Mandatory ADHD Screening and Treatment for the Workplace?

I'm busy working on my chapter novel/wicked big picture book and came across this eye opening article by Philip Dawdy over at Furious Seasons during a break:

New ADHD Study Pimps ADHD Workplace Screening

Drug maker Eli Lilly funded a study that recommends mandatory ADHD screening and treatment (i.e. medicating) at the workplace in order to improve worker productivity. After all, we ADHD guys are costing the company money through lost hours of brainless ADHD spinning. The study says so. You know, because only ADHD people get bored and play Solitaire at work, chat at the water cooler, text message, surf the web, do email, take long lunches, etc.

Philip breaks the study down and explains why it's a bad idea with questionable legitimacy.

Comments

Anonymous said…
The contact form on the Absentminded Artist is broken and I am trying to contact Douglas Cootey for permission to use or purchase http://www.cootey.com/fractals/parade/pix/Atomic.Fractal.Ultra-X.jpg on a web site. Please contact burnsp@kenyon.edu
May 28, 2008 10:35 AM
FishermansDaughter said…
Douglas-

Absolutely OUTRAGEOUS and tons of other words I won't type out...how about a side of conflict of interest with that heaping helping of crap salad Eli Lilly?!?
May 28, 2008 12:19 PM
Anonymous said…
There are ADHD drugs that have been confirmed to be quite detrimental to a a person's mental health. I know of a cousin of mine who was diagnosed with ADHD and was asked to take specific drugs as a requirement in school. We were worried because he had moments of spacing out and getting really down. We opted for natural alternatives and it worked! I hope you find natural remedies as a solution to these kind of situations very much helpful as we did...
May 29, 2008 6:51 AM
dmq said…
The people who came up with that study must feel threatened by people with AD/HD. Don't they know that just as there are no two people alike, there are also no two AD/HD people alike. We all, just like everyone else, have our weaknesses and our strengths. If you like your work a person with AD/HD will probably work harder and longer. I loved my job when I worked (I am retired now) and I worked harder than the so called normal people. I could pass hours lost in my work. I was not the one hanging around talking the hours away or wasting my employers money. My employers always got more than they paid for. We as a country try too hard to group people into lump sums but not all are the same and they never will be. By the way, how about testing so called normal people for a lazyness trait and make them take something to make them not so lazy. And how about testing for rudeness and disagreeability and medicating for that. Let's all be medicated and see if we can make us all think and act the same. Except, who gets to pick the norm?
May 30, 2008 6:24 PM
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