ADHD

Does sugar cause hyperactive children? Science says nope

There is an old myth that when children consume a lot of sugar it causes them to be hyperactive. Scientific evidence does not support this.

Marijuana for ADHD – what’s the evidence?

Those of you who follow this website know that I frequently take down myths about the medical usefulness of marijuana. Let’s just say the evidence barely reaches the level of “sparse.” Recently, Tara Haelle pointed me to an article that trumpeted using marijuana for ADHD, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

ADHD is a psychological disorder in which the individual is unable to focus, is overactive, is unable to control behavior, or a combination of these, not appropriate for the age of the individual. Diagnosing ADHD is often difficult, because the differential diagnosis for the condition can be confused with or related to other emotional, psychiatric or neurodevelopmental disorders such as anxiety, major depressive disorder, and bipolar disorder.

There are some treatments available for ADHD, including stimulants such as the well-known medications, methylphenidate, or better known by its trademarked name, Ritalin, and Adderall, a mixture of two amphetamines. These stimulants are very effective for treating ADHD, but there are some risks to its use, and the effectiveness appears to lower over time.

So let’s look at marijuana for ADHD – it’s pretty weak, but let’s give it a good scientific skeptical analysis.

The one vaccine clinical trial design to rule them all

by Michael Simpson
2019-10-13
6 Comments
Andrew Wakefield, Autism, Diabetes, Evidence based medicine, Vaccines

If you spend time observing the “vaccine debate” (it’s not a debate), you’ll hear every dumb argument to deny science. But one thing that you’ll see repeatedly from the antivaccination cults are that they would support vaccinations if there were better vaccine clinical trial design.

The problem with the cult’s demand for better vaccine clinical trial design is really one of several moving targets for their denialism, relying on a form of the Argument from ignorance, claiming that if we can’t absolutely “prove” that vaccines are safe, then it must be absolutely unsafe.

For example, there are literally thousands of articles, ( an example here and was discussed here), that actually provide overwhelming evidence of the safety and effectiveness of vaccines using real science, real statistics, and real hard work. The antithesis of the fake science, bogus statistics, and 2 hours of Google.

The one study to rule them all–the vaccine denier’s dream

by Michael Simpson
2019-10-13
24 Comments
Andrew Wakefield, Autism, Diabetes, Evidence based medicine, Vaccines

If you spend any time in the “debate” (actually, one side has scientific evidence and the antivaccination side denies all science, so to avoid falling for a false equivalency, debate gets scare quotes), you’ll hear every dumb argument to deny science. But one thing that you’ll see repeatedly from the vaccine deniers is that they would support vaccinations if there were better clinical trials.

The problem with the vaccine denier’s clinical trial proposals is that they are a moving target, relying on a form of the Argument from ignorance, claiming that if we can’t absolutely “prove” that vaccines are safe, then it must be absolutely unsafe. For example, there are dozens of articles, including one of the latest (published here and discussed here).

The actual process for vaccine clinical trials.

My good friend Allison Hagood, co-author of Your Baby’s Best Shot: Why Vaccines Are Safe and Save Lives, wrote a commentary about the antivaccine community’s perfect clinical trial. Follow along! (Allison’s commentary is presented in whole, but I’ve edited the formatting and added links where necessary).