Martin Whitely

Martin Paul Whitely (born 19 October 1959 in Perth, Australia), was a Labor member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly from February 2001 until he retired from state politics in March 2013. He represented the electorate of Roleystone from 2001 to 2005 and, following the abolition of Roleystone, he represented the electorate of Bassendean.
Whitely was the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry from August 2006 until the Carpenter government lost office in September 2008.
Whitely has been outspoken on a number of issues including; • The need for democratic reform of the Western Australian Labor Party (WA Labor) • Psychosis Risk Disorder (Attenuated Psychosis Syndrome) and DSM5 • ADHD child prescribing
In January 2012 Whitely announced his decision to retire from Western Australian state politics after the March 2013 state election.
In March 2014 Whitely completed a PhD in Public Policy through Curtin University titled 'Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Policy, Practice and Regulatory Capture in Australia from 1992 to 2012'. The thesis is available at http://speedupsitstill.com/phd-thesis-dr-martin-whitely-attention-deficit-hyperactivity-disorder-policy-practice-regulatory-capture-australia-1992-2012

Along with former WA Labor Minister, Alannah MacTiernan, Whitely led the Labor Reform Forum. Between 2007and 2011 Labor Reform Forum argued unsuccessfully for rule changes including sharing the WA Labor internal voting entitlements currently controlled by the state secretaries of major unions amongst rank and file union members. Ultimately the reforms were blocked by the union secretaries, who used their voting entitlements, to block any rule changes that would have reduced their voting entitlements.

Whitely was prominent in Australian efforts in the ultimately successful fight against the official recognition of ‘Psychosis Risk Disorder’ in the next version of the American Psychiatric Association’s, DSM5. Psychosis Risk Disorder (officially termed Attenuated Psychosis Syndrome) was removed from the draft of the DSM5 after it lost the support of former prominent advocates including former Australian of the Year, psychiatrist Professor Patrick McGorry.

When elected in 2001, Mr Whitely advocated for tighter stimulant prescribing controls arguing Western Australia (WA) had excessive ADHD child prescribing rates. Western Australian prescribing rates rose until the introduction of increased ADHD amphetamine prescribing restrictions in late 2003. Since 2003 child prescribing rates in WA have fallen significantly with 5,666 children on stimulants in 2008.

The 2008 Australian Secondary Students' Alcohol and Drug Survey (ASSAD) data indicated a reduction in 'last month amphetamine abuse' by WA school children 12–17 years old from 10.3 per cent in 2002, to 6.5 per cent in 2005, and 5.1 per cent in 2008.

Whitely remains critical of ADHD medication prescribed for children and has authored a book 'Speed Up and Sit Still - The Controversies of ADHD Diagnosis and Treatment' and a web resource critical of the marketing of ADHD (http://www.speedupsitstill.com). All author's payments from sales of the book are donated to Drug Free Attention Difficulties Support Inc. (http://www.dfads.org.au). DFADS is a not for profit support group established by Whitely in 2003 in order to support parents wishing to take drug-free approaches to helping children with attentional difficulties.

The former chair of the DSM-IV development task force, Doctor Allen Frances, is Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry at Duke University. He has a blog on The Huffington Post titled Taming the ADD Epidemic. Dr Allen Frances' stated opinion was that Attention Deficit Disorder "has become an overused fad diagnosis, with resulting excessive prescription of stimulant drugs." He praised Whitely’s work implementing "rigorous quality controls over stimulant prescription".

Whitely has no medical training and has no commercial interest in ADHD medications. He worked as a high school teacher from 1995 to 2001.