Medicine: Academic Doping

I stand proudly above my soapbox and scream about how poor kids don't get the treatment they need for ADHD, while rich kids take Ritalin like a multi-vitamin because they got a B in math on their last report card. And at least MSNBC agrees. As evidenced by some of the obvious misinformation of belief held by some of those in my mental health policy course with regards to whether ADHD is even a real disease, we face a reverse mythology about the condition that somehow drug companies or script-happy docs have made up a disorder to fund business, when it's in fact pretty tough to get a real diagnosis backed with neuropsychiatric testing and evidence of a real neuropsychiatric condition in more than one setting.

And maybe it does happen some places. Obviously it does. Every med student knew at least one chode when we were studying for the MCAT that was popping Adderall like it was going to make up for 21 years of academic jerking off in six weeks time. They obviously got their amphetamine salts from somewhere, and it probably wasn't Columbia.

So summary: soapbox = rich kids on Ritalin + poor kids on crack = SparkWrath!