The Last Normal Child

Helping parents help kids navigate today's perilous path of childhood.

Lawrence Diller, M.D. practices behavioral developmental pediatrics and is on the faculty at UCSF Medical School. His books included Running on Ritalin and The Last Normal Child. See full bio

September 20, 2009

Little Helpers in 2024

This past December the prestigious British journal, Nature, published a commentary entitled "Cognitive Enhancers," in which the authors proposed reevaluating the ethics of using drugs that ostensibly improve the brain's performance. Read More

May 31, 2009

Public Funding of Private Schools for the Learning Disabled -- The Snake Eats Its Tail

When do the rights of the individually learning disabled student compromise the right to learn for the average child? Read More

March 5, 2009

The Supreme Court Judgment Against Wyeth Is HUGE!

People 1/Corporate Power 0 in the Supreme Court yesterday. The Court maintains the rights of plaintiffs to sue drug companies over FDA approved drugs. Read More

January 18, 2009

FALLING FROM MT. OLYMPUS FOLLOW UP

Joseph Biederman, America's foremost child psychiatrist, and in the midst of a serious conflict of interest scandal, has agreed to temporary limitations in his role as director of Harvard's Massachusetts General Pediatric Psychopharmacology Clinic. Dr. Read More

December 13, 2008

Fallen Heroes of Children's Mental Health

About two weeks ago, new developments were reported nationally on separate ongoing scandals involving two of America’s top experts in children’s mental health -- making their situations appear worse. The impact is sure to cause untold damage to parents’ belief in these doctors and the causes they espoused.
Read More

October 25, 2008

Palin Promises a Chicken in Every Pot -- The Slow Cooked Death of American Schools

Let me start by offending somebody right away when I say I'm a liberal from the Bill Clinton school of pragmatism -- like when Clinton decided to take on long overdue welfare reform. Some may argue otherwise, but there were definite perverse incentives meant to help people, but fostered generational dependency. Read More

October 22, 2008

Closing Arguments

Nassir Ghaemi and I have gone three rounds on "The Truth." I
appreciate his concerns about the dangers of relativism though, I
remained worried about "the truth" when employed by fanatics. In my
own practice of behavioral/developmental pediatrics, parents who come
in with "the truth" about their child's behavior problem often invoke Read More

August 17, 2008

The Swimming Cure for ADHD?

Michael Phelps’ amazing Olympic triumph belies the notion of a chronic disorder.

August 10, 2008

There Are No Heroes

Are there no heroes? Can you count on anyone these days without the distinct possibility that they will let you down in the future? The twin revelations this past week of John Edwards' acknowledgement of his affair and the frontpage New York Times story on child sexual abuse charges against America's preemminent pediatrician, Melvin Levine, devastated me. Read More

June 14, 2008

Say It Ain't So Joe

Most parents have never heard of him but Joseph Biederman, head of Harvard's Massachusetts General Child Psychopharmacology Clinic, may be the most influential doctor when it comes to determining whether or not children are normal or mentally ill in America. Read More

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