Attention Deficit Pays at Shire

Pelham worries about potential conflicts in the industry and even points to a shortcoming in his very own work. He believes that researchers, including himself, should have disclosed their industry ties when reporting on the big NIMH study of ADHD. Right now, he says, the reports simply include a footnote -- running for roughly 40 lines -- about the researchers involved in the study. He says that a second footnote, exposing industry ties, would be about three times that long.

Pelham says he has tried, but failed, to see that addition made.

"I have argued for five years -- on every paper -- that we should have a footnote listing those relationships," he says. "But pretty much nobody else thinks that's necessary or important. ... I always get outvoted."

Meanwhile, LeFever fears that other researchers -- influenced by their industry ties -- feel compelled to halt her work.

If so, they seem to have succeeded. Late last year, LeFever says, the school abruptly placed her on administrative leave and seized the computers filled with her research. In addition, she says, the school terminated her latest ADHD project -- financed by a prestigious government grant -- and banned her from presenting her findings at two national conferences. Today, she says, she remains shut out of her university office and restricted from even discussing her most recent ADHD findings.

LeFever feels like the victim of powerful academic intrusions that, before, she never dreamed possible.

"This is research that's important for the public interest and the public good, and they're interfering with that," she says. "It's wrong. It's an injustice. And it's dangerous."

Shaping Studies

To be fair, others have attacked more mainstream ADHD research as well.

Indeed, scientists Jonathan Leo and David Cohen offered a direct challenge. "Broken Brains or Flawed Studies?" they asked in a 2003 article published by the Journal of Mind and Behavior. They went on to tear apart some of the most powerful studies used to support the prescription of ADHD drugs. Those studies, they said, rely on imaging tests that seem to show brain differences in normal children and ADHD sufferers. But, they argued, those studies are faulty because they compare a control group with children who have already been medicated with ADHD drugs that could have actually caused the brain changes.