really want to do something.”

 

“A controversy exists on whether there is an over or underuse of medications for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).”[1] Now, after all this time, they are saying that they may have been wrong about how ADHD drugs work. Could it have anything to do with how much money is being made on prescription drugs directed for treating ADHD and the kickbacks prescribing physicians receive?

A new study published in JAMA Pediatrics[2] found that manufacturers of ADHD medications more than doubled their marketing payments to physicians, increasing from $1.8 million in 2021 to $3.6 million in 2023. Over the same period, payments to advanced practice clinicians tripled, rising from $500,000 to $1.6 million. “A little over 10% of physicians working in adolescent medicine reported receiving a marketing payment, followed by adolescent psychiatry (9.9%), pediatrics (8.2%), psychiatry (5.95%), and family medicine (3%). Overall, physicians received nearly triple the payments of advanced practice clinicians. But payments to nurse practitioners increased by 300%. (…) [O]verall dispensing of stimulants increased by 60% from 50.4 million to 80.8 million prescriptions between 2012 and 2022. The biggest increase was between 2022 and 2023, when the number of patients receiving a prescription rose by 18%.”[3]

The problem with ADHD medication

According to a meta-analysis of 18 studies published in 2021 found that “both overtreatment/misuse of medication in individuals without ADHD and pharmacological undertreatment in youths with the disorder.”[4] 19.1% of school-age children and adolescents with ADHD received a pharmacologic treatment, while 0.9% of those without an ADHD diagnosis also received a drug.

What if the condition of ADHD was created for profit and control, to make a normal active child who gets easily bored more controllable? What if the lack of sleep was one of the reasons for the added hyperactivity? Rather than treating the cause by providing 9 hours of undisturbed sleep they drug a child who was sleep deprived instead. A recent article in Cell Stimulant medications affect arousal and reward, not attention networks “[p]rescription stimulants (e.g., methylphenidate) are thought to improve attention, but evidence from prior fMRI studies is conflicted. (…) Taking stimulants reversed the effects of sleep deprivation on connectivity and school grades. (…) The combined noradrenergic and dopaminergic effects of stimulants may drive brain organization towards a more wakeful and rewarded configuration, improving task effort and persistence without effects on attention networks.”[5] Isn’t it nice that a drug prescribed for attention deficit disorder does not affect attention only dopamine-mediated, reward-motivated learning while blanketing sleep deprivation? It really is true that “[t]he differences in attention can be day and night depending on whether you really want to do something. By making boring tasks feel meaningful, the drug boosts the brain’s ability to persist.”[6] Do you know what else makes you do things even if they are not interesting? Discipline.

Big Pharma makes far too much money and influences doctors so that they allow millions to continue to suffer from the drug side effects because they only see the money not the suffering. In the United States, patients fill over 90 million ADHD prescriptions annually. Stimulants (e.g. Adderall, Vyvanse, and Ritalin) account for roughly 90% of all dispensed medications, while non-stimulant prescriptions are growing at triple the rate as patients increasingly turn to alternatives.[7]

The long-term use of ADHD medication is also associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). According to a “case-control study of 278,027 individuals in Sweden aged 6 to 64 years who had an incident ADHD diagnosis or ADHD medication dispensation, longer cumulative duration of ADHD medication use was associated with an increased risk of CVD, particularly hypertension and arterial disease, compared with non-use.”[8]

DMAE: a natural solution

DMAE (dimethylaminoethanol), is a naturally occurring compound notably abundant in anchovies and sardines. In trace amounts, DMAE is endogenously synthesized within the human brain. Emerging empirical data indicate plausible efficacy in addressing impulsivity and disruptive behaviors characteristic of ADHD.

In a double-blind study of 50 moderately hyperkinetic children[9], Dr. Nathan Coleman found that 300–500 mg of DMAE given daily for 12 weeks produced overall behavioral improvement. Vouching for this, the parents of the children in the study were asked to rate the children (both the DMAE group and the placebo group) versus a normal peer group. They found those in the DMAE group to be about the same as those in the normal group, but the placebo group got worse.

In another study, consisting of 25 girls and 83 boys[10], conducted by Dr. Carl Pfeiffer of the Brain-Bio Center in Princeton, New Jersey, DMAE was found to result in enhanced behavior in 2/3 of the boys and 3/4 of the girls. Hyperactivity was greatly lessened as attention span was lengthened, irritability was decreased, scholastic ability improved, and, in some cases, IQ was elevated.

Similar results were found when 500 mg of DMAE was given to 74 children with learning problems, including many who were hyperactive. These subjects were screened for neurological or psychiatric illnesses beforehand. DMAE was given in a double-blind fashion for 3 months. Testing was done before and after treatment for behavior, reaction time, and a series of standard psychometric parameters. Not only was there significant improvement overall but DMAE was shown to improve performance in children with learning and behavior disorders. According to Dr. Leon Oettinger, the lead author of several studies on this nutrient, “[DMAE] was a most useful tool in the handling of the child with behavioral problems.”

 

References:

 

[1] Massuti, Rafael et al. 2021.

[2] Donahoe, J. Travis et al. 2025.

[3] Sandburg, Brenda. 2025.

[4] Massuti, Rafael et al. 2021.

[5] Kay, Benjamin P. et al. 2025.

[6] Brzostowicki, David. 2026.

[7] Huskamp, Haiden A. et al. 2025.

[8] Zhang, Le et al. 2024.

[9] Coleman, Nathan et al. 1976.

[10] Pfeiffer, Carl et al. 1957.