CHADD Response Regarding the November 2025 Article in The Wall Street Journal

ADHD care requires nuance, not alarm.

Suzanne Sophos, CMPSS, CHADD’s president-elect puts it this way, “Families need accurate information and better systems—not headlines that take data from the most vulnerable children and apply it to everyone.”

The Wall Street Journal’s recent article suggests “millions of kids” enter a dangerous medication cascade after starting ADHD treatment. But the analysis appears to rely on a narrow, high-risk Medicaid subgroup without providing the methodological detail needed to understand who these children are or why multiple medications were prescribed. Children served by Medicaid face significantly higher rates of trauma, poverty, child welfare involvement, and complex psychiatric conditions—factors that drive polypharmacy regardless of ADHD status.

Claims data cannot explain severity, co-occurring diagnoses, crises, failed treatments, or caregiver preferences. Yet the article invites readers to assume ADHD medication causes additional mental health challenges. The reality is, most of the children in this dataset have multiple serious conditions before starting ADHD treatment.

“This is a system problem, not an ADHD medication problem,” CHADD President Jeremy Didier, LSCSW, LMAC, emphasizes. “When you see polypharmacy, you’re seeing the downstream effects of fragmented care, limited behavioral health access, and enormous pressure on clinicians in high-need environments—not a stimulant pill knocking over some imaginary first domino.”

ADHD is one of the most thoroughly researched conditions in mental health. When prescribed and monitored appropriately, medication reduces the risks of suicide, accidental injury, substance misuse, and criminal justice involvement. Untreated ADHD carries significant and sometimes life-altering consequences. Like all medications, stimulants have risks, but decades of peer-reviewed research support their use within evidence-based guidelines, including those of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

The real issues highlighted by The Wall Street Journal article are the ones CHADD has long worked to address: too few child psychiatrists, limited access to behavioral therapies, inconsistent monitoring, and underfunded systems serving families with the highest needs. Reframing these structural failures as “ADHD pills causing cascades” obscures the true cause and can discourage families from seeking effective treatment.

Such coverage has real consequences. Parents may delay care, internalize stigma, or find themselves facing new policy barriers created in response to incomplete or misinterpreted data.

“ADHD medications should neither be demonized nor handed out casually,” Didier adds. “They should be used thoughtfully, monitored closely, and always in the context of a child’s full clinical picture.”

Families deserve clarity—not fear. CHADD remains committed to providing evidence-based information, advocating for safer and more accessible systems, and ensuring every child receives the comprehensive, individualized care they deserve.