Is ADHD An 'Overdiagnosed' Disorder? Why Determining Child's Age Is Vital To Diagnosis

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, or ADHD, is a widely prevalent medical condition in the United States and affects countless of children each year. Even though research has not been able to discover the cause of this disease yet, it has now surfaced that a child's date of birth can affect the probability of getting ADHD.

Experts disclosed that ADHD's risk factor could be related to the date when the child is born. A group of researchers from Curtin University, Australia, carried out a study among 311,384 school children to analyze the relation between birth date and the risk of getting ADHD. The results indicated that the youngest children in the class had higher chances of getting ADHD treatment than their older classmates.

If one gets into the specifics, then children born in June are twice as likely to receive medication than those born in previous July. The Telegraph reported that these recent findings have led scientists to draw the conclusion that ADHD is an overdiagnosed disorder.

ADHD is a brain disorder which interrupts the daily functioning in young children. The disease mainly includes hyperactivity, impulsiveness and inattention. It mostly affects children and teenagers from 4 to 17 years.

Until any confirmed reasons for this condition can be found, scientists have underscored the risk factors related to it, informed Medical News Today. Scientists have learned that males are twice as likely than females to develop ADHD, thus experts believe the disorder is much more common in boys.

Apart from gender, experts have also identified the risk factors to ADHD development. These include brain injuries, alcohol or tobacco consumption during pregnancy, low weight at birth and genetics.

Gestational exposure to a few environmental toxins is also another factor that can also increase the chance of being diagnosed with ADHD. This notion, however, is not as common as the other factors.