Medicating Kids?

Ever since I had my little Sol, whose first b-day was also this last Sunday, I have been trying to stay up on the latest issues about school, parenting, nutrition, etc. (Any new mother would understand.)

I came across this series on PBS.org about ADHD and the new rising trend in diagnosing children and then medicating them for this "condition." I have always been skeptical about it and always felt that it was mostly an "American" phenomenon. In the series they explore the lives of four children who have been diagnose with ADHD and the controversies surrounding it. To my surprise, there are a lot of parents who are AGAINST it (I thought I was the only one.) The series raises questions about the REALNESS of this "disease." And of course, they highlight the involvement of the drug companies and their promotion of ADHD to increase sales. THAT is totally disgusting. And isn't it convenient that Wikipedia describes Adderall, the drug used to treat ADHD is "deemed to have a high potential for abuse and addiction despite genuine medical uses."

The scary part about all this is that most parents do try all they can to "cure" their children's inability to stay focused and they find that the drug "works." But what I don't understand is: is this going to be longterm? My husband commented that this "condition" isn't like a cold where you can take penicillin and it will go away. So does that mean these kids take the drugs forever?? Does it not scare people that their kids are the first generation of children who are taking them- so in effect they are the lab rats because we really don't know what the long term side effects are?? Does it not scare people that they don't even know what this "condition" is??
What about dealing with root causes and changing lifestyles habits and the foods we eat before medicine or surgery or any other shortcuts?

Anyway, here is the link for Medicating Kids.