ADHD is 'genetic', honest guv

Back in September, a shrink from Cardiff University in Wales, United Kingdom, shouted all over the media that ADHD is genetic. Professor Anita Thapar said, "Now we can say with confidence that ADHD is a genetic disease." How d'you know that then? Yes, there's probably a bubbly-babbly sickly-psycho answer that's supposed to wash over me and people like me, so we don't keep asking how d'you know that then?

But I don't buy the bubbly-babbly sickly-psycho answer. In fact, I thought the doc's nemesis Oliver James had a pretty good argument when he said in the Guardian, "Although she claimed to have proved that ADHD is a "genetic disease", if anything, she proved the opposite."

Fergus Walsh, the BBC's medical correspondent, waded in to the argument as well. He said of Prof Thapar's statement, "...those bold claims do not seem to be borne out by the actual research paper." And after doing his sums, he concluded, "That also means that seven out of eight of the ADHD group did not have the genetic variant - which hardly justifies Professor Thapar's confident assertion that ADHD is a genetic disease."

ADHD isn't scientific. It's a psychiatric obsession about badly behaved kids, based on the psycho-bubbly-babbly 'chemical imbalance' theory. There's no way to measure an imbalance, so the rug that ADHD is sitting on gets pulled every time someone says it's an imbalance in the brain. Or am I being unfair? There are parents out there who'd probably like to ask me whether I've ever had to live with a kid with ADHD. I'd say with complete confidence, no I haven't, because ADHD doesn't exist!

I'd follow that by saying I have lived with a kid who's badly behaved and yes, I know what that's like. It's tough and I couldn't wait to leave home. The badly behaved kid though didn't get drugs stuffed down his throat and now he's doing pretty good, thank you very much. I'm proud to call him my brother.

Doc Thapar should be ashamed of herself. I'm going to answer the question posed to her: she doesn't know it's genetic, and she can't prove it's genetic, but I'll bet she made a bucket load of cash from it.