ADHD overdiagnosed (DUH!)

[BullDozer]

I didn't see this posted yet.


Professor Priscilla Alderson, an expert in childhood studies at London's Institute of Education, believes conditions such as attention deficit hyperactive disorder and mild autism are being over-diagnosed.

She said many children's problems were due to bad parenting, and psychologists looking to "make a quick buck".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3102137.stm

[ibegurpard]

1. I really don't find this surprising.

n/t

[drdigi420]

2. When pharamacuetical companies get to

make up diseases, it's worse than when holy-rollers make up meanings to life.

At the same time, these pricks lobby against people having the right to grow their own medicine.

Greedy religious assholes, the lot of em.

[Redleg]

11. Exactly. The medical doctors prescribing these medications

often downplay the importance of psychological treatment (counseling, therapy) in dealing with behavioral problems.

[Runesong]

3. In my day it was diagnosed "Full of piss and Vinegar!"

Ok, I'm not that old.. But you get the point. Kids are a pain in the ass. Don't drug them just to make your task of raising / teaching them easier!

[fshrink]

4. Actually

physicians and psychiatrists diagnose ADHD way more than psychologists and that's because this so-called illness responds often to medication (stimulants amphetamine-like). Parents are happy to get an object that's gonna fix the problem without having to look closer at what's wrong.
In addition, the symptoms of the so-called ADHD can be found in a very large variety of disorders, ranging from anxiety to schizophrenia (schizophrenics are often diagnosed as ADHD for a while) or mood disorders. In my professional experience, something resembling bona fide ADHD is present in about 10 to 20% of the diagnosed cases. And that's regardless of the validity of the syndrome, that I doubt very much.

[dawg]

5. Yeah, but these disorders are real.

And the parents of these children, myself included, get screwed bigtime. And often blamed for what is actually a neurological disorder.

[Ilsa]

8. You're absolutely right.

And I dare anyone to be the one to pick and choose which child is and which child isn't ADHD. I think we need to leave that to the parents and doctors, not to casual observers who want to rant about "lazy" parents.

Parent to a child with pervasive developmental disorder, including ADHD, and he is using about $600 a month in meds so he can go to school in a regular classroom.

[aquart]

6. Yeah. It's that lack of willpower.

Now we can all go back to that really helpful diagnosis, it's all in your mind.

[linazelle]

7. Bush should be the poster child for ADHD

It's the one disease that totally describes his regime. We didn't finish Afghanistan before invading Iraq and now it's on to Liberia and we hit Syria...WTF!!!!

It won't be overdiagnosed until they diagnose him properly. I've said it before and I'll say it again...give that man some ritalin.

[jmm]

9. People with ADHD tend to be very intelligent

so that excludes Bush.

[enki23]

10. but it's a great excuse...

to get an adderall prescription.