Rating: 
Summary: Knows What he's Talking About!
Review: ADD and ADHD are real. Spend time with adults and or children that have been diagnosed with either of these, then tell me it "an upper middle class crock". Go to CH. A. D. D. and read some of the info there. I have ADD, my daughter has ADD and my grandson is ADHD. I know where of I speak.
Rating:
Summary: A very well written, comprehensive book.
Review: As a self diagnosed ADD adult who is also an Educational Psychologist and a father of two children with a diagnosis of ADD/ADHD and two other children not diagnosed and 6 other "normal" children, I think I may know of what I speak. One of the reasons I like this book is it agrees with so much of what I have researched, both professionally and privately, and have formed an opinion about. I just wish it was in a form that more people could use. I think it should be in the "must have" list of anyone who deals in anyway with this thing call ADD/ADHD.
Rating: 
Summary: Caution is good but treatment is mandatory.
Review: As an adult with ADD who never recieved treatment and the parant of a child who was diagnosed late in her childhood I know the tragedy of not providing treatment for this very treatable disorder. Ritalin is just one part, albiet an important one, of a large regimen of treatments. It is vital that all be explored, but a common theme is that none of the others are very effective until you can adjust the chemistry of the brain so that it is receptive to other forms of therapy. My daughter takes her medication when she needs to be able to concentrate and focus on a particular subject. She writes her best poetry unmedicated. That she has this feedom is because she has the benefit of the other therapies that the drug facilitated. Dr. Diller has touched on many of the concerns that face parents with children who are ADD. There are those who use both the diagnosis and the drug as an means of behavior modification and this must be guarded against. The goal should be to provide choices. Because there are problems with the system is no reason to toss out the baby (or the adult) with the bathwater. This is an important book to read over lightly and toss. If you are new to ADD, read Driven to Distraction by Edward M. Hallowell, M.D., and John J. Ratey, M.D. first. This will arm you with the facts.
Rating:
Summary: Great job!
Review: Dr. Diller does an excellent job of providing information related to the use of Ritalin. If you or your child have ADD/ADHD and use Ritalin, this book is a must-read!
Rating:
Summary: He's right; and he explains why!
Review: Dr. Diller is absolutely right. In my medical practice I have had occasion to see kids who are truly ADD/ADHD. But many more kids are simply not able to handle the factory-system of American education in which one or two dozen kids are expected to sit quietly and do nearly nothing most of the time. Who among us wasn't very often bored to tears in school? Well, things haven't changed. In fact, they've gotten worse, and I discovered this through the school of hard knocks with my own daughter. Although she is very strong-willed and, at times, not as focused and attentive as some other children, she is bright, imaginative, and has been reading at pre-college level since before age 9. When we found (and paid for ourselves) the right teacher for her, it made an enormous difference. I am persuaded that, while Ritalin is for some kids who are truly dysfunctional without it, 90%+ of what's being called ADD/ADHD these days is due to the attention deficits of parents and teachers.
Rating:
Summary: A thoughtful, balanced summary of a complex issue.
Review: Dr. Diller writes both from the heart and the brain, and he writes well. Anyone who works in education should consider this mandatory reading.
Rating:
Summary: Adds to the incredible pile of erroneous info about ADD
Review: I agree with the reviewer who says, "ADD and ADHD are real, spend time with someone who truly has it and you will know" I sincerely doubt Dr. Diller has spent much time, if any, with children or adults who truly have ADD. He makes many statements in his book that show a lack of knowledge in areas of ADD diagnosis and the use of Medication to treat this syndrome. For instance, he states that despite the fact that Methylphenidate (Ritalin) cannot "cure", or provide a long-term improvement in ADD, so many people still accept its use. This seems confusing to Dr. Diller. Well, do daily insulin doses "cure" Diabetes? Yet, without it, a diabetic would die. Do eyeglasses "cure" myopia? Yet, without them I couldn't (prescription of -13 dioptors) function very well in this world. Ritalin provides the necessary chemical neurotransmitters that some people's brain, for whatever reason, don't produce enough of, or are lost in a process of "re-uptake." My son has been on Ritalin for 4 years, is above the 50th percentile for height and weight for his age, has no tics, a HUGE appetite, gets lots of sleep, and is doing very well in school. Without Ritalin, his life and mine would be a sad disaster. I don't, in any way, advocate medicating every fidgety child you see. I also don't believe medication without ancillary treatments, (counseling, effective parenting and management, etc.) is safe or desirable. Yet, I strongly feel that medication is, for many, a necessary first step that allows other interventions to work effectively. There are many great books out there, find them and read them. But, beware, there are many more doctors and pediatricians out there that know next to nothing about ADD.
Rating:
Summary: Adds to the incredible pile of erroneous info about ADD
Review: I agree with the reviewer who says, "ADD and ADHD are real, spend time with someone who truly has it and you will know" I sincerely doubt Dr. Diller has spent much time, if any, with children or adults who truly have ADD. He makes many statements in his book that show a lack of knowledge in areas of ADD diagnosis and the use of Medication to treat this syndrome. For instance, he states that despite the fact that Methylphenidate (Ritalin) cannot "cure", or provide a long-term improvement in ADD, so many people still accept its use. This seems confusing to Dr. Diller. Well, do daily insulin doses "cure" Diabetes? Yet, without it, a diabetic would die. Do eyeglasses "cure" myopia? Yet, without them I couldn't (prescription of -13 dioptors) function very well in this world. Ritalin provides the necessary chemical neurotransmitters that some people's brain, for whatever reason, don't produce enough of, or are lost in a process of "re-uptake." My son has been on Ritalin for 4 years, is above the 50th percentile for height and weight for his age, has no tics, a HUGE appetite, gets lots of sleep, and is doing very well in school. Without Ritalin, his life and mine would be a sad disaster. I don't, in any way, advocate medicating every fidgety child you see. I also don't believe medication without ancillary treatments, (counseling, effective parenting and management, etc.) is safe or desirable. Yet, I strongly feel that medication is, for many, a necessary first step that allows other interventions to work effectively. There are many great books out there, find them and read them. But, beware, there are many more doctors and pediatricians out there that know next to nothing about ADD.
Rating: 
Summary: Running on Ritalin saunters in examining ADD environment
Review: I like this book. I like its author. I like his concern, the range of concerns, his houghtfulness, and the range of thought in the book.But the book also prompted me to look up the word "prolix" in the dictionary: this book's prolixity could, unfortunately, actually be some kind of hidden test for the reader's limits of attention. The publisher stumbled. "Running on Ritaling" too often strolls, and should have been goosed--its arguments should have been sped to the reader -- through both editing and layout. Its arguments are, in brief, and working from the memory of a voracious reader who ended up only skimming much of the latter part of the book: o ADD is probably overdiagnosed in children, since ADD is ill-defined and since conflict between children and some adults who are important in their lives is common. o Ritalin is used too much, too often. o ADD-type personalities respond to both chemicals (typically) and to environment. (Always, in all ways? Certain: it is big sea in which these fish swim always.) o Be SURE to modify environment to help shape behavior. o Environment: home and school; behavior of mom and dad and teacher. o Chemicals MAY be used, but START there only in severe cases. o Many cases are presented, and many suggestions for changing environment are made in the course of the narrative. OK. Agreed, already. By way of contrast: for concise, readily-used, detailed, and tested techniques for changing the environment of children see, however, Russell Barkley's "Taking Charge of ADHD," which was released at about the same time. I suspect that Diller is probably more unfair to Barkley than Barkley is responsible for ignoring concerns such as Diller's. Just a guess. They BOTH seem pretty caught up in beating their drums--and sometimes leave the reader needing a good laugh.
Rating: 
Summary: A Balanced View
Review: I started this book with some trepidation, expecting the author to be dead-set against Ritalin. This was not the case at all. He points out many positives about it, and frequently prescribes it to his own patients. He does examine (and question) the huge increase in the diagnosis of ADHD and the use of Ritalin, but in an insightful way. As the aunt of an ADHD child and a mother who is considering evaluation for her own daughter, I found the book very helpful. As we go through the process, I am already successfully using some of the behavioral techniques he discusses in the book.
I did feel that the book could have been quite a bit shorter, as the author seemed to repeat himself quite a bit.
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