Posted on 09/04/2007 8:16:26 AM PDT by mombyprofession
MONDAY, Sept. 3 (HealthDay News) -- Nearly 9 percent of American children have attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), but only 32 percent of them are getting the medication they need.
That's the sobering conclusion of a landmark new study, the first of its kind based on what doctors consider the "gold standard" of diagnostic criteria -- the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition.
"There is a perception that ADHD is overdiagnosed and overtreated," said lead researcher Dr. Tanya E. Froehlich, a developmental-behavioral pediatrician at Cincinnati Children's Medical Center. "But our study shows that for those who meet the criteria for ADHD, the opposite problem -- underdiagnosis and undertreatment -- seems to be occurring."
The researchers found that some 2.4 million children between the ages of 8 and 15 meet the medical definition of ADHD, but an estimated 1.2 million children haven't been diagnosed or treated, Froehlich said, adding that "girls were more likely to be undiagnosed."
What's more, children from poor families, who have the highest rates of ADHD, were the least likely to have consistent treatment with medication, Froehlich noted. "In addition, children without health insurance were less likely to be diagnosed and treated," she said.
The findings were published in the September issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.
ADHD is a condition that becomes apparent in some children in the preschool and early school years and is characterized by hyperactivity, inattention and impulsivity, according to the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health.
To arrive at their findings, Froehlich and her colleagues collected data on 3,082 children who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Using interviews, the researchers were able to establish the presence of ADHD. They also used data from doctors and the numbers of ADHD medications being used to establish diagnosis and treatment patterns, according to the report.
The researchers found that of the 8.7 percent of children who met the criteria for ADHD, only 47.9 percent had been diagnosed with the condition and only 32 percent were treated consistently with medications.
Froehlich said medications can be quite effective, and people with ADHD can lead successful lives if they have been properly diagnosed and treated.
"There are many successful professionals who have ADHD," Froehlich said. "On the flip side, there can be a lot of negative consequences associated with the disorder, such as lower rates of school and career achievement and higher rates of substance abuse, incarceration, injuries and car accidents," she said.
Froehlich said more needs to be done to identify and treat children with ADHD. "It's not a trivial disorder," she said. "It can have an impact on the child and the family if it is not diagnosed and addressed. We need to redouble our efforts to help doctors spot the symptoms of ADHD and make an accurate diagnosis."
Dr. Jon A. Shaw, director of child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of Miami School of Medicine, agrees that ADHD is underdiagnosed and undertreated.
"The study is confirmatory of the general scientific literature," he said. "ADHD is a highly prevalent disorder, the most common psychiatric diagnosis in children, and that, in general, it is being underdiagnosed and undertreated in our community."
Shaw noted that those children most at risk receive the worst care. "It is clear once again that it is the poorest of our community who are deprived of the benefits of the most effective treatment -- psychopharmacology for this condition," he said.
The discovery that ADHD is more common among poorer people is probably related to other risk factors for the disorder, such as use of tobacco, low birth weight and lead exposure, Shaw said.
What?
This did not exist a few years ago. It is epidemic now as the state finds it has the power to diagnose.
I know some people need meds and consider myself fortunate.
Find CURES...like they did for polio...and stop trying to "Cure" Old Age and "behavior" within the "tiny norm" they have created.
ON average, Americans see about 16,000 advertisments in a given day.
characterized by hyperactivity, inattention and impulsivity
negative consequences associated with the disorder, such as lower rates of school and career achievement and higher rates of substance abuse, incarceration, injuries and car accidents.
"It is clear once again that it is the poorest of our community who are deprived of the benefits of the most effective treatment -- psychopharmacology for this condition," he said.
What a bunch of hogwash! (I'm gonna get an earful from the professional educators among my friends & family)
50 years ago at least 25% would have been diagnosed this way. Yep, 50% of the class were boys, and at least half of those were "rambunctious"! If they didn't settle down, behave & pay attention, Mrs. Chapman always had her paddle as backup (pun intended).
It's called a lack of discipline and self control. True leaders, from Mrs. Chapman and Mrs Riefschneider to Coach Thornton to Gunnery Sargeant Truell had ways of GETTING MY ATTENTION, and MOTIVATING me to DISCLIPINE myself. IF I didn't do it myself, they had the means AT HAND to ASSist me.
And they wonder why drug dependency is so prevalent
negative consequences associated with the disorder, such as lower rates of school and career achievement and higher rates of substance abuse, incarceration, injuries and car accidents.
Lack of SELF-DISCIPLINE!
I think a lot of these cases have been misdiagnosed, and the kids are actually suffering from PDD - Parental Discipline Disorder.
You could have fooled me. I thought a lot more had it to push the medicine and control of our youth. Of course, it could only be 9% now that they are pushing bi-polar.
Maybe the rest of them are now bi-polar. Can you believe the idiots that push this kind of stuff? Amazing.
AMEN!
Kids are calm or jittery, lazy or ambitious, listen or don't. Gosh...Sounds just like adults!!
I think that Attention Defecit Disorder is not lack of attention on behalf of the child, but on behalf of the PARENT!
Males are more than two times as likely as females to have been diagnosed with ADHD; 10 percent of males, 4 percent of females.
Friends of mine got called in about their daughter. The parents told them no way she was going on drugs. She graduated from Medical School and is a Doctor today.
Must be some sort of content copyright infringement or something...I dont think the threads were duplicated elsewhere on FR.
I thought one out of five kids were being medicated. A big error on the part of my heretofore reliable sources?
Let’s feed them all Ritalin and other mind-numbing drugs so they can all become good little liberal, Democratic-voting robots.
If this is a real disease, do you "catch" it? IF not, what explains the suggested correlation between annual income and children having the disease? Being poor is not a genetic disorder, after all.
Doctors tried to put me on drugs for hyperactivity, and that was in the 1960s. After a week my mother stopped giving me the pills because I just wasn't "myself". I do have trouble with attention span, I'm always distracted and leaving things around.
BS. If you want to see my super-laid-back pediatrician brother go berserk, get him started on ADHD. His face actually turns red as he screams about misdiagnosing and medicating perfectly healthy children.
Back in the old days the pill was a slap.
I believe the statistics show the occurrence of ADHD* to be much higher than stated in the article.
*Absent Dad/Husband Disorder
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