# Rethinking ADHD: Why Medication Isn’t the Magic Fix \[R\]

An episode of [Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1082244480), 16 Apr 2026, 17 min.

Audio: https://mgln.ai/e/187/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/fa326977-3de5-4283-9b8b-af3500c58607/b69b2795-5503-4de1-ac91-af460017906e/e7e95b43-df28-4c05-812b-b41900ac48b4/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=a05f1702-0c0e-4b0f-8014-af460017907c

A 13-year Australian study's findings are shaking the medical world. Children on ADHD medication reported lower quality of life than those who weren’t medicated. In this eye-opening episode, Justin unpacks why the “gold standard” research behind ADHD treatment might have been flawed all along — and what this means for families trying to do what’s best for their kids. This one might make you rethink everything you’ve been told. KEY POINTS • The shocking Deakin University study on ADHD medication and child wellbeing. • Why “the gold standard” MTA study may have misled the world for decades. • How peer review can fail — and how Big Pharma shapes the story. • What long-term follow-ups reveal about medication outcomes. • Why your child isn’t the problem — and what really needs to change instead. QUOTE OF THE EPISODE “Your child doesn’t have a problem. Thinking your child is the problem is often the bigger problem.” RESOURCES MENTIONED • MTA Study (Multimodal Treatment of ADHD) and 3-year follow-up research. • Deakin University longitudinal study on ADHD medication and quality of life. • The Parenting Revolution by Dr Justin Coulson. • Parenting ADHD \[The Course\] + Course FAQs • \[Article\] Help for the Parent with ADHD ACTION STEPS FOR PARENTS • Don’t make changes overnight — start by reading the linked studies. • Talk to your child’s GP, psychologist, or psychiatrist about alternative supports. • Focus on your child’s environment, not just their behaviour. • Trust your gut — if something doesn’t feel right, it’s worth exploring. • Remember: grace for your child, yourself, and your professionals. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:06] Speaker 1: This is the Happy Families podcast. I'm doctor Justin Colson.
[0:09] Speaker 1: Every so often a study comes along that creates shock
[0:12] Speaker 1: waves and a brand new, comprehensive thirteen year study of
[0:16] Speaker 1: four thousand Australian children taking ADHD medication has reached a
[0:21] Speaker 1: conclusion that has stunned researchers. I'm going to find out
[0:26] Speaker 1: why next. Stay with us today. This is the Happy
[0:31] Speaker 1: Famili's podcast, Real Parenting Solutions, every single day on Australia's
[0:34] Speaker 1: most downloaded parenting podcast. We are Justin and Kylie Colson. Kylie.
[0:39] Speaker 1: This study I'm so excited to share. It comes from
[0:43] Speaker 1: Deacon University in Melbourne and I want to give you
[0:46] Speaker 1: a quick overview of where we're at. Here's the general rundown.
[0:50] Speaker 1: Children medicated for ADHD have a lower quality of life
[0:56] Speaker 1: than those with the condition who are unmedicated. This is
[0:59] Speaker 1: a brand you study. Deacon University research is more than
[1:02] Speaker 1: four thousand children from four to seventeen. The research has
[1:07] Speaker 1: found that those taking ADHD medication like Ritlin, were struggling
[1:11] Speaker 1: compared to children with a diagnosis who were not taking
[1:15] Speaker 1: the medication. Direct quote from the lead author quote. Those
[1:18] Speaker 1: taking ADHD medication in our sample experienced more severe ADHD symptoms,
[1:24] Speaker 1: which may have significantly impacted children's functioning.
[1:29] Speaker 2: When I think about children taking medication, specifically medication that
[1:33] Speaker 2: alter's behavior, this to me feels more like a management
[1:38] Speaker 2: approach to behavior for the comfort of the adults in
[1:44] Speaker 2: the room.
[1:44] Speaker 1: Okay, so that's a really provocative statement. Here's the thing.
[1:47] Speaker 1: This is supposedly a shock finding, but we have known,
[1:50] Speaker 1: in for people who are doing proper research in this area,
[1:54] Speaker 1: we've known for a couple of decades now, that the
[1:57] Speaker 1: drugs don't work. Well, let me rephrase, the drugs do work,
[2:01] Speaker 1: but they're not.
[2:01] Speaker 2: Actually, they're just masking the bigger issue.
[2:04] Speaker 1: Correct, They're masking bigger issues, the masking systemic issues, issues
[2:08] Speaker 1: in the environment issues. Let me give you an example.
[2:12] Speaker 1: So the data that we're talking about here tells us
[2:16] Speaker 1: the following. This is data from the Australian Institute of
[2:18] Speaker 1: Health and Welfare and what it shows is that children
[2:21] Speaker 1: aged twelve to seventeen prescribed ADHD related medications has tripled
[2:27] Speaker 1: over the last ten years. We've gone from about two
[2:29] Speaker 1: percent of twelve to seventeen year olds to six point
[2:32] Speaker 1: six percent.
[2:34] Speaker 2: So how much of this comes down to the fact
[2:36] Speaker 2: that if you have a diagnosis then there is more
[2:40] Speaker 2: funding thrown at you. In education system, you.
[2:43] Speaker 1: Get a lot less funding. If funding an ADHD don't
[2:46] Speaker 1: tend to tie together autism definitely, ADHD not so much.
[2:50] Speaker 1: And even that's changing. Funding is constantly. It's just a
[2:53] Speaker 1: c sort. It's a roller coaster, and parents are screaming
[2:55] Speaker 1: constantly saying I had money, it was taken away, or
[2:58] Speaker 1: I need more money, or whatever it could be, because
[3:00] Speaker 1: because funding is such a merry go round, and part
[3:02] Speaker 1: of the problem is that the diagnoses keep on going up.
[3:05] Speaker 1: So in Australia today, around one in twenty children has
[3:09] Speaker 1: ADHD one in twenty and most are diagnosed somewhere around
[3:13] Speaker 1: about the age of six or seven, early primary school years.
[3:16] Speaker 1: And there is an assumption. In fact, I read a
[3:18] Speaker 1: recent article in press in the Murder Press that said,
[3:22] Speaker 1: this is a direct quote talking about the study we're
[3:25] Speaker 1: discussing here. The finding is at odds with other studies
[3:28] Speaker 1: that have discovered that taking ADHD medication is linked to
[3:31] Speaker 1: better outcomes for children. That's a big, fat lie And
[3:34] Speaker 1: I want to spend a little bit of time in
[3:35] Speaker 1: this Doctor's Desk episode talking about why it's a big
[3:37] Speaker 1: fat lie, and it's provocative and it's really hard for
[3:40] Speaker 1: people to hear because when your GP or your pediatrician
[3:44] Speaker 1: is telling you, or even your child an adolescent psychiatrist
[3:47] Speaker 1: is telling you that the drugs do work. For me
[3:49] Speaker 1: to sit here on the podcast and say well, actually,
[3:51] Speaker 1: the drugs don't work, it can be really, really tough
[3:54] Speaker 1: to hear. So I want to give you some evidence
[3:55] Speaker 1: for it. Okay, the most I would say one of
[3:59] Speaker 1: the most famous studies on the treatment of ADHD was
[4:03] Speaker 1: published back in the turn of the century around that
[4:06] Speaker 1: I can't remember the exact date, and it's called the
[4:08] Speaker 1: MTA Study. It's the Multimodal Treatment of Children with ADHD Study,
[4:12] Speaker 1: The MTA Study Multimodal Treatment Children with ADHD. It was
[4:17] Speaker 1: a fourteen month study. And not only was it fourteen
[4:20] Speaker 1: months so it's nice and longer judinal, but it was
[4:23] Speaker 1: a multi location trial, so it's not just a bunch
[4:26] Speaker 1: of kids in Brisbane or a bunch of kids in Canberra,
[4:28] Speaker 1: or a bunch of kids in South Australia. It's right
[4:31] Speaker 1: across a whole lot of different locations. We've got five
[4:33] Speaker 1: hundred and twenty seven children age seven to ten they're
[4:36] Speaker 1: randomized to four treatment groups. So you've got a medication
[4:40] Speaker 1: only group, you've got to behavior therapy only group, you've
[4:43] Speaker 1: got a combined medication and behavior group, and then you've
[4:46] Speaker 1: got routine community care, which means that there's not really
[4:49] Speaker 1: a whole lot going on, there's just general care for
[4:52] Speaker 1: the child. And what the author's found after fourteen months
[4:55] Speaker 1: of treatment was that there was more reduction of ADHD
[4:59] Speaker 1: SIMP in the medication only group and in the combined
[5:04] Speaker 1: medication and behavior therapy groups than the behavioral therapy only which, obviously,
[5:10] Speaker 1: as you would expect in a study like this, did
[5:12] Speaker 1: better than the routine community care group. Essentially they were
[5:14] Speaker 1: a control group. But if you do much more careful
[5:18] Speaker 1: reading of this, and I'm sorry to geek out, but
[5:20] Speaker 1: this is what is so important about these episodes, and
[5:23] Speaker 1: more detailed reading showed that there were some genuine problems
[5:26] Speaker 1: with the conclusion that the group reached, and the peer
[5:29] Speaker 1: reviewed paper brought as an example, two thirds of the
[5:34] Speaker 1: routine community care group were also prescribed stimulants. They were
[5:40] Speaker 1: also given drugs though just part of the community care,
[5:44] Speaker 1: and so the control group wasn't a true control group.
[5:47] Speaker 1: They were receiving care from a GP or from whoever
[5:50] Speaker 1: the parents could get help from, and two thirds of
[5:52] Speaker 1: them ended up getting drugs during the trial anyway, but
[5:55] Speaker 1: they had the poorest outcomes of all. Also, the behavioral
[6:00] Speaker 1: treatment group, so they definitely didn't have any drugs that
[6:05] Speaker 1: consisted of an intensive six week course and that could
[6:08] Speaker 1: be completed at any time during the fourteen months. So
[6:12] Speaker 1: by the time of the fourteen month evaluation, some of
[6:15] Speaker 1: the families receiving that behavioral therapy intervention they completed it
[6:21] Speaker 1: maybe nine months ten months before the final assessments, and
[6:26] Speaker 1: others had only just done it, Whereas the medication group
[6:29] Speaker 1: they had regular apployments throughout the study period and soil
[6:32] Speaker 1: all of this raises the possibility of placebo effects being
[6:35] Speaker 1: the main reason for better outcomes the medication and the
[6:37] Speaker 1: combined medication behavior therapy group because they're having regular reviews
[6:42] Speaker 1: through the fourteen months versus the other two groups. Anyway,
[6:46] Speaker 1: that's a long way of saying there's some really big
[6:47] Speaker 1: flaws with what became the most Literally, this became the
[6:51] Speaker 1: most quoted study for ADHD treatments. It's been consistently referred
[6:57] Speaker 1: to as the gold standard study. In treatment that guides
[7:00] Speaker 1: across a whole lot of countries. But there's so much
[7:03] Speaker 1: more to the story, and after the break, I'm going
[7:06] Speaker 1: to tell you what the clanger is here and why
[7:08] Speaker 1: this shock finding here in Australia with our seven thousand
[7:12] Speaker 1: ADHD kids is not such a shock at all. Stay
[7:15] Speaker 1: with us. We're back with the Happy Families podcast. So
[7:26] Speaker 1: this fourteen month MTA study the gold standard around ADHD
[7:31] Speaker 1: and medication and this belief that giving kids medication because
[7:34] Speaker 1: they've got ADHD is really really interesting and the reason
[7:38] Speaker 1: that I want to share it is as follows, there
[7:42] Speaker 1: was a study that was published at the three year
[7:44] Speaker 1: follow up of the MTA study. There's a three year
[7:48] Speaker 1: follow up, not just the fourteen month that I've been
[7:49] Speaker 1: talking about. There's a three year follow up study, but
[7:54] Speaker 1: nobody wants to know about the three year follow up
[7:58] Speaker 1: study that was published.
[8:00] Speaker 2: I'm really curious about this. So you've suggested that number one,
[8:04] Speaker 2: this has become the gold standard in research. Number two,
[8:08] Speaker 2: it's been peer reviewed. And my understanding with research is
[8:12] Speaker 2: that peer reviews are there actually doesn't fall through the
[8:16] Speaker 2: cracks stomp this out.
[8:18] Speaker 1: Exactly, and unfortunately it does. And I think there's a
[8:20] Speaker 1: handful of reasons for it. Number one, because a lot
[8:23] Speaker 1: of people who are doing reviews are tired and cranky,
[8:27] Speaker 1: and so long as they're seeing what they want to
[8:29] Speaker 1: see or what they expect to see in the data,
[8:30] Speaker 1: they just push it through. They've got their own publication loads,
[8:33] Speaker 1: and they've got the university teaching loads, and they've got
[8:35] Speaker 1: their own problems to deal with. And you don't get
[8:37] Speaker 1: paid as a peer reviewer. You end up on an
[8:39] Speaker 1: editorial board for a journal, or you literally so when
[8:43] Speaker 1: I was an academic, I had a couple of papers
[8:45] Speaker 1: sent to me by editors of journals and they just said,
[8:50] Speaker 1: justin we know that this is an error of specialty
[8:52] Speaker 1: for you, would you please be a peer reviewer? And
[8:54] Speaker 1: so you don't get paid for it. You just get
[8:56] Speaker 1: a random email from somebody saying, can you please review
[8:58] Speaker 1: this because we think that you're an expert, And then
[9:00] Speaker 1: you review the paper and they assume that you know
[9:03] Speaker 1: everything that you need to know to effectively review the paper.
[9:06] Speaker 1: You usually don't know, although sometimes you do. You usually
[9:09] Speaker 1: don't know who the papers by, but certainly if you
[9:11] Speaker 1: do know who it's by, those people tend to skate
[9:13] Speaker 1: through a lot easier because they've got the big reputations
[9:15] Speaker 1: and nobody wants to offend them. It's a really flawed process,
[9:19] Speaker 1: and in all of the fields that are out there,
[9:21] Speaker 1: the process is most flawed and has been shown to
[9:25] Speaker 1: be really hard to replicate findings in in psychology, like
[9:29] Speaker 1: psychology is a disaster compared to most other areas. And
[9:33] Speaker 1: that's well, there's a handful of reasons that are beyond
[9:35] Speaker 1: the scope of our conversation today around that. But check
[9:38] Speaker 1: this out. Five years later. It's two thousand and seven now,
[9:41] Speaker 1: and this paper, this three year follow up paper of
[9:43] Speaker 1: the original MTA study gets published. And unlike the original one,
[9:48] Speaker 1: like I said, that was published in like ninety ninety nine,
[9:50] Speaker 1: two thousand something like that, this one published now eight
[9:54] Speaker 1: years down the track, which means that we've got eight
[9:57] Speaker 1: years of the mental health industrial complex and the psycho
[9:59] Speaker 1: farmceutical complex just pushing the pharmaceutical industrial complex pushing drugs
[10:04] Speaker 1: out there because they've got this MPTA study or everyone's
[10:06] Speaker 1: saying it's great. This paper gets hardly any press, no
[10:12] Speaker 1: one makes any noise about it, nothing happens at all.
[10:16] Speaker 1: And here's what they find. After fourteen months. The participants
[10:20] Speaker 1: in that study were then free to choose what they
[10:21] Speaker 1: did with their ongoing treatment, so it becomes this naturalistic
[10:25] Speaker 1: study similar to what happens in everyday clinical settings. The
[10:31] Speaker 1: three year outcomes found no support for continuing superiority of medication,
[10:38] Speaker 1: regardless of the initial severity of ADHD symptoms. And on
[10:42] Speaker 1: top of that, those who were on continuous medication during
[10:45] Speaker 1: the three years were more likely to experience and deterioration
[10:50] Speaker 1: in ADHD symptoms, They had higher rates of delinquency, and
[10:54] Speaker 1: they were four centimeters shorter. They were literally significantly shorter
[10:58] Speaker 1: and lighter by kilos than those who didn't take medication.
[11:04] Speaker 1: So after fourteen months, it looks like medications working, although
[11:07] Speaker 1: there's some big holes in that study. But then at
[11:10] Speaker 1: three years, the gold standard study of why we're supposed
[11:14] Speaker 1: to be medicating our ADHD kids shows that it's not
[11:18] Speaker 1: working at all. In fact, the outcomes are worse. Those
[11:22] Speaker 1: who continue to take it for treatment of ADHD were
[11:24] Speaker 1: not doing any better. They were experiencing more negative effects
[11:28] Speaker 1: than those who didn't. So when I see this headline
[11:35] Speaker 1: and I see this study that's come out of Deacon saying, shock, horror,
[11:39] Speaker 1: we've got this research showing that ADHD medication leads to
[11:44] Speaker 1: lower quality of life for ADHD kids on Ritlan than
[11:48] Speaker 1: for their non drug taking piers. Everyone's shocked by it.
[11:52] Speaker 1: But we've had this data now for twenty years. This
[11:55] Speaker 1: has been published data for twenty years, and we've got
[11:58] Speaker 1: a brand new study here in Australia that is adding
[12:00] Speaker 1: to a growing body of evidence that's saying, can we
[12:03] Speaker 1: please stop drugging the kids now? I know if you're
[12:05] Speaker 1: a parent whose kids are taken the medication and it's
[12:08] Speaker 1: made all the difference, I know it's going to sound
[12:10] Speaker 1: like I'm just being unfair and I'm being dismissive and
[12:11] Speaker 1: I'm being invalidating. That's not what I'm getting at here.
[12:14] Speaker 1: What I'm getting at is that the pharmaceutical companies, Big
[12:18] Speaker 1: Farmer and the mental health industrial complex have bought shoddy science,
[12:26] Speaker 1: probably paid for shoddy science realistically, and it's affecting our kids.
[12:30] Speaker 1: Now we've got a brand new Australian study that is
[12:32] Speaker 1: drawing a line in the sound and saying we've got
[12:34] Speaker 1: the data four thousand Australian kids and the ones who
[12:38] Speaker 1: are taking the medication are the ones that are worse off. Now.
[12:40] Speaker 1: It could be. Some people would argue, well, no, actually
[12:43] Speaker 1: it's the ones who are worse off whell taken the medication.
[12:45] Speaker 1: But that's not what study after study and now starting
[12:48] Speaker 1: to point to. Here's the take home message. Don't pull
[12:52] Speaker 1: your kids off the drugs just because you've listened to
[12:53] Speaker 1: this podcast, but start to read more. Go and look
[12:57] Speaker 1: up what's going on with this MTA study and the
[12:59] Speaker 1: three year follow up. I'll publish the links to these
[13:02] Speaker 1: studies in the show notes. Have a close look at it.
[13:05] Speaker 1: Talk to your pediatrician, talk to your child an adolescent
[13:07] Speaker 1: psychologists or psychiatrists. Talk to your gp and figure out
[13:10] Speaker 1: if there are other ways that we can do this
[13:12] Speaker 1: because your child doesn't have a problem. Thinking that your
[13:17] Speaker 1: child has a problem is often the bigger problem. But
[13:21] Speaker 1: if we can work with the challenges that our children
[13:23] Speaker 1: are having and say, no, my child is struggling with something,
[13:28] Speaker 1: rather than my child is a problem. Let's work with
[13:30] Speaker 1: our children. We can amend and adjust our environments, ideally
[13:34] Speaker 1: in ways that are going to be positive for them
[13:36] Speaker 1: and helpful for them. If they're struggling at school, it
[13:38] Speaker 1: doesn't mean it's your child. It could be the school environment.
[13:41] Speaker 1: Like schools are not necessarily great places for every child,
[13:44] Speaker 1: as we've discovered in our own family. Kyle, you've been
[13:46] Speaker 1: really quiet. I've had a lot to say. I've been
[13:48] Speaker 1: geeking out on the science. I appreciate that your eyes
[13:50] Speaker 1: are still open and that you're still awake. Is there
[13:52] Speaker 1: anything that pops into your head as we wrap up
[13:54] Speaker 1: this pod that you want to raise?
[13:55] Speaker 2: I think for me, the standout is just reiterating is
[14:00] Speaker 2: not the problem. They really aren't. And one of the
[14:05] Speaker 2: main reasons we pulled our daughter out of school was
[14:07] Speaker 2: because she was seen as a problem. And the change
[14:11] Speaker 2: that we saw in her when she came home to
[14:14] Speaker 2: a safe environment that she felt comfortable in. It's chalk
[14:21] Speaker 2: and cheese. Predictability, consistency, and calm place such a huge
[14:28] Speaker 2: part in our children being able to navigate this world.
[14:32] Speaker 1: Okay, heavy conversation, Thanks for listening, hopefully. I mean, here's
[14:36] Speaker 1: the thing. We're not trying to change your mind. We're
[14:39] Speaker 1: not trying to convince you that everything that you've been
[14:41] Speaker 1: doing and everything you've been told is wrong. The purpose
[14:43] Speaker 1: of these conversations is to provoke thinking and to increase intentionality.
[14:48] Speaker 1: There's so much value in being willing to rethink your assumptions.
[14:53] Speaker 2: The challenge for the average mum or dad is that
[14:55] Speaker 2: we go and see specialists. We go and see people
[14:57] Speaker 2: who are experts in their field, trusting that and we
[15:00] Speaker 2: trust that they know what's best, and we take for
[15:04] Speaker 2: granted that they just know what they know.
[15:08] Speaker 1: Yeah, you can feel so helpless. I'm hearing you say that.
[15:11] Speaker 1: It's like we've sat there with medical professionals with our
[15:14] Speaker 1: own kids and just gone, well, we're not the expert here.
[15:17] Speaker 1: We were just trusting you that you've gone deep into
[15:20] Speaker 1: the answers so that you can tell us where to go.
[15:23] Speaker 2: And I just think as individuals we need to recognize
[15:27] Speaker 2: that everybody is giving the best information they have with
[15:31] Speaker 2: what they have, but they don't have everything.
[15:33] Speaker 1: Yeah, give yourself some grace, give your kids some grace,
[15:35] Speaker 1: and potentially even give your GP or your psychologists some grace.
[15:39] Speaker 1: But also, if you know something new, investigate it, learn
[15:43] Speaker 1: about it, and have the conversation because it could actually
[15:46] Speaker 1: make a change for the better for you.
[15:48] Speaker 2: And I think you've got to follow your gut. I honestly,
[15:52] Speaker 2: so many times I've sat in rooms with professionals and
[15:57] Speaker 2: have just not felt like what they're sharing is best
[16:00] Speaker 2: for me or my family.
[16:01] Speaker 1: Yeah, they're getting it wrong.
[16:02] Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's okay. It doesn't make them a bad person,
[16:05] Speaker 2: but it's not right for me. And having I guess
[16:09] Speaker 2: the I don't know guts to say that. I really
[16:14] Speaker 2: appreciate your advice. I think I'm going to go looking
[16:16] Speaker 2: elsewhere because this doesn't sit right with me right now.
[16:19] Speaker 1: Links to the studies are in the show notes. The
[16:20] Speaker 1: Happy Families podcast is produced by Justin Ruland from Bridge Media.
[16:23] Speaker 1: Mimhamonds provides additional research, having in another support. If you'd
[16:26] Speaker 1: like more info about how you can guide your children
[16:28] Speaker 1: through their tricky situations, especially if you're raising neurodivergent kids,
[16:32] Speaker 1: check out The Parenting Revolution. You'll get so much from it.
[16:35] Speaker 1: That and a whole lot of other resources are available
[16:37] Speaker 1: at Happy families dot com dot au. I'll and check
[16:40] Speaker 1: out my ADHD course Game Changer right there.

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