Half of kids with ADHD are not being treated

"However, as one who volunteers at an elementary school, there are often complaints about kids who seem basically normal to me but who are on drugs for ADHD. This has led me to wonder why the drugs are being prescribed: to benefit the child or mollify the teacher?"

Hmm, maybe they seem "normal" because they are on the medication though? Who knows what they are like when they are off their meds for a long time.

I do think ADHD medication is over-prescribed and things like more exercise, not sitting at a desk all day, proper nutrition, etc can help but I also know there are some kids who need the medication to function well at school. There is a balance between not medicating all children unnecessarily while medication the children for whom it is a necessity. I just wish there were enough sensitive doctors to fulfill that balance.

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I have always felt, fairly or not, that it seems easier for parents to medicate their children than to get to the root of the 'problem'. I personally don't even really believe in ADHD and ADD though it may be only because it seems to be a trendy over-used diagnosis. Just my 2 cents.

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I used to be an elementary school teacher and felt strongly that it wasn't my place to recommend that a child be medicated. Why? because it happened to me when my son was in 2nd grade. I was a student at the time, finishing my degree in Psychology and Education, and felt that some minor modifications to the way my son's behavior was being handled would work...which they did. Although he was very talkative and did not like sitting down for much of the day, he had no other issues academically or behaviorally. Once he hit 4th grade, he was much more calm and controlled as far as those behaviors went. He is now 17 and I wish I could get him to MOVE!!!! He is a teenage sloth at times!
So I decided that once I started teaching, I would of course voice my concerns about a child's behavior/ability to focus,etc, but NEVER did I say to the parent that I thought their child needed medication. I would refer them to someone who could make that judgement with all the relevant information neccessary. That is clearly the physician/neurologist/psychologist's area of expertise, not mine. Yes, there are some children who benefit greatly, I have seen the difference with my own eyes. I think careful evaluation is important- it's not just a matter of anecdotal observation making a diagnosis. Even so, many parents WONT medicate for whatever reason.

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I believe in proper diagnosis and treatment of ADHD and all the other childhood problems. The list grows longer the more we learn.

I'm reluctant to leave that decision to the schools or to a doctor who will rubberstamp anything the school wants to do.

Medication can be invaluable in the treatment of these disorders. (Is that the correct word? If not I apologize.) It should never be used to control an active, possibly bored child in an overcrowded classroom.

We've wondered about our youngest. She seems to be on the borderline but hasn't been diagnosed as ADHD. She also seems to be outgrowing the lack of focus (in some areas) and behavior problems that characterized her as a younger child.

So far, no medication for her but I'm not completely resistant to the idea. We'll see what middle school brings and then have her evaluated again.

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My 7-year-old's pediatrician diagnosed him with ADHD, despite the fact that my son doesn't meet the DSM-IV criteria for ADHD.

Naturally, the doctor added that "we're" not going to medicate him "at this point," but it is an option in the future.

I informed him that "we" weren't going to do anything, because "I" was going to find a different pediatrician.

Sure, more kids would benefit from ADHD drugs. Just as more parents would benefit from a martini every morning. Doesn't mean it's a good idea.

To me, it seems like instead of teaching our kids how to live with their problems/difficulties, we're giving them drugs to mask those problems.

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I feel that ADD/ADHD is absolutely an over-used diagnosis for children who may only be bored or have a lot of energy. But it is also a legitimate disorder as well. Parents and doctors need to spend more time trying to correctly diagnose the child, rather than just jumping immediately to the ADD/ADHD diagnosis. I think it is best to not give children any more medication than medically necessary while they are developing. I feel that the decision to give them medication for ADD/ADHD should be based on the effect that the disorder has on the child's learning experience, rather than on their behavior. A child shouldn't be drugged up to make it easier on the outside world, but rather to make it easier for the child to function and succeed. If a child is hyperactive, but can function and succeed in school, then medication shouldn't come into the picture, just use behavioral techniques to help the child control their impulses.
I was diagnosed at 23 years old with ADD. Before my doctor mentioned it as a possibility, it had never cross either my or my parents' minds, because I was never really hyperactive. I always thought that everyone had the same amount of trouble paying attention that I did or that they just had more willpower than me to actually sit still and do their homework or study. And my parents just thought that I was a daydreamer and had a bad temper as a child and that I was a typical teenager that didn't listen to anything that they said to me and a procrastinator (when in reality, I would hear them speaking, but when there was another sound going on in the room (tv, music, etc.), I didn't retain anything that they said...I truly am a procrastinator though).
But once the diagnosis is reached, a decision must be made on a person to person basis. For some children (and adults) medication will only make them a zombie. Some children just need some help learning the skills of how to study and pay attention more efficiently (when I was a child I went to Sylvan Learning Center...no one understood why I was smart, but couldn't get good grades...the study skills I learned there got me through middle school through college with much better grades).Getting the diagnosis makes a HUGE difference though. Once you have a diagnosis, then something can be done about it. Now knowing that things have to be a approached in a different way and that special techniques will have to be found to help increase the person's focus, takes away half of the problem. Before it may have been thought that the child was just a problem child or that they are acting that way on purpose and that they would grow out of it and nothing different needed to be done to help them or that they are just stupid, when in reality they may really want to behave better and do better in school, but they just can't control their impulses and need some help. A lot of times their frustration with their lack of control just makes them act worse or resent school because they don't know why they are having so much trouble and it is easier to push it all away than to try to fight what they feel is a losing battle.
The problem with medication is that as time goes by, your body becomes accustomed to it and you need higher and higher doses (or to switch medications) to get any effects at all. I just recently had to go to my doctor to get a higher dose, but even with the higher dose, it doesn't have the same effect that it had when I first started taking medication. It has enough of an effect by at least making me not feel so sleep as I used to during the day, that I will continue taking it for now. But even in the three and a half years that I have been on medication, the helpful effects of the medication are almost completely gone for me. So imagine what it would be like for a child that might start on medication at 6 or 7 years old and would probably take it at least through high school. They would have to change doses and medications many times over those years and the dose and medication changes can be very hard to acclimate to. After you have the medication and know what it can do for you, it is very painful when you get to a point where it doesn't help anymore. You now know how much clearer and easier things can be and then it is taken away from you. Sometimes it would almost have been easier to have never been on the medication and known anything other than what things were like before, because before the medication you would have found all of your ways of compensating. If I could go back, I would have never accepted the medication. I would have just worked harder on to find new techniques to help me focus and control my impulses.

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Didnn't it ever occur to you that the children you deemed "normal" (and if you don't have a medical license in psychopharmacology you have no business even questioning a child's 'mormality') are better behaved at school because they are on meds during school hours? This isn't rocket science, it's OBVIOUS. The reason many parents such as myself choose to use meds on their ADHD kid is so that they can sit down and focus at school. I find that my adhd child is unable to learn without meds because his mind is flying at warp speed, he can't sit still, and he talks nonstop. He's tons of fun in a classroom unmedicated.

ADHD medication lasts a very short time in the body. Depending upon what med is used, they last from 3 to 8 hours, tops. Which means that their parents, the people who have to be responsible for their children's behavior both in and out of school, get the non-medicated kid. They know full well what their child is like without medications. You don't. You're a volunteer in a program and it is none of your business to comment upon, never mind in such a public forum where the parents of the children you work with could easily be reading, about your uninformed opinions with regards to medications and ADHD.

School officials, even down to the lowly volunteer, have NO RIGHT and NO RESPONSIBILITY to define a child's neurological issues. NONE. It is not your business, you have no training other than your opinion, and you really piss parents off that can't believe you feel you have a right to pass judgement on a child's 'normality' with absolute no expertise behind you.

And, by the way, normal isn't use to describe any child. If you're meaning that your child or a child you are discussing is NEUROTYPICAL, you can say that they are either NT or neurotypical. But not 'normal'. That's a rotten, judgemental word.

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ADHD/ADD is actually under diagnosed as suggested in the blog post. And even if teachers wanted a child on medications if a child is NOT truly ADHD then it will have the opposite effect eg: it will be like the child is on speed as opposed to slowing down the firing in the brain. If a Dr. will just prescribe without thorough testing is reason alone to move on to another Dr.

I'm a firm believer in behavior modification first but if the child's brain can't slow down enough to "get it" with the behavior modification it's just simply not going to work. Parents do their children huge injustices by not following proper diagnosis/treatment.

Re: the above poster (natalie) and changing meds/doses it's not that hard to acclimate because it's a slow release it doesn't have to 'build up' in your system so making dosage changes is much less complex than you are stating. If you've ever studied ADHD/ADD a person with this disease can't just 'work harder' as their neurons are firing at lighting speeds and they have NO CONTROL over the speed their mind goes. How exactly does one 'work harder' on that?

and re: poster Kristine - have you ever studied the the brain or anything about the neurological parts? The "root of the problem" is the brain.

So many uniformed people that speak from something they heard or that someone told them. It's so tragic for the kids and so frustrating for those who have actually taken the time to study it.

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http://www.myspace.com/thetruthaboutpsychiatry

Play the first video in the "about me" section

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Stacy, you need to reread my post, because your conclusions from what I said are far off the mark.

"...the dose and medication changes can be very hard to acclimate to. After you have the medication and know what it can do for you, it is very painful when you get to a point where it doesn't help anymore. You now know how much clearer and easier things can be and then it is taken away from you."

As far as acclimating to the medication itself and it being "slow release", I am well aware of how my medication works. I am not talking about a physical acclimation from dose change to dose change or medication change to medication change. I am talking about the mental acclimation of knowing that what worked so wonderfully for you for awhile all of a sudden doesn't seem to being doing much for you anymore. And changing it in some way (new dose or new medication) and that lasting a while and then that doesn't work as well after a while. It is mentally taxing to know what you are missing. And you are cycling through the medication helping you, then to the medication not helping anymore. You feel as though you are in a wave pool. Going up and down, up and down, up and down.

I do more than study the disorder...I live it. I have what feels like nearly every book written on the subject in at least the last five to ten years and bit by bit over the years, I have read most of all of them.

"I would have just worked harder to find new techniques to help me focus and control my impulses."

That sentence states that I would have to work harder to FIND NEW TECHNIQUES to help me focus and control my impulses. Because there are techniques (different things work for different people) to help focus. It is not true to say that we have no control over our speeding mind. Our minds are naturally speeding like that, but we are able to slow it down or stop it for short amounts of time if something really interests us. Everyone in the world has impulses...ours can just be stronger and sometimes we give into them before we even have the opportunity to think about trying to resist it first. But once again, there are different techniques to help reign them in a little. I am well aware that our minds are constantly racing, but just as any other person can use relaxation techniques to calm and slow down their minds, someone with ADD/ADHD can do the same (it just takes more effort). It is possible to focus for small amounts of time, it just takes a lot of effort and concentration, but it is possible to take control and block everything else out momentarily. There are ways to minimize the affects that ADD/ADHD has on your life and make parts of it work for you. We aren't complete lost causes without our medication. It just isn't easy.

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I'm with Stacy in that behavior modofication should be attempted before medication.

But even moreso, I'm more than a little convinced that we're actually creating ADD with the dietary and lifestyle choices that most (tho certainly not all) parents allow their children to make.

Just look at the crap that kids have for breakfast. We jack the poor little things up on enough sugar to send a diabetic into a coma and enough caffeine to give a Starbucks junkie the jitters and then we have the gall to be upset when they can't sit still or focus.

If we were to stop giving kids rocket fuel for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and every snacktime (instead substituting foods with actual nutritional substance), we might find that their mental state would be considerably more leveled out too.

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If you ask me, and I know you didn't, I think too many kids are being treated for ADHD. Seems like teachers don't want to let boys be boys and insist they be drugged to act like girls. You're going to have to work very hard to convince me my son needs to be put on "Vitamin R."

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