
Backfired: Attention Deficit
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Narrated by:
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Leon Neyfakh
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Arielle Pardes
About this listen
ADHD may be the defining diagnosis of our time. According to the latest data, more than 10 percent of American children (that’s 7.1 million kids) have been diagnosed with ADHD. And the number of stimulant prescriptions for adults in their 30s has shot up nearly threefold since 2012, hitting 15.3 million in 2021. It’s increasingly common to hear people who haven’t been diagnosed at all say they’re “so ADHD,” as if it’s more of a personality trait—or a zodiac sign—than a medical condition. In recent years, this explosion in demand has combined with other factors—including federally mandated limits on production—to create a widespread stimulant shortage in the US.
In the second installment of Backfired, cohosts Leon Neyfakh and Arielle Pardes look at the unintended consequences of the ADHD industry and trace the surprising path that brought us here.
Backfired: Attention Deficit is the latest podcast from Prologue Projects, the award-winning team behind Slow Burn, Fiasco, and Think Twice: Michael Jackson, and the second season of the Backfired franchise, a show about what happens when solving one problem inadvertently leads to a host of new ones. Backfired: Attention Deficit follows the acclaimed first season Backfired: The Vaping Wars.
For a list of books, articles, and documentaries used to research Backfired: Attention Deficit, please visit bit.ly/backfiredbib.
Backfired: Attention Deficit was hosted and produced by Leon Neyfakh and Arielle Pardes. The executive producer was Andrew Parsons. The senior producer and story editor was Madeline Kaplan. Producers were Dustin Desoto and Danielle Hewitt. Fact-checking by Maggie Duffy. Research by Frank Zhou. Archival research by Francis Carr. Theme song and score composed by Emma Munger. Audio mix by Aman Sahota. Backfired was co-created for Prologue Projects by Kim Gittleson.
©2024 Prologue Projects (P)2024 Audible Originals, LLC.
Interview: ADHD—and its meds—are everywhere. Has that "Backfired" for sufferers?

About the Host

About the Host
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a balanced review of the course of ADHD
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Very informative
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Have it, parent it, study it, treatment it. Big part of my life.
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I listen to podcasts as I fall asleep, but the one thing I didn’t hear them mention was the link to other “dopamine diseases” like Parkinsonian diseases. I wonder if more people knew about that link they’d be as eager to adopt ADHD as a personality trait.
It was also interesting to hear that Cereberal was basically single-handedly responsible for making our lives so miserable during the shortages.
Really fascinating look at the history of ADHD
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not an audiobook
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Informative no bias
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Good Historical View of ADHD
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Dilemma of ADHD
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Thurough & well rounded research
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well researched, well presented.
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