ADD is at least twice as common in boys as in girls; learning disabilities are equally common in both genders.Posted on 05/22/2002 6:19:33 AM PDT by Lance Romance
Survey: 7 percent of elementary school children diagnosed with ADHD
By M.A.J. McKENNA
Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writer
Nearly 7 percent of elementary-age children in the United States -- more than 1.6 million kids -- have been diagnosed with attention-deficit disorder, according to the first nationwide survey of the problem.
The numbers are higher than expected, the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday.
"The American Academy of Pediatrics has estimated an overall rate of 3 to 5 percent of children," said Patricia Pastor, a health statistician and the study's lead author. Regional studies have shown from 4 percent to 12 percent of kids' having ADD. The CDC study also found that 7.7 percent of children -- 1.8 million -- have learning disabilities.
The two disorders overlap: 2.6 million children have either ADD or a learning disability or both. Overall, 3.3 percent of all children in that age group have ADD, 4.2 percent have learning disabilities, and 3.5 percent have both conditions, the agency said. The nationwide survey of 78,041 households was conducted for the CDC by the U.S. Census Bureau in 1997 and 1998. It asked parents if children aged 6-11 in their household had ever been diagnosed with ADD by a doctor or other health care professional, or been diagnosed with a learning disability by a health care professional or school official.
Among the findings:
ADD is at least twice as common in boys as in girls; learning disabilities are equally common in both genders.
White children are more likely than blacks or Hispanics to be diagnosed with ADD.
The results of the study suggest that access to health care may have a much greater influence on diagnosis than had been realized, Pastor said. Children whose families had private insurance or Medicaid and could consult a health professional were more likely to be diagnosed with ADD than those without insurance.
The study did not break down the results by state or city.
Georgia has had a reputation as a hotbed for ADD. In 1994, it was ranked No. 1 in the country for cumulative consumption of methylphenidate, an anti-ADD stimulant marketed as Ritalin. By last year, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration, the state was 17th in methylphenidate use.
I be oppressed.
Funny, they will put adults in jail for using drugs anf threaten to take away their kids if they don't give them grugs. Hmmmmmmm.
Please tell me you were half asleep when you typed this. ;-)
"Nearly 7 percent of elementary-age children in the United States -- more than 1.6 million kids -- have been diagnosed with attention-deficit disorder"
That fact DOES NOT MEAN that 1.6 million kids ACTUALLY HAVE attention-deficit disorder, or that they're "stupid".
There is a LOT of mis-diagnosis of this (some pressured by parents, some pressured by teachers, some pressured by drug companies).
Don't blame the kids for what their parents do to them.
But I don't doubt that at least 7% of elementary school children are undisciplined and unruly, and that there are those who have an interest in drugging them, rather than investing the time and patience and love necessary to correct the behavior.
On what basis do you make the claim "its too high" ?
How many people in the population benefit from corrective lenses ? Like eyesight, ADD presents itself across a range. Everything from blind to needing reading glasses.
Applying the range theory to the 7%, those at one end of the range may cope just fine while those at the other end may not.
He got the "Hmmmmmmm." right.;)
Yes, dear. ;-)
My statement that the 7% figure was "too high" is opinion and conjecture. Mixed with disbelief that 7% of elementary school children need ritalin.
You are correct in pointing out that I have no documented evidence to support this opinion. Is it your opinion that 7% need ritalin?
My dad had a cure for this, he would remove the plug from the TV and hand us a list of chores to be accomplished. If we still had attention problems, some cursing and a belt was utilized to help us regain focus.
Believe me. I am quite calm. Your problem with the CDC and over medication of children may have a basis in fact. Your reference to kids, with real, honest to God learning disabilities, as stupid is feckless. I am trying to educate you so that your ignorance doesn't interfere with any points you might make that have merit.
First the word need I object to. Only a very small number of ADD folks actually NEED ritalin. That said it may be entirely possible that the entire ADD population would benefit from ritalin but the desicion tree is slightly more complex than simple yes or no. Before going too far, I believe that many ADD diagnoses are not correct and therefore whatever percent of diagnosed ADD'ers there are the actual number needs to be reduced for misdiagnosed but at the same time it needs to be increased for undiagnosed. For example, many children may have depression, alergies, simple behavior problems etc.
Whether drugs ae appropriare, some of factors include the fact that Ritalin and other drug therapies come with side-effects that must be weighed. In addition, ritalin and other drugs are not effective 24/7 and therefore the individual still needs to learn alternative coping mechanisms and use of ritalin can retard that.
At the other end of the spectrum are children who have very little likelihood of being able to stay focused long enough to teach any coping skills to.
In summary, of the total population of ADD'ers less than all could benefit from drugs. Some may need them all the time and some may need them at times.
But I have no predetermined idea how many are in the population. If I had to guess the population would mirror eyeglass wearers especially in that the needs for glasses change in response to age and tasks.
ADD is not a behavior problem. It is a performance problem.
How do you KNOW the majority of those diagonsed with ADD are not ADD ? Is there a study you can point to ?
And for all the anti-Ritalin busybodies who think they have all the answers, no, he isn't on medication. It's a problem we deal with the best we can, but it does have a major impact on the family life.
Retired MD
My own views on ADD kids are clouded by experiences with two brothers in my son's Cub Scout pack. They are "special cases" who came to us with many excuses and instructions from their mother. The boys' father works out of town, and has face-to-face involvement with the boys on the weekends.
When their mother is present, the boys are holy terrors, and she screeches at them constantly. When the mother is occupied away from the boys, and the leader exerts gentle pressure and non-tolerance for continual disruptions, suddenly their behavior improves dramatically.
No, I'm not a doctor. But my layman's diagnosis is that they need more discipline, and their problems are behavioral, and not medical.
I am also an adult with ADD, and I can assure all FReepers I am extremely intelligent. My 26 year-old son also has ADD and graduated maxima cum laude from a very good university with a degree in finance. After taking just one accounting class in college, scored a 366 out of 400 on the CPA exam, already has his CFP, and will have his MBA by next spring. And, by the way, was recently a speaker at a very large national financial planning conference a month or so ago.
Those people who only have ADD are generally very intelligent and once they set thier mind on a goal, they never, ever quit. We also have a great sense of humor' and we also tend to not be very tolerant with people suffering from terminatal stupidity.
Hell, just go to a walmart and watch.
If I were going through school these days (thank God I'm not), I would certainly have been diagnosed as an ADD kid: I was diagnosed as being hyperactive by the Univeristy of Washington when I was three years old. I somehow made it through school anyway (barely).
I thought the added subtitle was funny.
Tuor
Actually yes I did. I initially thought it was all total bull $hit. I was convinced by my wife to have my daughter tested for learning disabilities when she was in second grade. Her reading was about a year behind the next slowest student and the special help she was getting all year wasn't working
One of the things they tested for was ADD using those subjective tests they give the teachers, parents etc. The interesting thing is the classroom teacher who filled it out thought the ADD was a waste of time but completed the questionaires anyways. The results of the scaling was that my daughter tested 3 standard deviations above the mean.
Even so, I was still unconvinced and still thought this was all a bunck of mumbo jumbo BS. But I relented and went along with a trail dosage of ritalin to see what happened. I felt that a few weeks to a month shouldn't hurt much and that I owed it to my daughter to put aside my bias and see what happened.
Here is what happened; In three weeks she went from being a year behind the next slowest student to being the top reader in the class. She is now 15 and a sophomoe in school, she mantains honors while she keeps a full schedule of extra-currucilar activities that include acting in 3 to 4 plays per year, singing in 3 choruses and cheerleading.
Her recent doctor suggested she try and see what would happen if she went off medication and my daughter was livid with her doctor. She knows by experience from the times she forgets her medication how hard school is and wasn't about to try and screw up her successful track record. She not only convinced her DR to drop the subject her DR prescribed some longer acting drugs.
As far as your medical degree and ability to diagnose, I personally hold MD's in low regard. You folks were taught that young children could not get asthma. This widely held belief among DR's could have caused th death of one of my children if it were not for my independent research.
Except maybe in very extreme cases, I don't consider this to be a disease at all. Kid's *aren't supposed* to be stuck in school all day when they're that young. Kids are active and need to be allowed to run around *alot*.
I think we send kids to school while they are way too young. I honestly don't think they should be attending formal classes until they are at least seven years old. Until then, they should play and enjoy life while they can, while having some lessons and especially some chores to do, just not *too* many. Eventually, yes, they will need to be put into formal classroom instruction, but even then they should have lots of play time.
I just don't understand why people are suprised that boys don't take well to being cooped up all day long. Get them away from computers, video games, and classrooms, and onto the playgrounds and fields.
Tuor
I asked my doctor why ADD medications are catergorized as a Class-B narcotic. He told me that thr 60 mg of Adderall I take each day is enough to keep 5-10 'normal people' wired all day. The brain chemistry of people with ADD is different than those who do not have ADD. The fact that people with ADD are not 'wired' is evidence that ADD does indeed exist.
Most people do not realize that there are some advantages to having ADD, when not complicated by other factors. People with ADD are excelent performers in situations requiring quick thinking and analyzing a great deal of information immediately and making a good decision in a hurry. Good careers for people with ADD are sales, emergency service work such as firefighters, police, emergency medical type careers, pilots, trial lawyers, and really most careers that offer variety in work activities.
If you are in a situation where everyone is running around with their heads cut off, the calm guy in the middle of the storm who comes up with a solution to the situation could very well have ADD. Something else that people don't realize about those of us who have ADD is that we are able to 'hyperfocus' in situations where there is a need or an interest. The distraction part of ADD can also be a plus because we notice things going on around us that may be very important which escape the attention of 'normal people'.
Athletes who seem to perform extremely well on a consistent basis, especially in imortant events may very well have ADD. When others 'tighten up' in big games or in front of large noisy crowds, an ADDer would likely not even notice it because they are so focused.
And Orangedog, just for your information; When a person with ADD decides to take on a task or challenge, you can normally take it to the bank that they will accomplish that goal, because they will never, ever give up. That's good if they are on your side, but if you go against them, you will be in for the battle of your life. All you have to do to confirm this is to look at the posts of those with ADD on this thread who will not let misinformed uneducated idiots like you get away with your stereotypical garbage about ADD.
BTW, ADDers do not generally use a lot of 'tact', especially in the face of stupidity. Honest ignorance about ADD is O.K., because ignorance is curable through education, but obstinent stupidity is terminate and deserves no mercy.
You would be surprised at the number of Freepers that have ADD. Some of them are amonst the most popular, articulate, and VERY FUNNY posters on FR. I would even speculate that ADD amongst FReepers would be noticably higher than the general population. A reason for this possibility is that people with ADD tend to become really involved in those activities they choose. Many of the careers that Freepers have tend to attract thos with ADD. Lets face it, Freepers and ADDers are not nearly as likely to have careers where they punch a clock every day or have routine, boring jobs.
The source of this information is...? Drug usage of the biologial mother may very well result in damage to her child and if that is the case, it is not ADD that is the problem, it would most likely be directly related to the drugs/alcohol used by the mother. These are the children who may be diagnosed with ADD/ADHD who do not have it at all. Certainly an actual case where ADD does exist when complicated by other factors does make diagnosis and treatment much more difficult. The problem is not the ADD/ADHD, but the other 'factors'.
2) When children ingest Ritalin over a number of years, their brains start to shrink at about the age of 20.
The source of your 'evidence'?
3) More boys than girls are on Ritalin, because teachers are not allowed to insist on well-mannered behavior in our classrooms. Therefore, the boys are drugged so that they will act more like docile girls.
This is a real indication of your ignorance about ADD/ADHD. If a child who does not have ADD/ADHD is given medication for ADD/ADHD they would really become hyperactive, disruptive and an even bigger 'terror' to the teacher. ADD medications are stimulants, some of which are class-B narcotics. If a non-ADD/ADHD person were to take ADD/ADHD medications, the last thing they would be is 'more docile'.
These may be things of which you were unaware. While I agree that ADD/ADHD might be overdiagnosis, it is quite another to say it doesn't exist. You also seem to imply that people with ADD/ADHD cannot perform well. I know several people with ADD who have graduated from college with excellent grades, many of whom hardly ever studied because they were able to 'just remember' the important stuff when listening in class or reading the material once or twice.
If ADD/ADHD does not exist, how could the giving of a stimulant to a child make them 'more docile' or 'manageable'? Wouldn't you expect just the opposite?
If you have no reasonable explanation and are at least willing to recognize that maybe your earlier opinions might need to be re-evaluated, I would graciously withdraw my diagnosis of terminal stupidity.
You are misinformed. Physicians as a group are not taught that young children can not get asthma. I don't doubt that you may have anecdotal data to support your misinformation, but this generality is simply not true.
To some extent your castigation of physicians as a group is also misplaced. The quality of medicine practiced in this country has declined over the last thirty years, but the fault does not lie with the profession. The blame almost exclusively belongs at the feet of government and government regulators. Government assumed responsiblity for the quality of medical care during the early 70's by stripping that responsibility from the physicians, the only group qualified to police physicians. I will be glad to debate anyone about who is competent to police physicians. I will be glad to debate anyone about the competence of government to police anything. No group has ever demonstrated such overwhelming incompetence as well as government.
All the wonderful accomplishments you attributed to someone with ADD seem to have the symptoms of someone without ADD. Your theories are starting to head down the "Global Warming" path. i.e. it's cold because of global warming. What a crock.
I would applaud doctors if they acted a lot more humble about what they think the know. The other attitude can cause deaths.
My daughter is a believer in ADD and potentially poisons my grand daughter on a daily basis as part of a giant poorly controlled experiment. I don't mind you putting your children at risk betting on the outcome of an experiment, but I resent what my daughter is doing immensely. Judgment is acquired over time through experience. Wisdom is proper use of judgment combined with experience. Faith is the acceptance of theory without proof. Unfortunately, it is not the kids who are stupid, but the same can not be said for the parents.
There is no medical proof that ADHD exists. There is also no proof that drugs are of benefit. Faith is not a substitute for science.
Before citing religion and faith in God to me, please take the time to read Julian Jaynes's Book. But be aware, that it may challenge your faith. I don't know, but am fairly certain that Jaynes is correct. Man invented God, not the other way around.
In children, asthma may be diagnosed at age 3 or younger. In infants, asthma may be the aftermath of flu, a cold, or virus infection. Bronchiolitis (a viral inflammation of the small airways that occurs in young children during the cold months) is sometimes followed by asthma, and the symptoms of asthma resemble those of the viral infection. Although wheezing represents the hallmark of asthma, this breathing problem can also be caused by other respiratory disorders, so most physicians do not diagnose asthma until they carefully examine a child and note more than two asthma episodes.
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