In history people with ADHD did not fare very well. The public in general considered the traits of a child with the disorder as coming from bad seed: being disrespectful or willfully choosing to be disruptive and disorderly. Before the 1980s, there were a handful of ADHD organizations that developed, but during this decades more than 100 were organized into national networks and political action organizations. In 1987 a group of parents and two psychologists in Plantation, Florida, frustrated by what to do and where to turn, formed a group for children with attention deficit. Now the group Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactive Disorder (CHADD) has more than 20,000 members worldwide. The Attention Deficit Disorder Association (ADDA) was formed in 1989. Greater interest in the conditions evoked this great public/parent activism. Initiatives were taken to have state and federal laws studied and evaluated to include ADHD as an educational disability in need of special services in public schools.

When the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of (PL 94-142) was passed in 1975, the intent was that children who were classified with minimal brain dysfunction (MBD) under the category of learning disabilities would be eligible for special educational services, but children with hyperactivity, attention deficit, or ADHD were not included because of the impact it would have on learning or behavior disorders for mandated special services. Thus, many school districts denied these students special services.

When parents began to win lawsuits for services to children of ADHD, in the 1990s the U.S. Department of Education reinterpreted PL 94-142, and the reauthorization is known as Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) includes ADHD under ''Other Health Impaired'' because of the impact of attention and alertness. Under this provision, children with ADHD could be considered for special services, provided that the disability impaired educational attainment.

As a reaction to the federal impetus for children and the increased attention to medication for people with disabilities, several groups began to question the scientific basis for treatment and the use of federal funds in education. One of the leaders was the Church of Scientology and its Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR). In 1987 in a publication called Ritalin: A Warning to Parents, the group claimed that Ritalin was a dangerous and addictive drug often used by intolerant educators and parents and by money-hungry psychiatrists as a chemical straightjacket to subdue normally exuberant children. They claimed that use of Ritalin could frequently result in violence or murder, suicide, Tourette's syndrome, permanent brain damage or emotional disturbance, seizures, high blood pressure, confusion, agitation, and depression. The publication also claimed that the increasing production of Ritalin was leading to increased abuse of these drugs by the general public. A group of scientologists picketed scientific meetings and public conferences on ADHD and distributed leaflets to parents and students. CCHR focused on rare cases of adverse reaction to stimulants to make the effort to persuade the public that overprescribing these drugs was a threat to schoolchildren. They proposed that ADHD was a myth and decried the evils of Ritalin.

According to Barkley, great controversy was generated in the media and in some lay groups, but no evidence was presented in these articles and no widespread controversy existed in professional or scientific fields about the disorder. However the explosion of parent and professional support groups counteracted the scientology groups and with their emphasis on education neutralized some of the information from the group.

Bibliography:

1) Barkley, Russell. 2006. Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder: A handbook for diagnosis and treatment. 3rd ed. New York: Guilford Press;

2) Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR). 1987. Ritalin: A warning to parents. Los Angeles: CCHR.

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