Sure, Ritalin is overprescribed. Ideally, it should only be prescribed after all possible environmental causes for a kid's problems have been eliminated. Unfortunately, it's easier for a doc to prescribe a pill than to convince a mom that for her kid to get better she needs to eliminate highly processed sugar and preservative-laden foods from the kid's diet, not use pesticides and herbicides, and restrict television watching to no more than a couple of hours per day.