Re: Comments/reviews? on Dr. Ned Hallowel's Delivered from Distraction, got some?

[Bibliophile]

I personally can’t tolerate Dr. Ned Hallowell’s everything but the kitchen sink approach to symptom mitigation and treatment. He is all over the spectrum of ADHD = Gift one minute to ADHD can be serious impairment the next.

While I have not read, Dr. T. Brown’s book, it sounds like more of a Dr. R. Barkley view. I particularly liked this review of the book on Amazon as it seemed quite balanced and fair:

A clinical sobering view–somewhat helpful, at times misleading, December 2, 2005

By JackOfMostTrades “Jack” (Washington, DC) – (VINE VOICE)

Brown eschews the spate of ADD books that champion the idea ‘How wonderful that I have ADD. I’m unique, creative and all I have to do is learn to adapt myself to the world and I will have a great life’ hype that sells copies for people with ADD seeking a cure-all. Brown is an empiricist and does not subscribe to anecdotal evidence such as prominent people who have ADD to suggest everyone can. In fact, his sobering view is that the executive functions of the brain are compromised in the ADD mind, and therefore, ‘training’ is of little use nor are the newer strategies of neurofeedback or exercises that purport to ‘balance the cerebellum,’ which he likens to trying to treat autism by providing courses in communication skills. Rather, his emphasis is that ADD is a serious disorder, or rather a syndrome since there are many parameters to it, or in other words, many roads that lead to it. On the positive side he denounces the deniers of ADD like scientologists and ‘common sense’ observations that you just need to give a child some motivation and will power. He believes thus far medication is about the only good treatment, and wryly states stimulants and other medical treatments are fine for 8 out of 10 people with ADD, fine that is, if you happen to be one of the eight. He presents advice to families that has been covered already in much of the literature. While his views are conservative–and he does not discuss various severities of ADD–this is a helpful book if you need a good outline of the available evidence on the subject, and will be a welcome ADDition to your library, particularly if you have been frustrated by the upbeat hype, and begin blaming yourself for not ‘getting with the program.’ At times, however, he overreaches his thesis, making suggesting that the ‘executive functions’ in people with ADD are so compromised they are practically hopeless. He does not mention degrees of ADD although he mentions types of ADD. He also does a bit of contradicting by first stating that it is a syndrome with multiple causes but then treats it as though all the variables result in basically the same condition. He also fails to address sufficiently the cultural variable of a world saturated with information that can exacerbate the condition, nor does he mention the idea that ADD may evolve during the lifespan, regardless of medication or behavioral training.

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