Today the New York Times published an article “The Selling of  Attention Deficit Disorder” by Alan Schwarz. This is a lengthy article highlighting the increased identification of people with ADHD and  the concomitant increase in the prescriptions of effective medications.  The article is a feature story on the New York Times website today.

Toward the end of this article I am  quoted for the authorship of a continuing medical education article I wrote for Medscape.com in August 2012. In the Times article, he references a six-minute video clip of an interview between physician and patient I had included in my Medscape article.  He uses my quote “That was not an acceptable way to evaluate and conclude that the patient has A.D.H.D.” to  indict me for using  the short video as an example of how to evaluate adult ADHD. He sat with me for 30 minutes in Washington DC and recorded our interview.  However, what he failed to mention in his New York Times article was that the video clip he referenced accompanied a 2000 word continuing medical education article with 86 scientific references that was estimated to take physicians 2.5 hours to complete.  It would appear that Mr. Swartz had an a priori agenda in presenting his information. His remarks in the article malign and misrepresents physicians’ and researchers’ commitment to exploring causes and effective treatments for ADHD.  Unfortunately this is not my first experience with journalists dispensing with facts that don’t support their biased premise.

This evening I composed my  Letter to the editor and have forwarded it to them.   Let’s wait and see what develops. And now you have the back story to my quote.  Thank you for your interest.

David W. Goodman M.D.