In response to Forness and Kavale's (2001) argument that the field of emotional or behavioral disorders (E/BD) should adopt a “new” medical model, this commentary argues that: (a) there is nothing particularly new about the “new medical model” touted by Forness and Kavale; (b) there is little empirical evidence to substantiate the claim that psychiatric diagnoses lead to better treatment outcomes; (c) psychiatric diagnoses often describe behavior circularly rather than functionally; (d) the effectiveness of pharmacologic treatment for most childhood disorders has not been established unequivocally; and (e) the results of the MTA Cooperative Group study for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (which serve as the basis for most of Forness and Kavale's arguments) are far from conclusive. This article advocates a resistance-to-intervention approach to E/BD eligibility determination and titration of behavioral treatments as the guiding principle, not the “new” medical model, which has dubious reliability and virtually nonexistent treatment validity
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