Former director of Psychology for Texas Children's Hospital in Houston TX, Dr. Bruce Perry MD states that ADHD is not an actual disease but a description of symptoms that almost everyone has. "It is best thought of as a description... any one of us at any given time would fit at least a couple of those criteria." https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2592641/Expert-claims-ADHD-not-real-disease-fits-two-criteria.html Dr. Perry also stated that amphetamines such as Ritalin and Adderall were prescribed far too often and most times were unwarranted. https://www.bbc.com/news/av/health-26822979
The same concern is also expressed by Dr. Robert Berezin MD https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-theater-the-brain/201503/no-there-is-no-such-thing-adhd
Dr. Thomas Armstrong PhD calls ADHD a myth. stating that kids being kids is viewed as hyper activity. https://www.institute4learning.com/2017/09/06/2821/
Dr. Fred Baughman MD, a neurologist that authored the book "The ADHD Fraud" https://www.amazon.com/ADHD-Fraud-Psychiatry-Patients-Children/dp/1412064589 stated "They (psychiatrists) made a list of the most common symptoms of emotional discomfiture of children; those which bother teachers and parents most, and in a stroke that could not be more devoid of science or Hippocratic motive--termed them a 'disease.' Twenty five years of research, not deserving of the term 'research.,' has failed to validate ADD/ADHD as a disease." https://www.healthcentral.com/article/myth-adhd-is-not-a-real-disorder The same article also said that Tom Cruse also discounted the validity of ADHD.
Dr Mark Hyman MD and Dr. Papaicolaou discuss that ADHD is not a psychiatric disorder or a brain disease https://drhyman.com/blog/2020/11/02/podcast-hc29/
Dr. Yaakov Ophir is a clinical psychologist and a post-doctoral researcher at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa. states in this 2019 article ADHD Is Not an Illness, and Ritalin Is Not a Cure
It is time to say out loud: ADHD is an invented disorder, created in the wake of the encounter between children with attention difficulties and the demands of an inflexible education system. Moreover, Ritalin is not a medicine
Ralph Lewis, M.D., is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto, a psychiatrist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, and a consultant at the Odette Cancer Centre in Toronto. States A big part of the problem in the debate is the binary view (reinforced by the categorical approach of the DSMs) that ADHD is a “thing” that you either have or do not have. It probably makes far more sense to conceptualize it as one end of a continuum of traits defining the general population:2 and
It is unlikely that the "disorder" of ADHD would be as prevalent in the human species if it were not maintained by evolutionary selection pressures that conveyed certain advantages to some of its characteristics or associated traits.28
The traits that define ADHD—focus, cognitive control, inhibitory control (self-control), and sensitivity to reward (which drives motivation)—are traits that are fundamental to human functioning. ADHD can be understood as one end of a spectrum of normal, centrally important human traits. A large swath of the population find themselves disadvantaged by evolutionary mismatch in our highly structured society. Seen this way, ADHD is not just one among many specific kinds of psychiatric disorders (in the DSM, ADHD is listed as one of a large number of categorical mental disorders). Rather, it makes more sense to view it as one end of a continuum of a set of centrally important cognitive and behavioral traits that underlie and determine many aspects of human functioning.29 https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/finding-purpose/202101/is-adhd-real-disorder-or-one-end-normal-continuum
Tim O'Shea, D.C. It is perhaps the only disease in American history which may be legally diagnosed by people with no medical credentials whatsoever, including teachers, school counselors, aides, principals, even parents. No lab tests, blood tests, microscope studies, or definitive diagnostic tests exist for ADD. No consistent genetic basis or organic neurological lesions, or any verifiable physical changes have ever been identified as causative of ADD. There is no objective scientific proof that the disease exists. On the contrary, overwhelming evidence shows that ADD was invented in 1980 by the American Psychiatric Association in order to bolster the position of its failing profession. https://chiro.org/pediatrics/ABSTRACTS/Designer_Disease.shtml
Branko van Hulst is a resident in child and adolescent psychiatry at the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) and a postdoctoral researcher at the University Medical Center Utrecht (UMCU). Sander Werkhoven is an assistant professor at the ethics Institute of Utrecht University.Sarah Durston is a full professor of developmental disorders of the brain at the UMC Utrecht.Calling the condition a disorder falsely implies we know of a cause located in the brains of people diagnosed with it—and we don’t and However, a severe and often overlooked side effect of this practice is that these names implicitly suggest causality. The classificatory terms we use all refer to disorders that cause symptoms, and therefore suggest that we understand the causes of the problems. Which we do not. At the very least, the term disorder suggests a common causal structure, which goes against all our current knowledge on causal heterogeneity in psychiatry. Moreover, these classifications are applied to individuals and therefore suggest that causes lie mainly with the affected individual. and When we say that someone has an attention deficit, we are inclined to look for the cause of the problem. But when we say someone has an attention deficit disorder, we might wrongly assume we have already found the cause. Or, in a milder version, assume the cause to be located somewhere in the (brain of the) individual.
On the surface, this may seem like a silly, innocent mistake. However, social scientists have shown time and again that this systematically places the problem with the individual and diverts our focus away from the context (e.g. family/school/work) where traits lead to problems.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/we-need-to-rename-adhd/
In April 2025 New York Times Magazine published "Have We been wrong about A.D.H.D All Along" https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/13/magazine/adhd-medication-treatment-research.html which was reported on by the Blaze https://www.theblaze.com/news/scientists-who-suggested-adhd-has-biological-basis-recants-conclusion The article documented the recanting of the previous definition and theory which ADHD was a brain disorder. Turns out that the new finding show that ADHD is not a caused by a physical brain disorder that causes a set of permanent symptoms that needs to be managed with amphetamines such as Adderall or Ritalin being compared with type 1 diabetes. Its now stated "We have a clinical definition of A.D.H.D. that is increasingly unanchored from what we're finding in our science," and that the previous view is "inaccurate and unhelpful" In reality what is labeled as ADHD is dynamically changing behavior "experiences" that the average adult experiences on a daily basis and are not an "all or nothing disorder" caused by "altered brains" but kids being kids and that the previous now disproven view of ADHD of "subjective judgement" with the goalposts moved with every revision of the DSM was nothing more than to over diagnose young males to stick them on Adderall or Ritalin to drive up drug sales. Same can be said about the claimed "biomarkers of ADHD" where once again psychology has failed to replicated the results for each biomarker claim such as the "ADHD Gene" the reduced brain and electrical matter. This also proves the FAA's stance of grounding pilots and air traffic controllers labeled with ADHD has been proven yet again not scientifically driven but is used as a "boogie man" to ground non-DEI males to give their slots to diversity hires of questionable qualifications.
Actual science has now determined that brains need rest after being redlined for 30 minutes. A multi hour cognative assemenet is basically a test to distruction and is malpractice since everyone will have fatigue leading to to mistakes, slower thinking, and eventually, burnout. When we take breaks, our brain uses that downtime to process information, form new connections, and reset its focus.
Scientists call this the “default mode network”—it’s a powerful system that helps us make sense of what we’re learning and sparks creativity. A simple walk to the kitchen or a few minutes gazing out the window can give your brain the boost it needs to come back stronger. What is normal is what malpracticing quacks mislabel as ADHD https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/the-science-behind-breaks-and-how-they-make-you-more-effective/ss-AA1DaTyG?ocid=sapphireappshare
This is not unlike the hysteria created with the now disproven and discredited narrative surrounding the justification to lockdown the world in 2020 due to COVID.
This shows the subjectively graded Cogscreen tests have nothing to do with safety and are really about creating a cottage industry that holds pilots hostage for as much money can be squeezed out of them by dangling the hope with no guarantee of getting their medicals back. Far from it, these trapped pilots are subjectively graded as fails in order to keep them in hostage indefinitely. It's time to let the safest pilots have their unrestricted medicals back without any strings attached and to put these mental health quacks cottage industry of holding pilots hostage out of business.