left to write:
I alluded to the danger of having ADHD medication essentially prescribed by an educator, who generally knows nothing about psychology or medicine. He/she just wants to have a medicated youngster in the class who will “easier” to manage. Whether that is in the best interest of the child is beyond the teacher or menahel’s training to assess, and that is precisely why that situation is a disaster waiting to happen. If that evaluation was done by a responsible professional, the diagnosis and recommendation will likely be far more reliable and responsible. As for the prescription-happy doctors, these are usually the non-psychiatrists who acquiesce to the demands of the parents who relay the pressure imposed by the irresponsible educators.
Of course all medications are likely to have their side effects, and whether to use them even when they are indicated is a decision that needs to be made by the individual with the guidance of the medical professional. What works for one child may not work for another. No yeshiva can know the answer to that, and they are outside of their domain when they make these ultimatums.
I know some of the professionals who specialize in attentional disorders quite well. None of them guarantee a diagnosis of ADHD or anything else, but assess a patient on the merits of the presenting symptoms and condition. Behaving differently is a violation of professional ethics. It is also completely immoral to diagnose and treat a patient based on anything but the patient’s needs. And parents are good providers of information and history, but they make poor diagnosticians. Schools and yeshivos are completely incompetent to practice medicine, and should be recognized as violating Jewish morals and ethics by attempting to tell doctors what to conclude and how to treat.
There is a Ramban (in Sefer Toras Ho’odom) that addresses the practice of medicine in which he states openly that only one with proper training is permitted to do so. Others are essentially guilty of being mazik the patient. Check it out.