Mr. Michael Walsh:

That is a very relevant question because that is the debate in child psychiatry all the time. We deal with illness. As Ms Magaharan said, sometimes GPs must treat illness as it presents. A child I saw last week was so far down she needed something else to get her out of the hole. Talk therapy would not have taken her out of it; she needed something in the nature of a medication to bring her up. Sometimes that happens. When someone is brought back up, it is easier to provide talk therapy. The gold standard in the treatment of ADHD is behavioural therapy and medication. We argue and discuss among ourselves, with patients and parents what will work. The patients and parents have the final say. We do not make that call. It is between the parents and the child.