ADHD Diagnosis Among Kids Spurs Controversy

The diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) stirs controversy after some pediatricians claimed that the diagnosis criteria do a disservice to children instead of helping them.  These claims spur after the number of children with ADHD inflated in America.

In the opinion page of  The New York Times, Dimitri Christakis, a pediatrician and epidemiologist at the University of Washington - School of Medicine, said that the current diagnostic approaches are 'too black and white.' He opined that these approaches end up hurting the kids instead of addressing the problem.

Christakis said that the present diagnosis procedures largely rely on a threshold to discern pathology from normalcy in a kid's behavior. Medication or cognitive behavioral therapy is recommended for those children who fall into the pathological range for ADHD. On the other hand, those who are pronounced ADHD free are given no accommodations.

These diagnosis approaches, according to Christakis, result to over-medication for those children who are under the ADHD pathological range. Meanwhile, those kids who fell short of the diagnosis were not given proper support.

In the same section of Times, Tanya E. Froehlich, a behavioral pediatrics at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, opposes to Christakis' claims. She said that the diagnosis is the key to helping kids with ADHD.   

She stressed that according to scientific evidence, ADHD correlates with dire health and well-being consequences. These can be alleviated with treatment, and treatment would be very difficult without the diagnosis.

Froehlich, however, acknowledged that the critics of ADHD diagnosis are also making some valid points. She said that ADHD diagnosis should not merely be a matter of parents backing up a certain number of ADHD-related symptoms on a rating scale at a certain period of time.

She further pointed out that it is the job of the clinicians to rule out the many other diagnoses and circumstances that can generate symptoms that are similar to ADHD. According to her, these could be done by interviewing the family members, collecting information from the school, and conducting a physical examination to rule out ADHD-like symptoms.

History News Network reported that the number of individuals who suffer ADHD has skyrocketed to 30 percent in the last 10 years.