A growing body of experts is even questioning whether ADHD exists at all.

"As a society, we are quick to reach for a pill," says David Healy, one of the world's leading psycho-pharmacology experts, and Professor of Psychiatry at Cardiff University.

"There's much less willingness on the part of the medical profession to say to parents: 'You have an awkward child. You must discipline them.'

"So we prescribe pills instead.

"The drugs used to treat ADHD are the same as speed and cocaine.

"We react with horror to the idea that our kids would use such drugs, but don't react about drugs such as Ritalin being given to them.

"There's a risk that your child won't grow as well.

"There are high risks that children will go on to use street drugs, too, because they will have grown used to their effects."

Professor Healy says anti-psychotic drugs such as Risperdal were used in the Soviet Union to extract information from political prisoners.

"People who took them would tell anything to anyone," he says.

"When you think about giving these drugs to kids, it's a whole new ball game."

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