3 hours ago
There is nothing scientific about The Great ADHD Myth? ‘documentary’
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...ocumentary
INTRO: When Channel 4 announced that it would air a documentary titled The Great ADHD Myth?, an outpouring of fury followed. Despite this, I set out to approach it as a scientist – not just as a scientist whose own work has dealt with developmental disorders, but as someone who has enormous respect for the scientific process and for the importance of evidence-led debate.
Channel 4’s press release claimed the documentary sought to determine whether attention deficit hyperactivity disorder was a “genuine neurodevelopmental disorder, or a social construct”. At one level this is a brave enterprise. ADHD is recognised worldwide as a disorder, by the World Health Organization and our own NHS among others. Estimates suggest ADHD affects roughly 8% of children and adolescents and about 3% of adults worldwide. To overturn this consensus would require robust, reproducible findings capable of explaining away decades of genetic, developmental and clinical research. The press release described the documentary as “science-led”, which hinted at just such an enterprise. Was it really science-led?
The answer is a resounding “no”. It bore little relation to a genuine scientific debate; in fact, there was no evidence of a debate at all.
One thing science tries to do is eliminate bias – not always successfully, but the intention should be there. The documentary does not start out well on this front. Max Pemberton, the presenter, has published widely about his ADHD scepticism: an article he wrote for the Daily Mail last year was headlined: “This is the REAL reason why there’s been an explosion in cases of ADHD – and why we should all be scared of the consequences.”
The very title of this programme does not promise a balanced discussion (ADHD UK has said its question mark does not serve as a “get-out-of-harm-free card”). Asking whether this is a “genuine” disorder or a “social construct” can all too easily be read as: “or made-up”.
As the late physicist Richard Feynman pointed out, good science should be as ruthless with the evidence that supports your thesis as it is with the evidence that contradicts it. This “documentary” (having seen it, I am deliberately putting this term in scare quotes) doesn’t report any evidence that might contradict the conclusion it has clearly reached at the outset... (MORE - details)
The Great ADHD Myth? ... https://youtu.be/Kg4Fq3VVuzs
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...ocumentary
INTRO: When Channel 4 announced that it would air a documentary titled The Great ADHD Myth?, an outpouring of fury followed. Despite this, I set out to approach it as a scientist – not just as a scientist whose own work has dealt with developmental disorders, but as someone who has enormous respect for the scientific process and for the importance of evidence-led debate.
Channel 4’s press release claimed the documentary sought to determine whether attention deficit hyperactivity disorder was a “genuine neurodevelopmental disorder, or a social construct”. At one level this is a brave enterprise. ADHD is recognised worldwide as a disorder, by the World Health Organization and our own NHS among others. Estimates suggest ADHD affects roughly 8% of children and adolescents and about 3% of adults worldwide. To overturn this consensus would require robust, reproducible findings capable of explaining away decades of genetic, developmental and clinical research. The press release described the documentary as “science-led”, which hinted at just such an enterprise. Was it really science-led?
The answer is a resounding “no”. It bore little relation to a genuine scientific debate; in fact, there was no evidence of a debate at all.
One thing science tries to do is eliminate bias – not always successfully, but the intention should be there. The documentary does not start out well on this front. Max Pemberton, the presenter, has published widely about his ADHD scepticism: an article he wrote for the Daily Mail last year was headlined: “This is the REAL reason why there’s been an explosion in cases of ADHD – and why we should all be scared of the consequences.”
The very title of this programme does not promise a balanced discussion (ADHD UK has said its question mark does not serve as a “get-out-of-harm-free card”). Asking whether this is a “genuine” disorder or a “social construct” can all too easily be read as: “or made-up”.
As the late physicist Richard Feynman pointed out, good science should be as ruthless with the evidence that supports your thesis as it is with the evidence that contradicts it. This “documentary” (having seen it, I am deliberately putting this term in scare quotes) doesn’t report any evidence that might contradict the conclusion it has clearly reached at the outset... (MORE - details)
The Great ADHD Myth? ... https://youtu.be/Kg4Fq3VVuzs