The New York Times gives a clinical and marketing look at the uptick in the $9-billion dollar attention deficit disorder market. Among the topics covered are the nomenclature for one of the condition’s hallmark drugs—Adderall, which was a combination of A.D.D. and All—and the professional and consumer marketing strategies that have helped cultivate a prescriptive landscape that psychiatrist Keith Conners tells the Gray Lady “make it look like an epidemic. Well, it’s not. It’s preposterous.”
The piece also touches on the prickly topic of pharmaceutical-sponsored speaking engagements (one industry-compensated orator says company money has not influenced his research) and patient-facing materials about ADHD surfacing in at least one school system as well as the relatively recent wave of adult ADHD awareness messaging, among other topics.
