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| Yes | 86% | 665 votes | Total: 774 votes | |
| No | 14% | 109 votes |
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Add to FavoritesRampant distraction, impulsiveness, and hyperactivity curtailed my education performance. The classic symptoms of ADHD occurred in the classroom from 1967-1982, at a time when school officials and teachers had limited, if any, knowledge of the condition. I do not recollect any of my classmates receiving an ADHD diagnosis, but a few of them remain in my memory vault because of their ADHD-like behavior.
Fast-forward twenty-five years to a time when one out of three elementary school age Caucasian males receive an ADHD diagnosis. During a quarter century, ADHD went from an unknown and morphed into a condition that now appears blatantly over diagnosed. The over diagnosis of ADHD has led to an explosion of ADHD medication prescriptions.
Over diagnosis is the symptom of a greater problem: America's drive to achieve success by any means available. Pressure to excel in educational and professional milieus has led to a new American pastime called cutting corners. Parents and their children desire achievement in the classroom. Teachers want their students to score higher on tests. Doctors desire successful medical practices that "help" children overcome perceived distraction, impulsiveness, and hyperactivity. The pharmaceutical industry gladly keeps the drug pipeline churning out dollar bills.
Until the latter half of the 20th century, treating childhood behavior problems with medication was an almost nonexistent practice. The current American proclivity toward psychiatric drug therapy for behavior challenged children began in the 1960s. The American medical profession deemed it acceptable to use psycho stimulants, especially the potent drug methylphenidate, to ameliorate symptoms associated with ADHD. America leads the world in stimulant medication prescriptions for ADHD. The next country is not even close.
Over the last three decades, the rate of drug treatment for behavior problems has increased exponentially, culminating in the prescription of ADHD drug treatment for at least 6 million American children per year. The high rate of prescription for Ritalin and expensive brand-name drugs such as Adderall and Concerta reflect a reliance on psychotropic drugs in American healthcare practices. In 1998, pediatricians mentioned psychotropic drug treatments an estimated 85.8 million times during 36.7 million office visits, averaging 2.3 documented references to psychotropic drug treatment per physician visit.
The unprecedented level of drug treatment for child behavior problems justifies closer public and professional scrutiny. Available research does not conclusively support the idea of a widespread over diagnosis of ADHD across the country. However, there are clear indications of over diagnosis and a dangerous trend of stimulant medication prescriptions in a growing number of communities. The fact that these problems are not universal should not serve to dismiss concerns for communities in which children receive an ADHD diagnosis at remarkably high rates. Careful investigation into the trend of ADHD over diagnosis and overuse of drug therapy is necessary to develop appropriate methods for improving ADHD care.
ADHD clinicians reach a diagnosis decision using different protocols. Some use a battery of expensive tests, while others merely use rating scales or go through a checklist. Understand that it is entirely possible for your child to receive an ADHD diagnosis, when he or she is just a high-energy kid who is easily distracted.
Parents of authentically diagnosed ADHD children have to worry about side effects and potential long-term implications of FDA Schedule II stimulant drug prescriptions. For each misdiagnosed child comes the risk of inappropriate ADHD medication prescriptions. Parents whose children do not have ADHD should not have to worry about children falling victim to the avarice of ADHD clinicians and pharmaceutical companies.
The stakes are too high for the ADHD over diagnosis trend to continue.
Learn more about this author, Keith Bailey.
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No
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, three to five percent of all children suffer from ADHD. The American Society of Pediatrics says that 12 percent of all children potentially suffer from ADHD. That means for every classroom of 30 kids, there is a potential that three are ADHD. For every child who is diagnosed, the odds that one of the parents is also ADHD is statistically significant.
ADHD is a real issue for many people. It is not a trivial thing. Adults who suffer from ADHD have a much better chance of addiction, suffer more debt issues, and tend to not be able to hold on to friends. Both children and adults have impulse issues and will blurt out things that can inadvertently hurt or embarrass their friends.
Is ADHD over diagnosed? Not according to the National Institute of Mental Health. The people who know something about this problem say possibly 3 percent of all children who are afflicted are untreated. No one knows the number of teens and adults that are under the radar.
Richard K. Nakamura, Ph. D, acting Director of NIMH, in testimony before the Committee on Government Reform, said "...failure to receive and properly process cognitive and emotional stimuli during critical periods when the brain is undergoing rapid growth and maturation may result in damage with lifelong consequences." *
Left untreated, ADHD can lead to lifelong failures, substance abuse, financial problems, and relationship issues.
OK, so why do so many people not believe in ADHD as a disease? Why do they think that you can spank a kid out of this problem? What is it that drives the myth that teachers and parents just want to take the easy way out, and don't want to do the hard work?
Actually I know why; I was one of those people. Then we started hearing from the teacher that our son couldn't sit still, and he kept bothering everyone around him. No one wanted to sit next to him and he always confused his addition and subtraction problems. And he just couldn't finish his work. I knew what the problem was, he needed discipline and the teacher just needed to do her job.
That is how we as a family began our journey toward the epiphany that the only things that could help our son in school, were medication and understanding. We took the pen and paper test along with his teacher and the doctor told us that he fit into the ADHD mold pretty well. She suggested that we may want to investigate methylphenidate to help him control his own symptoms and to be able to resist his impulses.
Oh, I fought that, because I knew she was full of it. I even told her how wrong she was in a loud voice in the middle of her office. We started with giving rewards for good behavior, and it seemed like he really wanted to do everything right, but always, something happened. So then we started punishing bad behavior, and it wasn't long before we realized that we had taken everything away from him and it didn't seem to make a difference. He was genuinely sorry for the things that he got in trouble for, but they still continued. We took him to a counselor, who worked with him for several months and suggested that he may be unable to control his own behavior, so we took him to a different counselor who came to the same conclusion.
In the meantime, Mark wasn't getting invited on play dates, and he never got to go to birthday parties. He was smart enough, but the teacher said he just couldn't get things done at school, so she had to give him incompletes in his work. He had lost recess everyday for a month. It's not that he didn't care about these things, he did. He cried about a party that everyone in his class attended but him. He knew how to do the math, but he never got to go to the board to do the problem. He could play sports, but the coaches always yelled at him even when he didn't do anything. He didn't get too many chances to make mistakes and got in a lot more trouble for doing the same things as other kids. He was miserable, bordering on depressed.
Finally, I talked to a professional who worked with ADHD kids. He told me that this wasn't a poor parenting thing. Mark had a significant condition that would require lifelong treatment, and no one need be ashamed of it. He also said that the only treatment that actually had a positive effect on the symptoms was the medication. Intensive behavioral conditioning was only mildly effective, and that if I really wanted to help my son, we should consider trying the meds.
I swallowed my pride, and figured out that this wasn't all about me. We went back to the doctor, who forgave me and told me I wasn't the first person to tell her that about this diagnosis. We tried the pills.
It's two years later and he is having his best year ever in school. He still gets in trouble, but he can stop himself if he needs to. He gets invited to a few parties and play dates now, although he still has the reputation as a trouble maker with a lot of parents, he is getting better all the time. He is a sought after soccer player for the 8 and 9 year old set, and has three teams to choose from for this upcoming season. He is happier now than ever, and still the same kid, the same twinkle in his eye just before he says something funny. Nowadays he can pick his audience and not just blurt things out.
It's hard to say if maybe other conditions are misdiagnosed as ADHD, maybe so, but I have been around a lot of kids who are struggling with the same sorts of things as Mark. And yes, there do seem to be more than ever. I sure hope all those kids get the same kind of help that Mark is getting.
Sources
*http://www.nimh.nih .gov/science-news/20 02/attention-deficit -hyperactivity-disor ders-are-children-be ing-overmedicated.sh tml
http://www.emaxhealt h.com/37/4681.html
Learn more about this author, Stu Wilson.
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