RX: A SHELF LOAD OF BOOKS

Lawrence Diller's Running On Ritalin is the book most people are talking
about these days, but it's hardly the only one out there. In the past 18
months a flurry of ADD and ADHD books have hit the shelves, each with its
own view on whether to medicate or not to medicate.

Dr. William Sears and Lynda Thompson, authors of The A.D.D. Book (Little,
Brown), believe Ritalin can be helpful but urge parents to explore
behavior-modification strategies such as neurofeedback. "Medication is
never the only answer," they write. "Nor is it a cure." In mid-December,
Hazelden/Rosen will be publishing Ritalin: Its Use and Abuse, a guidebook
for teenagers. The author, Eileen Beal, writes that Ritalin can be quite
helpful, but that there are problems that go with the territory, such as
the pressure to share the medicine with classmates.

In The Attention Deficit Answer Book (Plume), Dr. Alan Wachtel writes that
even when medication is warranted, Ritalin is not necessarily the best
choice. Also, says Wachtel, there are "behavioral techniques" and
"psychological interventions" to employ. In January, Norton will be
publishing Ritalin Nation. The author, Richard DeGrandpre, argues that the
demand for the drug is an unfortunate result of our speeded-up society.
"We're not just moving through our lives faster," he writes. "We're also
acquiring a heightened need for speed."

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski