The Effects on the over Diagnoses of Attention- Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder

Nikki Seals

ENG-105

Professor Tennille Feldbush

July 6, 2016

The Effects on the Over Diagnoses of Attention- Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

Recently there has been a spike in diagnoses of Attention-Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), but there are some people who think that it is all just crazy talk. “To start, the information on ADHD rates came from parents reporting on the diagnosis for their children during telephone interviews” (Park, 2013, para.5). So in other words parents are doing the diagnoses and the doctors are writing the prescriptions; are these prescriptions the best thing for the children though? The recent increase in diagnoses of ADHD is becoming a crutch for the children, causing them to be pumped full of drugs, and resulting in kids that are getting long term side effects.

"The symptoms have to occur every day for a long period of time, and, more importantly, these symptoms have to lead to major disruption or impairment in at least two areas of a person's life, such as at school or in relationships” (Hughes, 2016, para.8). While most of the time this is not the case. Every time a kid acts out the slightest bit or have more energy than normal, parents want to claim their child has a disorder; this is slowly becoming a crutch for those children. The disorder is being used as an excuse for children to behave the way they do ‘because they have a disorder’. The children know that they can behave the way they wish because they have been diagnosed with ADHD, and they will eventually get medicine ‘to make it better’, these kids could make it better themselves if they would not use the disorder as a crutch; then they would not have to rely on medication to fix them.

The increase in diagnoses of ADHD means the increase of medication to help with the disorder. These medications are not all that they are supposed to be; the two most common types of medicine that children with ADHD are prescribed are: Adderall and Ritalin. While these medications may be helping with paying attention and calming people with ADHD, they still have serious side effects that could cause long terms problems. “Clinicians and parents of children being treated with stimulant medication for ADHD should be aware that stimulant medication may cause disruption of sleep/circadian rhythms” (Ironside, Davidson, & Corkum, 2010, pg. 550). This is just one of the short-term effects, there are more severe long- term effects.

The medicine that these children that are being diagnosed with ADHD are being pumped with are going to have to deal with the long- term effects for the rest of their life; while some of these may have been prevented, if not a recent increase in over diagnoses of ADHD. “Children and adolescents with ADHD treated with central stimulants (CS) often have growth deficits, but the implications of such treatment for final height and stature remain unclear” (Powell, Frydenberg, & Thomsen, 2015, pg.1). They go on further to discuss how children who are given these drugs do not fully develop physically or mentally.  Studies were conducted, and the results showed all the negativity that comes from children who are prescribed medication for ADHD. “CS treatment was associated with (1) a relative reduction in body weight and a temporary halt in growth, (2) a weight and height lag after 72 months compared with relative baseline value” (Powell, Frydenberg, & Thomsen, 2015, pg. 8).