Detection of Feigned ADHD in College Students - Article Example

 Detection of Feigned ADHD in College Students Due to the interference that learning disabilities presents to students in postsecondary education, students have been prompted to seek a diagnosis of a potential learning disorder, such as Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder. However, it has been discovered that many college students have begun to feign symptoms related to learning disabilities to abuse the treatment they could get. Such treatment includes stimulatory medication and the benefits under the Individuals with Disabilities Act. Under the Act, people with learning disabilities would be entitled to more time to write papers and finish tests, special environments, a decrease in the amount of homework they are assigned, and recordings of lectures. The medications used in the treatment process are often misused to help with school performance or used as recreational drugs. Students feign learning disabilities to be entitled to all of these resources. A nationwide increase in the amount of prescriptions given for learning disabilities has been noted; it has also been determined that the measures currently in use to diagnose learning disabilities are easy for students to deceive. As such, the purpose of this study is to create or improve additional measures that would help determine feigners of learning disabilities among the college population. Eighty undergraduate students were chosen for the study from the University of Kentucky. Two groups were picked by means of a psychology screening, with one group not having a history of Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder and the second group having a history of the learning disorder. These students needed to have undergone real diagnostic screenings to determine their Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder; if students were diagnosed after brief medical visits or a symptoms report, they were dismissed from the study. Of the students, three groups were formed: an honest-responding ADHD group, a normal honest-responding group, and a normal feigning group. Of the eighty students, seven were dismissed for problems that would clash with the study. Various tests and questionnaires were undergone to determine the validity of the answers between each of the three groups. For the normal feigning group, they were instructed to be deceitful on a test that would help diagnose ADHD. The honest-responding ADHD group were instructed to do the questionnaires to the best of their ability after being taken temporarily off of their medication treatment. The normal honest-responding group was split up between the honest-responding ADHD group and the normal feigning group. Various procedures were used throughout the study. Self-report inventories were distributed, giving participants the opportunity to check off symptoms that they felt they displayed in relation to Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder. Neuropsychological measures were undergone that detected impulsivity and inattention related to ADHD. A psychiatric feigning measure was undertaken, which was a self-report inventory used to screen for psychiatric symptoms; though it is capable of finding real cases of ADHD, its main purpose was to find feigned mental illnesses. Symptom validity measures were also done with the purpose of differentiating between people with honest mental illnesses and people that were feigning. The findings of the study showed that the self-reports were easily feigned, though the tests were not successful in detecting feigned symptoms in comparison to the honest-responding ADHD group. The neuropsychological tests were better at detecting feigned results, but no significant differences were found between any of the groups with an exception of lower scores being found in the normal honest-responding group. The performance test showed significant results in regard to not detecting the feigning of answers, but the psychiatric feigning and symptom validity testing was sensitive in differentiating between feigned and honest responses. The greatest finding of the study showed that a large portion of adults, especially those in postsecondary education, are prone to responding inaccurately to diagnostic tests for Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder to abuse the treatment options. This is in accordance with the previous studies and theories mentioned in the introduction, which claimed roughly the same concept. Researchers set out to determine how easily people could deceive the diagnostic tests and if the results of the tests could be interpreted well enough to know if somebody was feigning their symptoms and their answers. The results concluded that a significant amount of people were able to successfully feign their answers, showing the weakness of many of the diagnostic measures. Two limitations existed in the study, with the first limitation being that the population of the study was not consistent in the sense that there would need to be cross-validating of other students based on geographical and university settings, as well as contrasting student bodies. The second limitation was that some of the participants may have had limited impairment due to their condition associated with their disorder, while other participants might have feigned their symptoms to receive the treatments of the study. Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder has been proven to be one of the easiest disorders to feign. The symptoms are easy to replicate, and people make use of this to receive the special treatment that comes with having the learning disability. It is understandable that people, mainly those within colleges, would want to have some of these medications to help concentrate when it comes to schoolwork; indeed, many students take medication that has not been prescribed to them before and during testing to help with their performance. It is equally understandable how appealing the resources are within the Individuals with Disabilities Act, chiefly in regard to being given more time to finish papers and tests. Being wrongfully, or even rightfully, diagnosed with ADHD would be nothing short of a blessing for stressed out college students. However, the medication can be addicting, causing people to misuse it as a recreational drug. Also, people truly with ADHD may be denied treatment based on the capability of easily feigning symptoms of the disorder. If better tests and measures are not designed to weed out people that are feigning a learning disability, diagnoses will become more questionable in their results, possibly causing negative repercussions for people that really do need the help. References Sollman, M., Ranseen, J., & Berry, D. (2010). Detection of Feigned ADHD in College Students. Psychological Assessment, 22(2), 325-335. Read More