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ADHD Could Be Misdiagnosed In Nearly 1 Million US Kids Say Researchers

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posted on Aug, 18 2010 @ 08:36 AM
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ADHD Could Be Misdiagnosed In Nearly 1 Million US Kids Say Researchers


www.medicalnewstoday.com

Two studies published recently suggest there could be something wrong with the way ADHD is diagnosed

with the youngest in class twice as likely to be on stimulant medication, while the other study confirmed that whether children were born just before or just after the kindergarten cutoff date significantly affected their chances of being diagnosed with ADHD.

about 320 to 500 million US dollars is being wasted on unnecessary medication of young children for ADHD, of which 80 to 90 million i
(visit the link for the full news article)



posted on Aug, 18 2010 @ 08:36 AM
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Even if it has nothing to do with the cutoff date all these prescriptions for Ritalin and other such pills are horrible. Giving that to a 5-7yr old is crazyyyy...
Behavior modifying drugs when your only haflway from being a teen?


North America is addicted to prescription drugs, while in other countries they just deal with it. Maybe a student just gets more attention in other countries while here they get drugged.

We are getting lazy as a society, this is basically outsourcing the duties of a teacher to big pharma.


"Many ADHD diagnoses may be driven by teachers' perceptions of poor behavior among the youngest children in a kindergarten classroom," said Elder, but the "symptoms" that teachers perceive may "merely reflect emotional or intellectual immaturity among the youngest students".


I wouldn't be surprised, I am sorry to say I am not too impressed with our teachers.

www.medicalnewstoday.com
(visit the link for the full news article)



posted on Aug, 18 2010 @ 08:40 AM
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My mom took me to UofM when I was 5 and they diagnosed me with ADHD.
I took meds for a good portion of my younger years. I finally stopped taking them in my teens, because I did not like how they made me feel...

Shoot, where was I going with this.... If I remember I will be back....


I remember where I was going with this... Shoot lost it again! BBL

Oh I remember I was saying.....Damn lost it...hey wanna go ride bikes?

[edit on 18-8-2010 by Mobius1974]



posted on Aug, 18 2010 @ 08:55 AM
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I used to be radically opposed to diagnoses of ADHD etc. - but I have changed my thinking. I know there's something terribly wrong with people (and kids) today - our bodies and minds are being altered by things beyond our control, and it's hurting us. ...So now I'm just opposed to medicating kids and adults - with Ritalin or most anything else.

I do agree with ModernAcademia's statement:




this is basically outsourcing the duties of a teacher to big pharma.




...and setting people up to believe life requires daily medication.

Maybe we should all look at making different changes - and leave our naturally evolving human chemistry alone?

Just a thought.


S&F of course.



[edit on 18-8-2010 by soficrow]



posted on Aug, 18 2010 @ 09:06 AM
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www.whale.to...

toxic psychiatry by Breggin is a great read.
It will make you ill to read.



posted on Aug, 18 2010 @ 09:08 AM
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I mentored a 12 year old nephew for a year, a real problem child.
Funny, he talked like an adult, we hunted, and fished, he scored his share of fish and rabbits, and targets and cans, progressed on the guitar to playing whole songs, kicked my ass regularly at Halo...he read books.
I never "told him" what to do, or think.
He did not want to take his pills.

With his parents...he had older brothers who made much less sense then he did...and who were very jealous of his last child at home status...
and behaved as such.

His behavior with them or his parents or teachers didn't change....

My diagnosis is "too much kid for the box he is being kept in."
When I see him these days, as long as he is separate from the family/authority behavior he is fine...

my observation:
Really bright young people have more input due to the interned and TV and liberalization of the media in general then ever.
adults and schools don't always keep up to the data flow.
hormones are affecting children too, and at younger ages.

Adults are responsible for staying on top of things by default and most CAN'T. This is by design, part of the destruction of the family.
The Orwellian breakdown and control and shaping of society by stooges.

This is why home schoolers consistently out score all of the other educational systems. which of course the system frowns on severely.
and because there is no comprehensive track for these types, it is bound to result in problems fitting in.

Diet, exercise, a proper curriculum, decent company, activities,
and tolerance, and patient guidance, are the answer.

Putting these kids on drugs is a crime, and the people who facilitate this are no different or better then drug dealers...
Except that far worse, they are the system,
and the system does not want the problem to be solved.





[edit on 18-8-2010 by Danbones]



posted on Aug, 18 2010 @ 09:16 AM
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lol, they're just now figuring this out?

It's NEVER the parents fault. Their child is PERFECT and the most intelligent human being in the WORLD....no no, not the child, not the parent, It's always ADHD.

And doctors are all too willing to sell off some greedy asshole corporate sponsors drug to treat it.



posted on Aug, 18 2010 @ 09:21 AM
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I think Huey Lewis has it correct .www.youtube.com...



posted on Aug, 18 2010 @ 09:22 AM
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I realized this was a SHAM when they tried to diagnose every boy in my son's first-grade class (not just one classroom, but the entire first-grade population in the school) with ADHD 15 years ago. If the parents had never accidentally talked we never would have found out that everyone got the "letter" and the "talk."

This more has to do with drug pushing schools and physicians, developmental age, even diet than an actual mental issue. Parents really need to stay on top of this stuff and use their common sense and logic and question, question, question.



posted on Aug, 18 2010 @ 09:32 AM
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i agree with you to an extent. you are a terrible parent if you give your young child methamphetamine. and yeah it is made in some laboratory and a pharm company produces it but at the end of the day it is still a powerful stimulant. there isn't a large market for obtaining this drug illegally for no reason, so how are you gonna give it to your kid? might as well give them a shot of jack daniels and let them hit a couple lines of blow before school with this logic.



posted on Aug, 18 2010 @ 09:39 AM
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reply to post by 2weird2live2rare2die
 


Ritalin acts in the same way on the brain
as coc aine.



posted on Aug, 18 2010 @ 09:39 AM
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I absolutely agree. ADD and ADHD are sorely misunderstood and overdiagnosed. I know somebody who genuinely has ADHD - not a child, an adult - and it's no joke. If you really have it then you seriously have trouble focusing on something for more than a few minutes. The problem is that it is often confused with being easily distracted. All the younger generations are easily distracted to some degree! But if they feel genuinely compelled to focus on something, or have a conversation, they can do it.

If you have ADHD you can't. You could be at your best friend's wedding and swear an oath on your mother's grave to stay focused, but you won't. It's a very real psychological issue. But when I see all these people who claim they have it just because they're addicted to TV and video games, I have to shake my head.

P.S. I imagine that part of the problem is when parents get frustrated with their child not paying attention, and their soccer-mom friend tells them, "Oh, maybe he has ADHD! I know a kid with ADHD, blah blah blah..." So then the parents go to a doctor and demand that their kid has ADHD, and the doctor doesn't know how to diagnose it properly and ends up just agreeing with them.

[edit on 18-8-2010 by Magnus47]



posted on Aug, 18 2010 @ 09:54 AM
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ADHD (and ADD) is in fact the wrong term for this diagnosis for many reasons. Get them to do school work and they won't concentrate; show them a PS3 game and their concentration levels go beyond "normality". These kids are generally very intelligent, many may not all be a genious but most do have above average IQs. Teachers do tend to underestimate these kids greatly. Normal classes for these kids don't generally work, they are either over stimulated or under stimulated.

1. How many of these kids have in fact had EEG, MRI, PET and SPECT imaging? A majority have'nt had even one of these tests and without these tests, it's pretty damn irresponsible medicating kids without having any imaging done.

2. I am sure ADHD/ADD is under diagnosed AND over diagnosed.



posted on Aug, 18 2010 @ 09:57 AM
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reply to post by 2weird2live2rare2die
 


You're talking about Ritalin. The Germans invented the drug and it was first used on the German soldiers at the front line in WW2 to keep them awake for days on end.



posted on Aug, 18 2010 @ 09:59 AM
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In grade one apparently i was diagnosed with ADD. a specialist was brought in for a couple of weeks just to observe my behavior. She told my mother that i should be taking medication for ADD because i was swinging my arms (probably in boredom) when we would stand and wait for the national anthem to be over.

I am so glad my mother got mad and turned it down. i turned out fine and and a much more calm and relaxed person than most. I cant imagine how i would be if i took the medication. I believe it really slows you down mentally like anti depressants.



posted on Aug, 18 2010 @ 10:05 AM
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My brother - way back in the 80s - during his elementary school years was told by teachers he had ADD - do not think ADHD was a term back then.

The teachers told my parents to get him on medication immediately so he could stay in class. They took him to doctors to see if there was a medical condition to him not "behaving" in class.

To make a long story short, he was bored and acting out. Flat out bored. He would finish his work in class and have nothing to do. What do bored kids do? Act out. After many conferences between my parents and teachers, they placed him in an advanced class. From then on out, he took advanced classes and never once had another behavioral issue. He graduated high school early and is super successful (business wise) in his life now.

Someone I know has a child who was diagnosed with ADHD. If you look at how this child eats - no wonder. Junk food galore. Sodas, sweets anytime they want it. No moderation at all. No wonder the child at 5 is so fat, the size of a 10yr old (she is wearing a bra!) and is hyperactive and has continual behavior problems. She has zero discipline at home and most pictures I see of this child are of her eating a bag of chips in front of the TV
I have no issues with junk food and TV - but there must be moderation. So because of all this, the child gets labeled with ADHD and is being put on medication - AT SIX!

I personally believe kids are over diagnosed and put on meds rather than parents making a lifestyle change ie: change of food and add lots of physical activity to their life. Im sure some kids have some physical issues going on, but I believe lifestyle changes should be the first thing a parent does before medication.


[edit on August 18th 2010 by greeneyedleo]



posted on Aug, 18 2010 @ 10:09 AM
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It wasn't school that said i had ADD it was a doctor after i got in trouble at school for doing something very bad ,and for the longest time the schools didn't even now i had ADD and was on meds till i told them. I don't take pills any more for my so called ADD even though i have trouble focusing a lot of the time cant finish most of anything and have trouble reading very long lengths of writing. Ill never take pills for it again made cause they made me feel like a zombie, i don't like the feeling that i can pay attention to every lil detail on them.



posted on Aug, 18 2010 @ 10:11 AM
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reply to post by greeneyedleo
 


Teachers are not specialists (ie: developmental paediatricians) in the field of ADD/ADHD and other biological disorders. In fact even most mainstream GPs (family doctors) don't have the skill or know how to properly diagnose these kids. They MUST first have a neuro-scan and if nothing shows up on any of the imaging then diet and environment needs to be thoroughly looked in to.



posted on Aug, 18 2010 @ 10:16 AM
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Originally posted by bluemirage5
reply to post by greeneyedleo
 


Teachers are not specialists (ie: developmental paediatricians) in the field of ADD/ADHD and other biological disorders. In fact even most mainstream GPs (family doctors) don't have the skill or know how to properly diagnose these kids. They MUST first have a neuro-scan and if nothing shows up on any of the imaging then diet and environment needs to be thoroughly looked in to.


Yes, I agree they are not. Let me clarify. It was not just the teachers. It was the school RN.

Unfortunately, the first initial reaction is to put a kid on drugs or even just send them to a doctor to be poked and probbed. When the first reaction should be look at diet and environment. Even a crappy home environment (parents always fighting or abuse, etc) can cause a child to have issues that appear to be like ADD/ADHD. That is a sad reality of adults having kids. Kids often suffer at the hand of issues between the adults.

If diet and environment is looked at and modified - and there are STILL issues, then IMO, that is when further medical professional diagnosis should be done.

But if a child is acting out or seems distracted or whatever - I just do not think putting a kid thru a serious of medical tests should be the first repsonse.

Just my opinion.


[edit on August 18th 2010 by greeneyedleo]



posted on Aug, 18 2010 @ 10:17 AM
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I read this story on a nursing home blog the other day.

.."i am a 88 year old man and am diagnosed two years ago with ADHD. The Dr. put me on Ritalin. I have had rendezvous with all the sleepless women residents in this facility since then, it is the greatest stuff there is."



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