Millions of children, especially those in a younger grade level, are being misdiagnosed with ADHD, according to a recent study.
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a disorder that “is thought to be caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain that affects attention, concentration and impulsivity. However, as these core symptoms are often considered normal behaviour, especially in younger children, many experts have argued that many children are being misdiagnosed with the disorder.
“The problem with being a child today in America, compared to 20 or 30 years ago, is that if you are different, if you are agitated, if you are extremely active, you will fall under the gaze of the “helping professions,” said David Cohen, MD.
In the U.S., there is an unusual dependency on prescription medication, which has resulted in the current epidemic of opioid overdoses in adults. However, despite the evidence that supports this pressing issue, there has been an astronomical rise children’s prescription medication—particularly the kind that is used to treat ADHD.
In fact, as highlighted by the documentary, The Drugging of Our Children, between 1995 and 2000, the number of psychotropic drugs prescribed to children doubled. Teachers and school authorities that have used the diagnosis of ADHD to drug children into “proper” behavior is one of the many driving factors of this rise.
According to the psychiatric handbook, ICD-10 Classification of Mental and Behavioral Disorders, the most powerful symptom of ADHD is when a child “often fidgets with hands and feet or squirms in seat.”
Therefore, when a teacher notices that a child is “fidgeting,” acting “impulsively” and is displaying sigs of “inattention” in their work—which can be considered normal behaviour for children, especially young children—the teacher has the power to initiate a psychiatric evaluation.
While many of the children that are diagnosed with ADHD do genuainly suffer from the disorder, this recent study suggests that a large percentage of the children that have been diagnosed with ADHD have been misdiagnosed.
As part of the study, which was published in The Journal of Pediatrics, researchers collected data on 378,881 children between the ages of 4 and 17. After examining the data, the researchers found that the youngest children in a grade level were more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD or receive ADHD prescribed medication when compared with older children in the same grade.
According to the research:
“When looking at the database as a whole, children born in August were more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD and/or receive ADHD medication than those born in September. When broken down and analyzed according to age, only preschool or elementary school-aged children born in August had an increased risk of being diagnosed with ADHD and receiving ADHD medication. However, adolescents born in August did not have an increased risk of ADHD diagnosis. This may imply that increasing age and maturity lessens the impact of birth month on ADHD diagnoses.”
Behavorial changes in young children rapidly change within a small period of time. Therefore, A five-year, 1-month old kid often has very different temperamental levels than a five-year, 11-month old kid, reports the Free Thought Project. As a result, when a teacher recommends a psychiatric evaluation, they have likely compared that child to one of the older students in that same class.
More than 6 million are given prescription medication—such as Ritalin and other amphetamines—before going to school every morning. The side effects of these drugs can include weight loss, liver problems and suicidal thoughts.
“Relative age, as an indicator of neurocognitive maturity, is crucial in the risk of being diagnosed with ADHD and receiving ADHD medication among children and adolescents. Our findings emphasize the importance of considering the age of a child within a grade when diagnosing ADHD and prescribing medication for treating ADHD, ” the study explains.
In the past, many other medical conditions have been mistaken for ADHD, leading the child to be misdiagnosed and insufficiently treated. For instance, when a child is exposed to PCBs, polyvinyl chlorides and lead, they can display the same symptoms of ADHD. The Free Thought Project reports that after a five-year-old girl was diagnosed with ADHD, it was later discovered that her allergies were responsible for her symptoms.
It is therefore hoped that this latest study will discourage medical experts, teachers and parents from jumping to conclusions and comparing a child’s behavior to that of their older classmates. By misdiagnosing children with ADHD and prescribing psychotropic drugs in an effort to make the child more complainant, children are not receiving the medical assistance they actually require.
Feature Image: Wikimedia Commons, Kate Lapine
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I agree with this even though my son has ADHD. He does not take medication and he has difficulties all the time. Simple things like losing everything, he gets lost in his College and used to be punished for late arrivals in lessons at school, no-one even seemed to understand he gets lost easily all the time! Proabably forgets where he was going… Now he drives and he needs constantly reminding where to go even on local familiar trips.
I recognise many children are diagnosed though that are not ADHD and think the drugs are too convenient to restore a type of order in our oversized classrooms etc
I am now a retired Social Worker. I did my internship for a local “Children’s Hospital”.
It was just terrible to see these young, innocent kids walk in to session literally WIRED! You see those tweakers out on the street who are so fucking buzzed you can literally see them Humming! Well, those children I used to treat looked at least twice as bad!!! If I knew then what I known now I would have spoken up. Why does the government allow the drugging of these children??!?
BECAUSE ITS A BILLION DOLLAR INDUSTRY!!!
Parents!!! Please wake up!!!
Another medical issue that is being misdiagnosed as ADHD is actually a hearing disorder, Audio Processing Disorder (APD). I was diagnosed about 15 years ago. The hearing is fine but the brain has a delay in reacting to sounds. Teachers believe the child is not listening or has attention problems when in fact their brains just aren’t processing the information fast enough to respond in a ‘normal’ amount of time. It is particularly difficult in noisy environments because the brain can’t differentiate the sounds. I have been accused of ignoring people when in fact they have walked away before I realize someone has spoken to me. I have to inform people to ‘make sure I am actively listening’. Here’s the issue; many in the medical community say this condition does not exist. Many who believe it exists say a child outgrows it. I am proof that both of these as all-encompassing claims are false. I have to avoid loud situations, restaurants, bars, concerts, even parties, because I become exhausted trying to have conversations. I attended college on-line to avoid noisy classrooms. The difference this made as unbelievable. I went from a so-so grades to be invited to attend a Scholar Laureate program and graduating with honors and a member of Gold Key.
Before being diagnosed as ADHD these children need a hearing test that involves a stop watch (that’s how I was tested). It’s is believed that as much as 10% of the U.S. population may have some level of this condition. My doctor discovered, depending on the noise level, I have as much as a 20 second delay before my brain acknowledges the sound. That’s huge! Just consider how many words can be spoken in that timeframe.
ADHD and high functioning Autism are not diseases, and we need to approach people with it with respect. People have different types of brains. The “Neurotypical” norm boxes people like us into a round hole with how they expect us to be educated. They don’t allow us to be creative nor to play, or experiment. We learn differently, but society represses it in order to satiate the greedy testing industry in our schools. The desire to control this creativity and force it into obedience drives American society to drug people who are NOT Neutotypical. We are your artists, activists, computer programers, thinkers. musicians, and writers. If channeled and nurtured, we help society evolve. We exist, and if allowed we can thrive but we are repressed, drugged and abused and called diseased, and tormented by a system that criminalizes us and throws several of us (those of us who are POC) in jail. Perhaps what we should be talking about is what HAPPENS to those of us WHO EXIST, and WHY and what we can do to help us thrive once more. We need not be persecuted, we are Macs in a PC world, we are Nurses who have compassion, we are Mozart, we are Mothers, we are teachers, we are dances, we are clerks in the grocery store, we are writers, we are prisoners, we are everywhere and we are unheard because we’ve been labeled as a disease. The language has to change, people need to be educated to embrace us, and drugs, and testing needs to be removed from our schools in the USA so all people can learn in their own style. Our society needs to stop favoring the Neurotypical and accept the Neuroatypical as a valid human being as well. Because the world isn’t designed for our way of thinking, and we’re tired of the drugs, and the stares and not fitting where we go.
I used to bill & code medical paperwork and have a brilliant 28-yr old daughter with ADHD. The ICD-10-CM is a coding book. The DSM-5 is a manual professionals use to check on the medical criteria for different illnesses. These are mostly used for billing purposes. Russell A. Barkley, PhD is the expert on ADD & ADHD. There are a range of tests a neuropsychologist can use to diagnose and suggest educational interventions for persons with ADD & ADHD and the common learning differences that often accompany these diagnoses. My daughter responded to counseling, medication, special education, and graduated high school & a private college with honors. 🙂
Most of these children have parents who need help in raising their children,
Children learn from the day they are born and the things the children see and hear are not right,I have seen mothers screaming abuse at their children when out shopping it shocks me. I had a neighbour who had a lovely little boy and it turned out he was put on drugs for his bad behavior and all he needed was attention and caring from his family I hear now he is in prison It is so sad.
Makes it hard to take an article with such strong “research-based” opinions seriously when it has so many typos. Just saying.