Conclusive Proof ADHD Is Overdiagnosed

This study used a sample of 35,343, children from the National Health Interview Survey and 18,559 children from the Medical Expenditures Panel Survey. Children born 1-3 months prior to the grade cutoff date were found to be 27% more likely to be diagnosed for ADHD and 24% more likely to be medicated for ADHD compared to children born 10-12 months prior to the grade cutoff data. The study does a nice job of relating its findings to the "real world" scale of the problem when it states, "To put our estimates into perspective, an excess of 2 percentage points implies that approximately 1.1 million children received an inappropriate diagnosis and over 800,000 received stimulant medication due only to relative maturity."  For additional data on these studies see here. Thanks so much, Joan. The results could not possibly be more consistent or convincing. Being the youngest kid in the class clearly puts you at great risk to be tagged with an inappropriate ADHD diagnosis and to be inappropriately treated with stimulant medication that is both unneeded and potentially harmful. We should let kids outgrow immaturity the old fashioned way by getting older, not treat it with a pill. If you are concerned about the overdiagnosis and overtreatment of ADHD, you will also be interested in several recent blogs done with Keith Conners, the world's expert on the diagnosis. On his regrets about how the diagnosis is misused.  How parents can protect kids from overtreatment. On the risks of diag...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - Category: Science Source Type: news