...an important, humane and compellingly written new book ... ADHD Nation focuses on an unholy alliance between drugmakers, academic psychiatrists, policy makers and celebrity shills like Glenn Beck that Schwarz brands the 'A.D.H.D. industrial complex' ... should be required reading.
[Schwarz] makes a persuasive case that too many children have been swept into the vortex of a perfect cultural storm ... ADHD Nation doesn’t attempt a broad cultural analysis. But Mr. Schwarz’s disciplined focus gives his book clarity and even utility.
...as Schwarz’s book makes distressingly clear, the pharmaceutical industry apparently learned nothing from the first amphetamine epidemic it helped cause, when it began setting the research agenda for ADHD ... His book—a dazzling piece of journalism, based on extensive research and an enormous number of interviews—sheds some much needed light on what he calls a new 'American epidemic' ... While Schwarz’s book is an outstanding exposé, he has only seven pages on solutions, which feels tacked on to the end of the book.”
...fascinating and disturbing ... I passionately hope that ADHD Nation will finally wake us up as a society to what’s happening around us ... This incredibly important book drives home the facts about the crimes against our children—from toddlers to teens—that have been perpetrated right under our noses.
The real power of ADHD Nation does not come from these scoops but from the cumulative effect of the narrative ... He uses his gentle wit to disarm the recurring industry marketing lines, such as 'ADHD is both overdiagnosed and underdiagnosed,' 'Ritalin is just like eyeglasses' and 'Ritalin is safer than aspirin' ... urgent and overdue.
