Bipolar disease and ADHD is becoming increasingly diagnosed in the United States, but isn’t an issue in the rest of the world.

Investigative journalist Philip Dowdy has some strong reasons for that, and lays the blame squarely at the drug companies, along with child psychiatrists at Harvard.

“The pharma companies and the Harvard crew worked hand-in-hand to bring America a generation of ADHD kids and bipolar children,” Mr Dowdy says, “and their profound influence can be seen in the millions of children and teens who now carry lifetime diagnoses and take gobs of psychotropic drugs each day, often to their detriment . . . The bipolar child is a purely American phenomenon, as big a metaphor of our times as credit swaps, subprime loans, and government bailouts.”

I really don’t have anything to add to that. The whole interview, which includes Mr. Dowdy’s takes on parenting, whether psychosis can be prevented, and the pressure to silence male aggressiveness, is quite fascinating.

(via Schwitzer)