Toledo 1 Jada Toledo Prof. S.

Lago English 1100 ADHD in America This seems to be something plaguing elementary schools all over the United States. Teachers are beginning to notice it more than ever, and they want the best for the students as, do their parents and physicians. Its simple, when we see something wrong we fix it, right? But what if there was nothing wrong at all? What if by trying to fix something thats not broken, we really unknowingly tainted it. What if the very thing you thought would help your child ended up hurting them more than anything else? This is a common problem for children with ADHD, and their parents. School age children in America are the highest concentration of individuals with ADHD, and are also the most misdiagnosed. Parents tend to assume their child has ADHD because their child has a short attention span, or cannot sit still for very long, but these are common traits of young children. Alice Park, of TIME, reports that in a survey conducted by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a whopping 11% of school age children were reported to have ADHD; Thats about 1 in 10 children. But health/school record based data shows us a smaller number, 7.5% of children are said to have a clinical diagnosis of ADHD by a licensed mental health care professional (Park). Thats a 4.5% drop from self-reported figures. The figures reported by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) in the DSM-V diagnostic and statistical manual of mental diseases: Edition Five were even smaller.

Toledo 2 Only about 5% of children were reported to have ADHD, (DSM-V) so whos diagnosing these children? Teachers, and daycare staff often make superficial assessments of a childs behavior, and make inappropriate and unofficial diagnoses of ADHD and suggestions of medication to the parents of young rowdy children. This puts parents in a difficult situation. They end up relaying messages from the teachers (who are not usually trained to diagnose a behavioral disorder like ADHD) to the family doctor or pediatrician and back, hoping to get a prescription for a stimulant ADHD managing drug, such as Adderall, Ritalin, or Concerta, to name a few. Many times, without an in-depth ADHD assessment by a mental health care provider, the child is being misdiagnosed, and mistreated. (Park) [P]ediatricians and primary care physicians tell me they dont want to be diagnosing ADHD as often as they are, and they dont want to be [prescribing] medications as often as they are, but they dont have many other options available. Says Dr. William Barbaresi (Park). Insurance companies often dont pay for a psychiatric evaluation, making it harder for parents to pay for the help their child needs and for mental health care providers to administer anything besides a prescription. Writing out the name of a medication is a lot easier, cheaper, and timeefficient than the process of evaluating the child, counseling them, and trying to set up a cohesive effort with themselves, the parents, and the teachers; which could ultimately fail anyway. Its a set up for inappropriate decisions to be made, notes Barbaresi in Parks article.

Toledo 3 These prescriptions come at a price. Side effects of overmedication are similar to those of a drug addict. Many of the stimulant medications used to control ADHD are closely related to common street drugs like cocaine, and crystal meth. Children are the ones losing the most with the increased risk of early hypertension, experiencing rapid weight loss, developing heart murmurs, and in extreme cases; having seizures and heart attacks have been reported. Stimulant medications should be used as a last resort, not the be-all end-all solution its thought to be, today. If you wouldnt condone a child using street drugs, you shouldnt have your child using stimulant medications to manage ADHD without exploring other options for treatment before hand. Biologically, ADHD is simply lower levels of Dopamine, a neurotransmitter found in our brains. (Carver) In addition to stimulant medications, there are natural ways to make up for a childs lack of Dopamine. These include regular exercise, more sleep, and revamping their diet to include more foods that include tyrosine, the precursor to dopamine which, when metabolized, turns into dopamine (Muedin). Stimulant medications decrease appetite, making children eat less of the foods they should and making them miss out on key nutrients needed for development, and they can also can lead to insomnia. These both are crucial to development and must not be overlooked. Only about 10 percent of children diagnosed with ADHD actually need medication, the rest can perform just as well, if not better, with counseling, school adjustments, and/or a tutor. (Landau) The rate of diagnosed cases of ADHD skyrocketed in the 1990s, which is just around the time that the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act initially

Toledo 4 recognized ADHD as a disability, making it possible for those with the condition to receive school accommodations, and Congress changed the Medicare guidelines, making medication easier to pay for. By making it easy for people to pay for medication, those who had little time and money had no other choice but to use medication instead of costly and timely therapy or counseling. The pharmaceutical industry may also played a big role in the over treatment of ADHD. The production quotas for stimulant medications such as Adderall, Ritalin, and Concerta have risen more than 50%. Rising production rates are cited as proof of stimulant over prescribing by physicians, and indirect evidence of the overdiagnosis of ADHD among children. (Connor) There is almost an over abundance of these drugs. When children who dont need the medication have access to it, they sometimes begin to sell it to friends and acquaintances. We also have the budget tightening of our school systems to blame. The teachers who are needed to help the kids with ADHD are underfunded and overworked. Classes are getting bigger and resources are diminishing. Landau states that Morales had one class with thirty-seven students, which include at least four with ADHD, and one with Aspergers syndrome. The teachers whose job it is to provide extra help to those kids get responsibility for more students, leaving them less time for each one. (Landau) Truly what plagues elementary schools around the United States is the over diagnosis and overmedication of ADHD, and not the disorder itself. We have taken something so minute and made it into a widespread epidemic. Far too many children are being treated for a disorder they truly may or may not have.

Toledo 5 Works Cited Hartnett, D. N., Jason M. Nelson, and Anne N. Rinn. "Gifted Or ADHD? The Possibilities of Misdiagnosis." Roeper Review 26.2 (2004): 73-6. ProQuest. Web. 7 Nov. 2013

Connor, Daniel F., M.D. "Problems of Over diagnosis and Overprescribing in ADHD." Psychiatric Times 28.8 (2011): 14-8. ProQuest.Web. 7 Nov. 2013.

American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders V DSM-v. Washington DC: APPI, 2013. Hardcover.

Joseph M. Carver, Ph.D. "Attention-DeficitHyperactivity Disorder(ADHD)." http://www.drjoecarver.com/. 12 Dec 2013.

Elizabeth Landau. "ADHD: who makes the diagnosis?." CNN.com. 11 Aug 2013. CNN. 12 Dec 2013.. <http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/08/11/adhd.medication.schools/>.

Alice Park. "Understanding the Rise in ADHD Diagnoses: 11% of U.S. Children Are Affected TIME.com 2 April 2013. TIME. Dec 16 2013. <http://healthland.time.com/2013/04/02/understanding-the-rise-in-adhddiagnoses-11-of-u-s-children-are-affected/>.

Toledo 6 Leyla Muedin. "Attention deficit/ hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)." Dr. Ronald Hoffman. N/A. Google. 10 Dec 2013. <http://www.drhoffman.com/sitemap.cfm>.