Wednesday, May 5, 2010

ADHD Too Often Diagnosed?

We often discover that a child is hyperactive, distractible, or impulsive but doctors fail to find out why. With today’s technology I believe doctors are too often ready to prescribe medication trying to change the outcome rather than looking at the cause of ADHD. What I am implying is that I don’t always believe that someone truly has a case of ADHD. As a result children are often taking drugs and medicine at an early age that they should not be taking.

About 5 percent of children are diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD), which are possible too many children. It is said in one study that children who suffer from ADHD also suffer from at least one other behavioral or developmental problem. Now how many children that we diagnose actually suffer from something else as well? Not nearly as many I’m sure. Also ADHD is a long-term chronic condition meaning it lasts a lifetime. But, many people lose some symptoms over time. In many cases they will lose enough symptoms to have less then six symptoms of ADHD. Six symptoms is the requirement to diagnose someone with ADHD. I think this show that we to frequently assume a child is suffering from ADHD too commonly. Also, it is said that all six symptoms must be severe enough to cause significant difficulties. These difficulties must also be present in at least 2 settings, which may include school. But, a study has shown some people diagnosed though only have one setting which all symptoms are significantly present.

I find hard to believe that so many children are actually victims of ADHD. I somewhat believe that we are often just lazy about finding the real cause of the children’s problem. Also, people are in denial of discovering the child’s actually problems may be. We really need to make a realization that medication is not the cure for everything and search deeper into the cause of a child’s symptoms.

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