Health Care

By David Rossy

The diagnosis and treatment of ADHD is such that many people have to find the methods and medications that worked for them on their own. Often the biggest experts in attention deficit disorders are the sufferers themselves - but why should this be?

Unfortunately this disorder is difficult to diagnose and many leading medical authorities still cannot agree on a reliable method of testing for ADHD - never mind agreeing on suitable treatments!

There are two sides to the attention deficit disorder story. On the one hand many children ( and some adults) have been labelled as outcasts, freaks, truants, annoying, hyperactive, class jokers, and in general, badly behaved and unruly. When in fact they are suffering from attention deficit disorders. On the other hand we have many children in the USA today on prescription Ritalin ( a common adhd treatment drug) when in fact there is little likelihood of any attention disorder affecting them. Some junior schools are reporting almost 60% of some classes are on prescription medication for ADHD - we know from statistics that it is unlikely ( to say the least) that these children are all suffering from a genuine clinical attention disorder.

One of the reasons for this diagnosis/misdiagnosis problem is the fact that most (if not all) of the classic symptoms of ADHD are present in all children at some point in their development, for instance bad behaviour and lack of interest in school and activities is a major symptom of ADHD - how many children do you know that have never suffered from these symptoms?

The lists of typical problems and symptoms go on and on. In fact, for the usual ADHD sufferer is afflicted with many symptoms or maladies at any given time. They interrupt; blurt; intrude; have problems with social interaction and organization/timekeeping; are impatient, cant sit still or relax, are irritable, impulsive, hyperactive, and defiant of authority.

So the main difference between genuine sufferers of ADHD and other children who simply suffer from "growing up" seem to be the number and severity of the symptoms - not the actual symptoms themselves. Unfortunately many parents now assume ADHD (or occasionally autism) at the first sign of trouble and pressure their doctors into prescribing medication. While at the same time many children with ADHD are simply labelled as "bad" or "naughty" so are denied treatment.

Once ADHD is identified, there are many treatments, however, the two most used treatments by far are:-

Amphetamines: Ironically, even though a child with ADHD is normally hyperactive and speedy already, giving him or her amphetamines(speed) as an ADHD treatment has the opposite effect. Scientists are not sure exactly how it works, but it helps ADHD sufferers to focus, organize, pay attention, and generally perform well socially and academically.

Ritalin: Ritalin is the grand daddy of ADHD treatment drugs, again working again in ways the scientists cannot exactly understand but apparently in a very similar way to amphetamine usage. Ritalin is also still debated over constantly, especially with regards to children. Do we simply drug children who misbehave?