The Citizens Commission on Human Rights International (CCHR) is urging parents to exercise caution amid a series of legal actions in the United States and Sweden that have targeted entities involved in questionable Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) assessments, diagnoses, and the promotion of stimulant drugs. According to Citizens Commission on Human Rights International (CCHR), these cases have resulted in convictions, settlements, and business closures, and they highlight what the group describes as a lack of accountability in the psychiatric assessment industry.
In Sweden this year, the Swedish Health and Social Care Inspectorate banned an ADHD online diagnostic company from operating after finding "a clear and serious risk to patients' health, safety and lives." An appellate court ordered the company closed. The company marketed a "diagnosis or your money back" policy: patients paid the full fee upfront and were guaranteed a refund only if they did not receive an ADHD diagnosis. The owner stated that refunds occurred in roughly 1 out of every 500 cases—meaning the company kept the money in 499 out of 500 assessments. Revenue reached roughly $5.5 million in 2024 before the shutdown.
In October 2026, a U.S. federal jury convicted a physician of conspiracy and multiple counts of illegally distributing controlled substances through an ADHD telehealth platform. More than two million stimulant pills were distributed without examining patients. The case is part of a broader federal prosecution involving the illegal distribution of more than 37 million ADHD stimulant pills nationwide as part of a $100 million drug distribution and health care fraud scheme.
CCHR says these cases illustrate regulatory and law-enforcement responses to practices involving ADHD diagnoses and aggressive promotion of stimulant drugs. Such practices are enabled by the subjective nature of the ADHD label itself, it says. ADHD has no objective medical test: no blood work, no scan, or biomarker to confirm any malfunction of the brain. Diagnosis depends entirely on reported behaviors, many of which are indistinguishable from normal human tendencies.
Joanna Moncrieff, Professor of Critical and Social Psychiatry, along with others, notes that decades of research have failed to identify a biological marker or neurological feature capable of reliably distinguishing people diagnosed with ADHD. In January 2025, The Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine warned: "The real epidemic out there is the epidemic of ADHD diagnosing and prescribing… Lacking proven biological anchoring, syndromal categories are susceptible to cultural trends regarding over-medicalization and societal contagion," which is "fueled by self-administered checklists."
According to the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), children 16 and under must meet six out of nine behaviors such as running around, climbing on furniture, missing assignments, disorganized bedrooms, not paying attention, interrupting teachers, or engaging in risky play. Adults 17 and older must meet only five out of nine behaviors. Critics note that nearly every human being exhibits these behaviors at some point, yet millions are labeled with ADHD and placed on powerful, addictive stimulants. IQVIA Total Patient Tracker Database for the year 2020 reports 3,155,441 children and adolescents up to age 17 taking ADHD drugs, over 58,000 of them five or younger.
The risks of the drugs prescribed are well-documented. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) acknowledges that ADHD stimulants can cause addiction, even when taken exactly as prescribed. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration classifies ADHD stimulants in the same category of highly addictive substances as OxyContin and fentanyl, warning that they can lead to "severe psychological dependence." A September 2024 study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry found that patients taking higher doses of ADHD drugs were more than five times as likely to develop psychosis or mania. FDA Medication Guides indicate ADHD drugs can cause new or worsening behavior or thought problems, aggression, hostility, and psychotic symptoms in both children and adults. In 2025, drug regulatory agency alerts from Australia and Germany warned that atomoxetine, a widely prescribed "non-stimulant" ADHD drug, can cause homicidal ideation, as detailed in a CCHR report available at https://www.cchrint.org/2025/07/18/regulators-warn-adhd-drug-can-trigger-homicidal-thoughts-parents-and-consumers-need-to-be-informed/.
Jan Eastgate, President of CCHR International, states: "The entire ADHD diagnostic and drug industry needs an overhaul. Any diagnosis that cannot be medically and scientifically proven should be dismissed. Parents and patients remain largely unaware that online and other ADHD assessments rest on no objective scientific foundation—only checklists of ordinary behaviors, with no blood test, brain scan, or biomarker to confirm any underlying disease. Far greater accountability is needed for diagnostic practices that function more like sales pipelines than medical evaluation."
CCHR is a mental health industry watchdog established in 1969 by The Church of Scientology and professor of psychiatry, Dr. Thomas Szasz, and has achieved hundreds of laws worldwide increasing protections, including a federal U.S. law that bans schools forcing children onto psychotropic drugs to remain in class.
