Great Regulars: [James Davies] has plenty of horror ­stories

of the deliberate suppression of negative data arising from drugs trials and of academics being bribed to say nice things about dubious products.

On top of that there is the ever-increasing medicalisation of the human mind. Sadness has become "clinical" depression and an unruly school pupil has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity ­Disorder (ADHD) and is likely to be dosed with Ritalin. This latter is still an unfolding scandal. A Canadian study, quoted by Davies, discovered an ADHD diagnosis was heavily dependent on the child's birthday. Boys born in December (the cut-off date for entering the Canadian school year) are 30% more likely to be told they have ADHD than those born in January. The reason, it is suggested, is that being the youngest in the class is the source of stress.

from Bryan Appleyard: from The Sunday Times: Psychiatry on Trial

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