Research shows that various pharmaceuticals can offer modest cognition enhancing effects for healthy individuals. These finding have caused some academics to support liberal use of pharmacological cognitive enhancement (PCE) in schools and universities. This approach partially arises from arguments implying there is little moral justification for…

On February 17, 2014, Dr. Jonathan Perry, former director of counseling at the University of Arkansas, sparked a lively debate on the listserv of the Association of University and College Counseling Center Directors (AUCCCD) by warning about the likelihood and dangers of underdiagnosing borderline II disorder. Standing out among the many…

This randomized clinical trial of methylphenidate in children with intellectual disability (ID) by Simonoff et al. (2013) advances the field in several ways useful to clinicians. The large ("N" = 122) widely representative sample more definitively confirms findings previously reported from smaller studies and studies with a differently…

Smith and Farah (2011) provided a thought-provoking and perhaps deliberately provocative literature review of the use of stimulants to improve cognitive functioning in humans. They addressed the apparently increasing willingness of individuals mostly in the United States to use stimulants for this purpose and then summarized published literature…

The commentary by Arnold (2013) raises a number of interesting issues and speculations about the action of methylphenidate in children with intellectual disability (ID) and associated neurodevelopmental disorders, such as autism spectrum disorders. In our article (Simonoff et al., 2013), we were careful to stick closely to the statistical analysis…

We find much of interest, and little to disagree with, in the commentaries on our article. We take issue only with the suggestion that our article was provocative and submit that the attempt to understand the use of stimulants as smart pills does not imply an endorsement of the practice.

The prevalence of childhood and adolescent obesity has tripled in the past three decades. This increase has been accompanied by a dramatic rise in obesity-related health complications among American youth. Thus, many obese youth are now experiencing illnesses that will threaten their life expectancy in the absence of significant weight loss.…

Fox and his colleagues (May-June 2009) listed three occurrences beginning in the 1980s that have dampened psychologists' desires to procure the right to prescribe psychotropic medications. That research review highlighted the fact that antidepressants produce a very modest effect at best when compared with placebos. I briefly summarize here some…

One would like to believe that advances in science have resulted in improved outcomes for troubled youth. Trends in treatment have changed dramatically in two decades. Technology to understand the brain and its functions are highly advanced. But the United States is now medicating youth more than any other country. There is growing concern about…

In a decade when brain research has helped people understand learning difficulties in children, and people have seen increased media attention on the use of medications to treat attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children and adults, Dr. Edward (Ned) Hallowell has worked tirelessly to educate the medical profession, parents,…

Greenberg (2010) is correct in his assertion that the investigational heuristic used to measure the efficacy of antidepressants is flawed. Robust placebo effects are endemic in the psychiatric literature, particularly in studies of antidepressants, and estimates of placebo responding have increased over time (Rief et al., 2009). In the case of…

This conceptual paper considers the role of culture in shaping family, professional, and community understanding of developmental disabilities and their treatments. The meanings of health, illness, and disability vary greatly across cultures and across time. We use Bronfenbrenner's ecological model to provide a theoretical framework for examining…

This paper is a contribution to the debate on the phenomenon of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). It explores how and why the discourses surrounding the aetiology and interventions are dominated by a bio-medical understanding of ADHD. Competing discourses are examined, particularly those marginalised because they do not support the…

In this article, I consider three general issues raised by Haier and Jung (2008). First, I discuss the use of drugs for intellectual enhancement. Second, I reflect on prediction of performance based on biological measures. Third, I query whether biology can tell us what intelligence and creativity are. I conclude that biological assessments raise…

Dr. Goldstein continues the laudable practice of reprinting articles of historical significance in the history of ADHD with this selective reprinting of material from the original article by Maurice Laufer, Eric Denhoff, and Gerald Solomons on hyperkinetic impulsive disorder (HID) in children. This article on HID is among the first articles to…