Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is seen by the international medical authorities as a matter of public order. ADHD is surrounded by issues that stress the importance of debating about the effects of the diagnosis and its growing dissemination. Among them, we highlight recent expansion of the diagnosis to include adults and the skyrocketing consumption of methylphenidate, the main drug indicated for its treatment. Given that Espirito Santo Pharmaceutical Care provides methylphenidate publicly, this article aims to analyze the usage experience of it by adults diagnosed with ADHD, as well as the impact of such a diagnosis in their lives. Therefore, interviews were conducted with methylphenidate users, who were over 19 years old and living in Vitoria. Diagnosis and methylphenidate usage effects found were much more diverse than is commonly reported, and they are often experienced as conflicting and ambivalent. At the same time, as Ritalin as ADHD seem to work as subjective technologies that transform diagnosed people lives to different degrees, pointing to the need to of monitoring its effects.
Methylphenidate; ADHD; subjectivity