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Obedience Pills: ADHD and the Medicalization of Childhood Paperback – April 29, 2022
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Every day across this great land of ours, children are swallowing pills for something called “Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.” This is still largely an American obsession, by the way—the United States spends several times as much on ADHD meds than all the rest of the world put together—although the rest of the world is catching up with us. The idea that millions of children—mostly boys—are walking around with defective brains that require them to ingest powerful psychotropic drugs every day of their lives in order to be able to cope with the quotidian tasks of childhood has become received wisdom.
Once upon a time, the mass drugging of children was the subject of spirited debate, but that controversy seems for the most part to have died down. The goal of this book is to re-ignite that controversy.
“This is an outstanding and painstakingly researched treatise on ADHD that clearly exposes the hazards waiting to destroy your child. It should be in every pediatrician’s office and in every graduate student’s library.”
Michelle Barrett, M. Ed., Founder, Del Dios Counseling Services
“The shocking story of psychiatry’s abandonment of scientific evidence... A must-read for anyone currently living with a diagnosis of ADHD.”
Bruce Cohen, University of Auckland, author of Psychiatric Hegemony
- Print length376 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- Publication dateApril 29, 2022
- Dimensions6 x 0.85 x 9 inches
- ISBN-101989963242
- ISBN-13978-1989963241
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Product details
- Publisher : Samizdat Health Writer's Co-operative Inc.
- Publication date : April 29, 2022
- Language : English
- Print length : 376 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1989963242
- ISBN-13 : 978-1989963241
- Item Weight : 1.11 pounds
- Dimensions : 6 x 0.85 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #3,341,477 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #939 in Children's Learning Disorders
- #3,363 in Psychiatry (Books)
- #50,713 in Mental Health (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Patrick D Hahn is a free-lance writer and independent scholar with a long-standing interest in iatrogenic harm and the medicalization of everyday life. He is the author of five books.
Madness and Genetic Determinism explores how genetic determinist views of so-called “mental illness” have obscured the well-established role of childhood sexual abuse and other adverse childhood experiences in the genesis of those conditions.
Prescription for Sorrow traces the history of how so-called "antidepressants" came on to the market and have stayed on the market, detailing how the drug companies and the mostly compliant mainstream media have exaggerated the benefits and hidden the harms caused these drugs, which include addiction, suicide, and violence.
Obedience Pills describes the harms wrought by the drugs commonly prescribed for something called "ADHD," and the nexus of special interests which sustains this twenty-billion-dollar-a-year industry whose influence is now spreading from the United States to the entire globe.
The Day the Science Died details the history of how the covid mRNA "vaccines" came on to the market at warp speed, the efforts of the drugmakers and regulatory agencies to exaggerate the benefits and hide the harms of these products, as well as the government and media hate campaigns directed at anyone who questioned the official narrative regarding these products.
His latest book, They Told Us It Was Like Ebola, examines the impact of pandemic restrictions on the children of Ghana.
Dr. Hahn is an Adjunct Professor in the School of Integrative and Professional Studies at the University of Maryland Global Campus.
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- Reviewed in the United States on July 27, 2022Format: KindleVerified PurchaseLooking for safe and effective solutions in safeguarding your children with behavioral concerns?
Let me recommend an in depth review of all things adhd, what it is and what it is not and how to avoid making matters worse. Let’s put this controversy to rest once and for all.
Patrick Hahn has written another stellar book, “Obedience Pills: ADHD and the Medicalization of Childhood.” This remains an important topic that continues to sweep up unsuspecting families into a net of lies, falsehoods and outright danger. Especially now with the advent of the digital age and screen addicted kids. Because they are the next generation subjected to being called out as ADHD. For example, join any online parent support group and it rolls off their tongues as if it is a medically proven brain disorder. What most doctors, counselors or teachers don’t tell you, is that psychiatry is consensus medicine, not medicine based. Mental health diagnosis is voted on by a panel of doctors. Furthermore, the key driver of these ‘check the box set of symptoms’ directly aligns with financial incentives. Industry sponsored money flows far and wide between schools, social service agencies and doctor offices.
Now that you know that adhd is diagnosed by opinions, most families are also not informed of the black box warnings on these drugs that treat so-called behaviors of ADHD. Because you can’t discuss ADHD without understanding the myths behind a so-called bipolar child.
Let’s start with those FDA black box warnings, the pipeline from ADHD to bipolar:
In 2006 "The most important finding of this review is that signs of psychosis or mania, particularly hallucinations, can occur in patients with no identifiable risk factors, at usual doses of any of the drugs used to treat ADHD."
Obedience Pills: ADHD and the Medicalization of Childhood is the perfect handbook to equip every parent to represent their child’s best interest at those stressful IEP meetings. Present these finding to counter being pressured to medicate as their so-called ‘standard of care’.
Mr. Hahn further illuminates the many tragic outcomes by those unethical practices.
Look at the table of contents and search your most burning questions in the index and then cross check it in his vast documented research section. You will now be fully equipped to handle any pressures by your child’s school.
The alarms and warnings can no longer be ignored. You nor your loved ones need to be at risk of these dangerous drug side effects. Yes, the schools will still try to promote their effectiveness but with this, best parenting companion book, will aid you in dodging any medical errors by omission plus those unscientific diagnoses.
- Reviewed in the United States on July 23, 2022Format: PaperbackVerified PurchaseI just finished Obedience Pills by Patrick Hahn, the latest book to be published by Samizdat Health Writer's Co-operative. It is a very comprehensive, very readable, account of the invention of ADHD and the total lack of any scientific support for the drugs given to suppress childish behavior by children. And, how the diagnosis and drugs absolve parents and the other adults in their children's lives from responsibility for raising them, as well as teaching the diagnosed they are not responsible for their behavior. There is much more and Obedience Pills has a lot of commonsense as well as being meticulously supported.
- Reviewed in the United States on January 18, 2025Format: KindleThis is a dangerous book filled with personal bias against pharmaceuticals. The idea that vaccinations cause autism or AD/HD & Autistic Spectrum Disorders been proven false multiple time. Cognitive diversity and cognitive impairment is real. Medication alone does not fix AD/HD without learning personal accommodations and billing more effective communication and behavior skills.
- Reviewed in the United States on August 1, 2022Format: PaperbackObedience Pills is a very important and timely book. And author Patrick Hahn is to be commended for writing such a well-researched, comprehensive and incendiary book. Of course he isn't the only one who's sounded the alarm about this out of control drugging of American children but his book is the most recent. His book is sure to revive the contentious and fiery debate about whether ADHD is a biologically based brain disease or whether it's actually a behavioral reaction to an oppressive and toxic environment that's most readily observable in the schools here in America.
There is in America an epidemic of children, some less than a year old, that are being diagnosed with mental illness and being drugged into obedience and compliance and you'd have to live in a cave to not know that this has been going on for years. He courageously delves into the on-going, never-ending research that for years has focused on individual psycho-pathology that's supposedly leads to academic underperformance and/or behavioral problems. He proposes that instead of shoe-horning children (especially boys) into smiling compliance, school curriculums should be enriched with drama, music, art and physical education. He makes the case that ADHD is an iatrogenic disease. And that all to often a temporary description becomes a permanent characterization that can lead to the habitual use and/or abuse of very potent psychostimulant drugs that the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has publicly stated are chemically similar to cocaine. And some American's wonder why there's a drug problem. Some day Americans may wake up and realize the ADHD emperor has no clothes. Meanwhile, 'treating' children with psychostimulants to their central nervous system, based on a pseudoscientific diagnosis, is not only ethically irresponsible, it is morally reprehensible.
- Reviewed in the United States on July 30, 2022Format: PaperbackPatrick Hahn’s new book, Obedience Pills, offers an unflinching overview of how we came to accept the practice of labeling children as having an attention deficit and then drugging them into compliance. The widespread practice of using stimulant drugs to medically coerce children into submission with boring school work and mundane chores is a poor solution for the many children who are naturally active, spirited, and creative or who may suffer from traumatic life-events. As a former special education teacher, I saw the schools try many ways to change kids, including the casual recommendation to use stimulants. Instead, teachers, administrators, and parents need to change the school environment or instructional techniques to create more interesting activities as well as address the underlying causes of a child’s problems with attention. Stimulant drugs are dangerous on many levels and Hahn’s book gives readers ample evidence of why we should stop using them, especially for our children.


