No medical test to confirm Attention Disorder

ADHD (also known as Attention Deficit Disorder, ADD) is used to describe children who display overactive behaviour, impulsive behaviour, and who have difficulty in paying attention.

An important question is how is ADHD diagnosed? ADHD is diagnosed from verbal interviews, mainly with parents. There is simply no medical test to confirm ADHD. In 2004 the renowned journal Clinical Psychology argued that ADHD does not exist as a medical entity, and that ‘‘overzealous’’ professionals were prescribing “addictive and brain disabling” drugs such as Ritalin and Concerta. In that year the British Journal of Psychiatry pointed out that there are questions about the diagnosis of ADHD and exactly what the psychiatrists are treating.

Dr Bob Jacobs (Doctor of Psychology) wrote in Australia’s Nexus Magazine that the drugs used for treatment of ADHD (methylphenidate and dexamphetamine) are pharmacologically similar to cocaine. Between 1990 and 2000, over 200 Ritalin-related deaths have been reported to FDA-Medwatch. Several reasons have been offered for the popularity of the ADHD diagnosis. It brings more business to the drug companies. Secondly, some doctors try to provide help to parents, after all that is their purpose as doctors. Furthermore the drugs do quiet down children, but at what cost? Parents have reported that their children have sometimes become depressed and sad, and behave like “zombies” after using these drugs, experiencing insomnia and loss of appetite.

It is easy for parents to accept the ADHD diagnosis because it shifts the reason for the child’s inattention, and low achievement from motivational factors within the child’s control, to an independent medical condition which is treatable. There is no longer pressure on parents to improve their child-rearing techniques, they merely have to get treatment. However, Dr Thomas Armstrong wrote (Phi Delta Kappan 1996) that there is often a lifelong negative stigma for a child being labelled as suffering from any psychiatric disorder.

Parents should know that a normal healthy child is active, and will lose interest in what he or she finds boring. Parents must create a disciplined environment where the child is brought up to do as he or she is expected to do, not as he or she wants to do. Learning must capitalise on the child’s active disposition and involve experiments, practical tasks, games, and role play. These ADHD drugs can induct young people into the “pill popping” culture of the North. It amazes me that non-medical sales representatives can enter schools to market their drugs and to propagate beliefs that might well be false.