The Cylert advertisement is a testament to this fact. If your child is not performing ideally in school or seems to be "hyperkinetic" then you can send him to the doctor, subject him to some tests that determines if he has some disorder called minimal brain dysfunction (MBD). Now if your child does indeed have this disorder, you can pop a pill of Cylert in your kids mouth before he runs off to school to control his impulsive behavior. Clinical studies show that children taking Cylert have improved scores on IQ scores, arithmetic, reading and other important tests that determine how close to perfection your child is. Your child may not sleep for three days and lose his appetite, but hey its worth it!
It should be noted that this advertisement did say that this medication is not for children who are just simply overactive, and has other underlying secondary environmental factors influencing his behavior.
The issue I take on this advertisement is my more than obvious stance on medicating children. There is a very fine line between hyperactive and and hyperkinetic child, if there even is one, and the inclusion of intelligence in the ad suggests that they inherently go hand in hand. To me this line of thought seems to be a bit fuzzy to me especially when we are dealing with a disorder with an etiology that is still being studied today. Our seeing devices are based on solely on how we think a hyperkinetic/hyperactive child appears to us. It is at times a socially construct disorder that is still present today with the epidemic of ADHD.
Although this article is dated this drug was still on the market until 2003 when it was withdrawn because of the "increased the risk of liver failure in children by almost 45 times," as reported by the FDA. As pointed out by the bonkers institute website, this medication was on the market for 30 years before being recalled. This just proves how imperfect we really are- I think the sooner people realize this fact the better.
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