Prescriptions of Stimulant Medication for ADHD - Research Paper Example

Prescriptions of Stimulant Medication for ADHD Prescriptions of Stimulant Medication for ADHD Many children (and adults) are face misdiagnosis through their psychologists and other health care practitioners as particular emotional and social characteristics of gifted children are wrongly presumed to be symptoms of pathology (Cassels, 2013). Other gifted children also have a simultaneous disorder-a dual diagnosis-yet hardly ever are their giftedness regarded in treatment or educational planning (Dalsgaard, Nielsen & Simonsen, 2013). In spite of myths to the contrary, children and adults are at some mental danger (Dalsgaard, Nielsen & Simonsen, 2013). Various internal and situational issues can cause interpersonal and psychological behaviors, which afterward result in misdiagnoses, as well as inadequate treatment. The application of stimulant medicines in children and/or adults in the past 10 years has gone up 5-fold, but the increase is not only because of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), contemporary research revealed (Dalsgaard, Nielsen & Simonsen, 2013). A large, potential Danish survey reveals that stimulants are more and more being applied in treating signs of other neuropsychiatric disorders, mainly ASDs – autism spectrum disorders. The last 10 years has seen a clear and progressive raise in the prescriptions rates of medicine usually applied in treating ADHD in children and adults in Denmark (Cassels, 2013). This raise is not restricted to only people with ADHD, but incorporates others with neuropsychiatric conditions such as ASD. In view of the truth that the proof endorsing the use of stimulants to manage ASD is restricted, the surveyors call for more inquiry into the efficacy and safety of these medications in the ASD population (Cassels, 2013). According to Cassels (2013), there has been a notable global rise in stimulants prescription rates, as well as other drugs used in the treatment or healing of ADHD. The largest rise has been in a couple of regions of the United States, where there is a prescription of these medications to nearly 5% of all school-aged children. Cassels (2013) also argues that, even though the application of ADHD medication is usually lower in Europe, nations such as the Netherlands, Spain and Denmark, have face a comparable rise in prescriptions for such stimulants. Conditions such as ASD and enveloping developmental conditions in children can have some of the core signs of ADHD, including inattention, hyperactivity along with impulsivity. In a bid to alleviate such signs, practitioners are more and more utilizing these medications to cure neuropsychiatric disorders rather than ADHD (Dalsgaard, Nielsen & Simonsen, 2013). In what researchers consider to be the biggest and first potential study to measure the change in the application of ADHD medications in due course, the researchers studied national registry information to assess 10-year trends in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) medication prescriptions for children and adults with ASD, ADHD, plus other psychiatric illnesses (Dalsgaard, Nielsen & Simonsen, 2013). The Danish Civil Registration System (DCRS) was applied in identifying a cohort of all children and adults born in Denmark from 1990 to 2001, together with their parents or very close caregivers (Dalsgaard, Nielsen & Simonsen, 2013). The birth group comprised of 852,711 people who were tracked from birth till death or 31st December, 2010, whichever came before the other. The scholars recognized all children with any psychiatric conditions during the study period that took 10 years (Dalsgaard, Nielsen & Simonsen, 2013). They also removed information on lifetime prescriptions of dexamphetamine, methylphenidate, as well as atomoxetine. On account of these data, they established 3 separate clusters of patients ― those with ASD (n = 9698), those with ADHD (n = 11,553), as well as those suffering from other psychiatric disorders (n = 48,468). The researchers discovered that 14% (n = 1577) of children and grownups with ASD, 59% (n = 7021) of those with ADHD, as well as 1% (n = 1537) with other psychiatric disorders, were prescribed with more than one ADHD medicine and that there was a considerable raise for all the three groups (Dalsgaard, Nielsen & Simonsen, 2013). In addition, the researchers report that from 2003 to 2010, there was a considerable raise in prescription rates for these medicines in all the three groups. Throughout this period, children aged from six to 13 years with ADHD, ASD, as well as other psychiatric disorders, had a 6.3-fold, 4.7-fold, and 5.5-fold raise, respectively, in ADHD medicine prescription rates (Cassels, 2013). Whereas some practitioners argue the rise in diagnoses is because of a rising alertness of the disorder, others consider this research adds to a rising body of proof proposing that ADHD medicines might be outpacing genuine ADHD cases (Moskowitz, 2014). Another report by Express Scripts was based on pharmacy records of almost 15 million insured individuals in the United States, including over 400,000 individuals who filled a minimum on one prescription for an ADHD medicine, the most popular of which are mainly stimulant-based medication such as Adderall and Concerta. The study found out that the number of people living in America utilizing prescription medication to treat ADHD rose 36% from 2008 to 2012. And the sum was even bigger for some clusters (Moskowitz, 2014). For females (adults) between 26 and 34 years, ADHD prescriptions rose 85% (Moskowitz, 2014). In general, prescriptions for adults went up 53%, to a projected 2.6 million people in the United States. However, the increases among children were less sheer, but that might be because the prescription rates were already much bigger (Moskowitz, 2014). In 2012, 5.7% of school-based young adults were prescribed ADHD medicine. Some subsets of that cluster have much greater rates. For example, over 9% of school-based children aged 12 to 18 years were prescribed the medication in 2012 (Moskowitz, 2014). There are numerous theories as to why these prescriptions are increasing, but most practitioners argue that the numbers reveal two unlike trends (Moskowitz, 2014). One is that attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is becoming more broadly acknowledged as a lawful diagnosis, and; hence, more individuals are being diagnosed; the other is that ADHD medicine has been overprescribed, utilized as an answer to other problems such as children’s behavioral issues in school (Moskowitz, 2014). The rising prescription rates of ADHD medicines for children with ASD have be analyzed in context of the restricted evidence for usefulness in this populace of patients. This underlines the urge for future research and analysis assessing the safety and long-standing advantages of stimulant medicines among children and adults with ASD. References Cassels, C. (2013). ADHD not sole driver of skyrocketing stimulant use in kids. Retrieved from http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/811287 Dalsgaard, S., Nielsen, H. S., & Simonsen, M. (2013). Five-fold increase in national prevalence rates of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder medications for children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and other psychiatric disorders: A Danish register-based study. Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology, 23(7), 432-439. Moskowitz, P. (2014). Some groups see steeper rise than others; prescriptions for some adult women up 85 percent in four years. Retrieved from http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/3/12/adhd-prescriptionsskyrocketinusreport.html Read More