Parents' and Children's Perspectives Towards Hyperactivity - Essay Example

Parents' and Children's Perspectives Towards Hyperactivity Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or Attention deficit disorder (ADD) is one of the most common psychiatric disorder affecting children. It also affects the adolescents and adults. ADHD is a behavioral and developmental disorder whose cause remains an issue governed by controversies. The affected individuals lack the ability to stay focused and are inattentive. They are hyperactive and are easily distracted. These symptoms can be present individually or as a combination of both of the above. ADHD is the most common psychiatric disorder diagnosed in children affecting them at the frequency of 3-5%, though 4-7% of the affected children continue to suffer in the adulthood as well. Boys are affected 2-4 times more frequently than girls are. The reason for this discrepancy still remains to be identified. ADHD is basically a behavioral disorder, which renders its diagnosis rather difficult. These symptoms are considered a part of normal developmental behavior of a child at a young age, but when these symptoms do not resolve with increasing age or if the severity of the symptoms worsens, and then this leads to the diagnosis of ADHD (Southhall 2007; Berger et al 2008). This essay would further present with findings regarding the diagnosis of ADHD and would conclude as to if it is being over diagnosed or not. ADHD is diagnosed on the basis of psychiatric assessment and a detailed in depth discussion with the parents or teachers, and on the basis of a questionnaire taken by the child if he or she is old enough. The data collected is compared with a standard list of signs and symptoms, termed as "Diagnostic And Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV" (DSM 4) for North America and with "International Statistical Classification of diseases and related health problems (ICD 10)" for European Nations, where ADHD is given the name of "hyperkinetic disorder" (Berger 2008). ADHD is a disorder which is characterized by many symptoms which are hard to differentiate from the normal behavior. Some children would be normal but would show some signs which would seem to be linked to the patients suffering from ADHD. This is the very reason that it has been found recently that ADHD is being wrongly diagnosed by many doctors. The over diagnosis of ADHD in United States of America was noted by a child doctor Gretchen LeFever. A study conducted by her showed the percentage of the drugs used by children who were assumedly suffering from ADHD. It was found that the percentages of the incidence rate of children in her study were quite higher than that of the national estimates. This clearly showed that something was going wrong in the states and it was either related to the expertise of a doctor or to the inefficiency showed by them (Lefever et al 2001) According to experts ADHD is believed to be a disease which should be treated as soon as diagnosed but this claim is rejected by neurologists who put forward that ADHD is not a known disease. This is because ADHD does not show any sign of variance in the healthy status of the brain in an individual as per different research. Not only this it has also been noticed that gradually with time the prescription of drugs associated with ADHD to children has increased. Ritalin is one of the drugs commonly prescribed to the children who are suffering from ADHD (Diller 1998; Sinha 2001; Health Care Financing Administration 2001). ADHD was defined as a disorder in which the intelligence level of the individual would be very deviant and the probable symptoms of the disorder would be to an extreme. It is found that the symptoms identified in ADHD are also found in normal children. The doctors put forward the view that such extreme symptoms can only be showed in 3-5 % of the population and not more than that. However it is found through different research methods that the number of diagnosed patients is much higher than the statistical limit given by the experts. On the other hand critics of the claim that ADHD is not being over diagnosed come forward with claims that no disorder can be limited because of statistics. According to these critics the amount of drugs used to treat ADHD have increased since the very time that the disorder had became known to the world. As it was found that only 1% of the American school children were consuming drugs associated with ADHD in 1970 but following the years the percentage increased till 4% in the late 1990s (Safer 2000; Safer & Krager 1989, 1994; Safer & Malever 2000; Safer et al 1996). A similar research was conducted by Jensen in which several children were interviewed to find out if they had the symptoms of ADHD or not. It was found through these interviews that only 5% of the children were suffering from the problem of ADHD and out of these 5% only 12% had access to the drugs for ADHD. Jensen pointed out that ADHD instead of being over diagnosed was being under diagnosed in the world (Jensen et al 1999). In my view ADHD is being over diagnosed because of the fact that the symptoms of the disorder come with other disorders and diseases too. At times even some experts are not able to diagnose the disorder properly. The claims by researchers regarding the over diagnosis of ADHD seem to be more convincing as it is seen that the number of children taking Ritalin are more than the statistical limits proposed by the doctors. Thus it can be concluded that over diagnosis of ADHD is prevalent and some measures should be taken to avoid this over diagnosis. Before making a diagnosis of ADHD, certain conditions should be ruled out as they share certain symptoms with ADHD. These conditions include hypothyroidism, Autism/ Asperger's syndrome, lead toxicity, mental retardation, nutritional deficiencies, food allergies, epilepsy, sensory disorders, anemia, chronic illness, substance abuse, and hearing and vision impairment. The children suffering from ADHD tend to have sleep disturbances. The conditions that result in sleep deprivation may present with typical symptoms of ADHD, such conditions must be ruled out. Owing to the overlap between the symptoms of ADHD and sleep disturbance disorders, children with ADHD must regularly be checked to make sure if the conditions coexist. ADHD is often found in association with other disorders. These co morbid conditions include learning disorder (20-25% cases), conduct disorder, depression, anxiety, and oppositional defiant disorder (Berger et al 2008). BIBLIOGRAPHY: Berger, I., Dor, T., Nevo, Y., & Goldzweig, G. (2008). Attitudes Toward Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Treatment: Parents' and Children's Perspectives. JOURNAL OF CHILD NEUROLOGY. 23 (9), 1036-1042. Southall, A. (2007). The other side of ADHD: Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder exposed and explained. Abingdon, UK: Radcliffe. LeFever, G. B., Arcona, A., & Stewart, D. (2001). Analysis of U.S. Ritalin consumption: 1997-1999. Norfolk, VA: Center for Pediatric Research Diller L (1998). Running on Ritalin: A physician reflects on children, society, and performance in a pill. New York: Bantam Books. Sinha,, G. (2001, June). New evidence about Ritalin: What every parent should know. Popular Science, 48-52. Health Care Financing Administration. (2001). National health expenditures projections: 2000-2010. Retrieved from http://www.hcfa.gov/stats/NHSProj/proj2000/default. html. Safer, D. J., & Krager, J. M. (1989). Hyperactivity and inattentiveness. School assessment of stimulant treatment. Clinical Pediatrics, 28(5), 216-221. Safer, D. J. (2000). Are stimulants overprescribed for youths with ADHD? Annals of Clinical Psychiatry, 12(1), 55-62. Safer, D. J., & Krager, J. M. (1994). The increased rate of stimulant treatment for hyperactive/inattentive students in secondary schools. Pediatrics, 94(4, pt. 1), 462-464. Safer, D. J., & Malever, M. (2000). Stimulant treatment in Maryland Public Schools. Pediatrics, 106, 553-559. Safer, D. J., Zito, J. M., & Fine, E. M. (1996). Increased methylphenidate usage for attention deficit disorder in the 1990s. Pediatrics, 98(6, pt. 1), 1084-1088. Jensen, P. S., Kettle, L., Roper, M. T., Sloan, M., Dulcan, M., Hoven, C., et al. (1999). Are stimulants overprescribed? Treatment of ADHD in four U.S. communities. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 38, 797-804. Read More