Do We Really Need Ritalin?: A Family's Guide to Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

I am writing this review with the intention of encouraging a much-needed re-print of this excellent little book. I have been recommending it to parents, school counsellors and teachers since it first appeared, and was shocked to hear it has become unavailabe. I have read a great number of books about ADHD, and Dr. Wright's is one of the clearest and most comprehensive works of its kind. In an easily-readable and empathetic FAQ form, she describes ADHD and its sufferers, and presents scientifically serious arguments for a global, multimodal treatment approach, explaining the use and rationale of Ritalin and other treatments, including various other medications as well as psychotherapeutic and psychosocial interventions. Dr. Wright has distilled her encyclopedic knowledge and obviously vast experience into a useful guide primarily intended for the parents of children with ADHD, but it should also be on the "must" list of all who have any responsibilities in the raising, care and education of all children and adolescents. The only change I would have wished for would be the title. A better one would have been, perhaps: ADHD AND ITS TREATMENT - WHY RITALIN AND WHY MORE. In closing, it is worthy of note that Dr. Wright, whose book was published in 1997, was already working within the framework described and implied by two excellent review articles in the current volume of the New England Journal of Medicine (1999, 340:40-46 and 780-788).

Of all the books about medical things that I have read this is the best by far. Dr. Wright's advice should be must reading for anyone with ADHD as well as families, close friends, and those who are simply interested in that subject.