"More complete studies in community samples indicate actual rates to be 4% to 12%, and occurring three times more often in boys than in girls. On average, about one child in every classroom in the United States needs help for this disorder.” …
While it is certainly true that the prescribing of stimulant medication has increased sharply in the last 15 years, the statistics indicate that this increase coincides with the number of legitimately diagnosed cases of ADHD worldwide.

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the value of the ADHD market was US$2.6 billion in 2005 and it is now the 9th largest segment of the CNS market by sales with growth of 8% year-on-year. Global sales of ADHD drugs are forecast to reach US$4.3 billion by 2012.

Study may help develop ADD treatments
By LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical Writer Thu Mar 29, 4:22 PM ET
WASHINGTON - Spot a bear in the woods, and a different part of your brain will yell "pay attention" than if you were studying bears at the zoo. New research shows it takes one part of the brain to start concentrating and another to be distracted. This discovery could help scientists develop better treatments for attention deficit disorder.
"This ability to willfully focus your attention is physically separate in the brain from distracting things grabbing your attention," said Earl Miller, a neuroscientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He led the study, published in Friday's edition of the journal Science.
"Now we know these two things are separate, it raises the possibility that we can fix them independently," Miller said.
There are two main ways the brain pays attention: "top down" or willful, goal-oriented attention, such as when you focus to read, and "bottom-up" or reflexive attention to sensory information — loud noises or bright colors or threatening animals.
Likewise, there are different degrees of attention disorders. Some people have a harder time focusing, while others have a harder time filtering out distractions.
Scientists knew that paying attention involved multiple brain regions but they did not know how, because studies until now have examined one region at a time.