If your child experiences discomfort from a particular medication, you can consult your physician to consider alternatives. It’s worth mentioning that there are multiple medication options for ADHD. If treatment does begin, be sure to monitor, log and report any observations, side-effects, and behavioral changes. Take the time to speak to your child and observe them carefully before rushing to a diagnosis. This entails the child’s school, family, and social situation. Understanding the child’s daily experience is also important. Other conditions such as PTSD, depression, learning disabilities, etc. It can’t be done by filling out a standardized form. Making an accurate learning disability diagnosis takes time. Ensuring Appropriate Treatment for Your Child It leads to unnecessary labeling unnecessary tests and therapies and higher healthcare costs. Screening programs that detect early symptoms, sensitive diagnostic systems, and widened definitions of diseases, all contribute to the problem of overdiagnosis. Even though the intentions are right, medical practice favors more tests and more treatments. The Problem With OverdiagnosisĪDHD Overdiagnosis is a phenomenon that plagues psychiatry and various other domains of medicine. The study also concluded that in milder cases, having an ADHD diagnosis can have more potential harm than benefit to children. Similarly, An article published in 2021 in the JAMA Network Open, looked at 334 published studies in children and adolescents and found evidence that ADHD is indeed overdiagnosed in youth. Too many are being treated with stimulants and other psychoactive medications as the sole form of treatment.” But, almost 50% of diagnosed preschoolers received no behavioral therapy. “Since 2011, the treatment guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics have recommended that preschoolers diagnosed with ADHD receive behavioral therapy first before medication. About 1 in 10 were taking dietary supplements for ADHD, which are not currently recommended for the treatment of ADHD.”.About 1 in 10 children with ADHD were receiving neither medication treatment nor behavioral therapy.about 3 in 10 (31%) were treated with combination therapy (medication and behavioral therapy).about 1 in 10 (13%) received behavioral therapy alone, and.about 4 in 10 (43%) were treated with medication - the most common single ADHD treatment,.“9 out of 10 children with ADHD were treated with medication and/or behavioral therapy, both of which are recommended ADHD treatments.The findings from the report show the following: The Journal of Pediatrics and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention have also recently reported on a very important national study on treatment interventions for ADHD across all ages. ADHD Diagnosis and Medication in the United States So it is very concerning to learn about the high number of children being given such a serious diagnosis so early in their development. Two to five year olds are very immature, are changing rapidly, and are always on the move based on developmental norms. This can bring about unintentional alterations in behavior, medicine-related side effects, and temporary neurochemical changes. The danger of the overdiagnosis and misdiagnosis of attention deficit disorder is that a child might be put on behavioral therapy and medication that’s meant for treating a condition that they might not even have. This is one of the reasons why it’s an overdiagnosed condition. Many children exhibit these common impulsive behavior characteristics because of their age and development - it’s not necessarily an indicator of having ADHD. How Are Children Getting Over Diagnosed With ADHD?Īttention-deficit-hyperactivity-disorder is one of the most overdiagnosed learning disabilities, owing to its wide envelope of generic symptoms, restlessness, hyperactivity, inattention, interrupting others, etc. To add fuel to the fire, according to the Center for Disease Control ’s most recent national parent survey it’s estimated that 9.8 % of children in the US have received a diagnosis. The article stated that an estimate of almost two hundred thousand 2-5 year olds have been diagnosed with attention-deficit-hyperactivity disorder, and that was in 2015.This statistic is shocking in itself, as currently there are no valid criteria for ADHD in children this young. Tynan (Director of Integrated Health Care, American Psychological Association Center for Psychology and Health) that really stuck with me on the stunning number of young children who are diagnosed and medicated for attention-deficit-hyperactive disorder (ADHD) in the United States. Years ago, I read a very informative article by Dr.
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