by Randy Cima, Ph.D.

Medscape online publishes yet another bold headline about the real cause of one of psychiatry’s cruelest invented diagnoses: “ADHD Likely Due to Genes, Not Parenting or Environment”. According to this study, children who don’t pay attention to adults and are always off task are victims of a mutated gene. At least, they conclude, ADHD is likely due to their self-selected mutated gene in one out of five participants in the study. (I added this one to my ever-growing long list of causes and cures I’ve collected over the years for ADHD. You can see 10 at the end*).

When I read a new study in psychiatry, I always begin at the same place:

Funding: Medgenics is the funder of this study. Founded in 2011 and recently added to the NASDAQ, Medgenics is one of many new drug companies formed to create and distribute their chemicals to treat genetic flaws, not brain flaws. Genetic psychiatry is the latest iteration of psychiatry’s failed science**.

Medgenics presented their results to AACAP in late October. Liza Squires, M.D., Vice President of Research & Development, announced the next phase of the study is being prepared. According to Dr. Squires, the company’s goal is “to develop a . . . product for this subpopulation . . . the first targeted therapy in any CNS disease . . .” Further, Dr. Squires proclaimed this study the “emergence of precision medicine."

And there you have it, dear customer. This is the one of the newest formulas drug companies use to make money for their stockholders. Keep an eye out for other “targeted therapy” and “precision medicine” studies.

How To Carve Out a Market in an Already Saturated Market: Maybe you wonder about the fuss this company makes out of a study that shows just 20% have this particular “gene mutation.” What about the other 80% who don’t, you ask? What’s the likely due for them? It doesn’t matter. Fortunately for psychiatry, their invented disorders can have multiple “causes,” to their financial advantage.

So, Medgenics is aggressively pursuing their business plan. The final results will be publicized as a newly discovered “sub-population” of ADHD children, requiring genetic treatment. Like magic, Medgenics financed the creation of new customers (the ”subculture”) for their soon to be created genetic repair chemicals (the medication), in order to fix their self-selected genetic mutation (the “likely due”).

Something is very wrong with this picture.

This Is Not Science: First clue? The headline. A legitimate scientist would never use the term “likely due,” unless you’re talking about earthquakes. That’s a marketing term used at the direction of corporate lawyers to avoid the term cause. That word – cause – has significant implications in court.

Instead, terms like association, correlation, relationship, interrelation, connection, interconnection, link, and others, are used because they are vague and subjective – and defensible in court. This study exposed me to one I hadn't seen before: “likely due.” Lots of wiggle room in “likely due.”

Second Clue? Confirmatory Findings, in bold. This is impossible in science. Any scientist, student or enthusiast understands that under no circumstances can a scientist confirm her own science. In this study, this scientist not only did so, her study found an increase of 100% of this sub-population from her prior study – the same sub-population she invented. That’s a remarkable increase. On the other hand, it sounds like good news for the investment team at Medgenics. Their market size doubled.

This process is an example of a marketing scheme, not science. Still, it begs the question: how is it possible that this type of scientific charade continues to be so successful - over and over and over again?

The Enduring Failure of Treatment: In the last half century, psychiatry has created more than 50 chemicals - just for ADHD. Alternatives include diet supplements and restrictions, hormonal medications, acupuncture, exercise, behavioral plans, talk therapy, and many, many, many more. Fame and fortunes have been made, and continue to be made, providing “treatment” for this lucrative, invented, destructive diagnosis.

Here’s the rub. None of them “work.” That’s why there’s always room for next years new batch of chemicals or procedures. Last years miracle cures failed too.

Then again, how could they work? There is no such disease, or disorder, or dysfunction, or disability, or deficiency, or disturbance. There is nothing medical about behavior, thus, medicine and medics are out of their element. Failure is unavoidable.

Science is for Sale in Psychiatry: I usually stop reading a new psychiatric study after learning a drug company supplies the cash – and they almost always supply the cash. Corporations rightly expect something in return for their often very large investments – or they won’t be using your “science” the next time they need a study to create some business.

In summary, as a long time mental health practitioner, I found nothing of interest and nothing of value from this psychiatric study. I must admit - I wasn’t surprised. I never am.

* I collect causes and cures of all of psychiatry’s false diseases (I call them Faults and Fixes). Here are ten for ADHD. There are many more: • Acetaminophen while pregnant: here • Dietary Factors (too much/too little: sugar, gluten, omega-3, food additives, GMO, etc): here • Abnormal brain iron levels: here • Pesticide: here • Smoking while pregnant: here • Pregnant women taking antidepressants: here • Smog: here • Marketing: here • Energy Drinks: here • Single Mothers: here

** Regarding the science of genetics, from the National Institutes of Health, 2012: “. . . In human behavior genetics, however, powerful new methods have failed to reveal even one bona fide, replicable gene effect pertinent to the normal range of variation in intelligence and personality. There is no explanatory or predictive value in that genetic information . . . The promises of the molecular genetic revolution have not been fulfilled in behavioral domains of most interest to human psychology.”