by Dr. Deborah Bauers

Created on: February 22, 2008   Last Updated: October 16, 2011

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is a mental health issue that continues to draw significant attention from the media, primarily due to two factors:

1. The ever-increasing numbers of children who are being diagnosed with ADHD

2. School nurses who are seeing and reporting a significant increase in the amounts of medications being dispensed during the school day to children who struggle with hyperactivity and inattentiveness

As a mental health professional with over twenty-five of experience, this writer has witnessed a number of shoddy examples of ADHD assessment that have resulted in misdiagnosis and incorrect treatment. However,there are just as many cases of behavioral transformation when a child is correctly diagnosed and, with therapeutic intervention, receives the opportunity to reach his or her full potential.

There are a number of reasons why ADHD may be being overly diagnosed in children. Most of them relate to insufficient or incorrect methods for assessment.

1.Diagnoses of mental illnesses are routinely performed by a variety of helping professionals. Although companies that have created and published standardized tools for assessment have attempted to responsibly control their use, there are few guidelines as to what the qualifications for an ADHD diagnostician should be. Consequently, general practitioners, pediatricians, social workers and behavioral specialists often become involved in the assessment process without necessarily having the proper diagnostic training to obtain an accurate diagnosis or utilize the testing instruments needed to do so.

2. A wide range of practices exist that are routinely used to diagnosis this disorder. Some evaluations involve a brief and incomplete fifteen minute consultation followed by a diagnosis that is highly questionable due to the lack of information gathered and the brevity of observation. More comprehensive evaluations may include a variety of measurements, scales, and questionnaires designed to engage the participation of parents, teachers, and both medical and mental health professionals. Neurologists may even use brain imaging as a component of the evaluation process. Consequently,  the diagnosis of ADHD is far from standardized and often limited in its scope.

3. The "Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Amendment" of 1997 placed a greater emphasis than ever before on narrowing the gap between expectation and level of accomplishment

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