More Older Children Being Diagnosed with ADD/ADHD
ByCheck out this story that ran on the Time online news site July 23. The magazine reports that an increasing number of older children are being diagnosed with ADD/ADHD – a trend that appears to baffle some of the nation’s public health officials.
Typically, if a child is to be diagnosed with this disorder, it’s usually recognized by the time a child is 11 years old. But the study – which questioned parents from the years of 1997 to 2006 about their children’s health status – discover an increase in diagnosis of 4 percent every year.
Because of the nature of the study, the question of “why†isn’t readily addressed. The article did suggest two reasons why this development has occurred. The first simply may be the health community’s increasing awareness of the diversity in how the symptoms show up in older kids.
Adolescents may not display the hyperactivity that many have come to expect with ADD/ADHD. Instead they may show up more in the form of difficulty in concentration. Increasing recognition of this fact may be driving up diagnosis.
The second reason could be linked to an increasing abuse of the medication Ritalin by teens who use the stimulant as a recreational drug or as a study aid.
In either case, the article also said that the use of ADD/ADHD medications is on the rise as well. The Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control reports that prescriptions for this drug jumped from 1.9 million in 1993 to 3.2 million in 2005.
Health officials speculate a portion of that increase is due a more aggressive marketing approach by the drug companies.
You can read the entire story for yourself and draw your own conclusions here.
Standing Up to the Forces that Misdiagnose ADHD
By Bob Livingstone, LCSW
Many children are misdiagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder when they may be suffering from depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, central auditory processing problems or autism.
Underfunded School Districts and greedy insurance companies are seeking the least expensive way to treat children who have concentration and behavior problems.
Kids are labeled with the ADHD diagnosis because it is cheaper than actually completing a detailed psychological evaluation and less expensive than individual and family psychotherapy.
A detailed psychological evaluation is essential in determining exactly what the diagnosis is. The psychologist needs to be well versed in all the diagnosises stated above.
If Kids are diagnosed as ADHD, the first line of treatment is medication and underfunded school districts will not have to pay for additional services such as therapy, socialization groups or additional teaching staff.
The insurance company HMOs will insist that drugs be the major if not only mode of treatment. Medication will most likely be another family expense because the insurance companies often do not cover prescription drugs.
The pharmaceutical industry markets ADHD stimulant medication to parents through television and magazine advertising. These ads include smiling happy, well behaved children; the message of a promise of a cure for their acting out.
Parents are often swayed by this marketing technique, but become disillusioned when side effects of no appetitive and insomnia manifest themselves. Many also discover that the medication is ineffective, so then their children are forced to be guinea pigs; experimenting with many medications until one may actually work.
Parents need to organize to insist that school districts have enough funding to provide resources to children who are having difficulty in school. They need to band together to fight the insurance and pharmaceutical industry as well.
When my son reached his late teens he developed social anxiety on top of his ADD – he was able to get thru that phase with drugs, I’m sorry to say. But it was not something he could just endure. Now, 4 yrs. later, the anxiety attacks returned, only this time we tried drinking Xango with immediate results. I have some of the research journal articles if anyone is interested in trying non-drug therapy. The research is out of Japan as the Mangosteen fruit only grows in pacific rim countries. Since my son’s success, I’ve found other testimonials I’m happy to share. Please contact me at oliver.marta@gmail.com.
ADHD children need no special favors. In fact this will just confuse them more.
They need boundaries. They need to know the rules and that there are no exceptions. Consistency is the key. Mum is not doing any favours by treating her differently and in fact is reaffirming that her child does not need to follow rules & behave.
Reward her when she does the right thing by puting her in better positions. Reinforce the rules and expectations. This is the best thing you can do for her.
Don’t let mum make the rules – you are the coach not her! You can’t expect your team to work effectively unless they all have to work to the same goals and expectations.
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