Tea at Trianon: Adults Treated for ADHD

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Friday, December 16, 2022

Adults Treated for ADHD

From Mad in America:

New research published in Current Medical Research and Opinions studied the impact of symptoms and the adverse effects of medication on adults receiving treatment for ADHD. The results of this study suggest that adults who are diagnosed with ADHD and taking medication often experience side effects and symptoms that substantially reduce their quality of life. For example, the researchers found evidence of reduced well-being, increased unemployment, mood issues, and insomnia.

It appears that the study was produced by employees and consultants for the pharmaceutical company Otsuka, which is currently developing and promoting its own drug for ADHD, Centanafadine. As such, the company may benefit from research that shines a light on the failures and adverse effects of current treatments for ADHD. The authors from Otsuka frame the study this way:
[Previous] studies illustrate that emotional symptoms can hurt the quality of life in adults with ADHD. The current study extends these findings by evaluating the impact of the most common symptoms associated with ADHD/treatment-related adverse side effects on the daily living of adults with ADHD and quantifying the burden exerted by these symptoms. Considering that all symptoms in this study were captured over the month prior to data collection, the impact of symptoms described herein may represent only the tip of the iceberg in regard to the real burden experienced by patients over their ADHD journey, which often lasts for several years or even over the entire lifespan for some.
(Read more.)