Fix the diagnosis not the children

[Guest guest]

SSRI-Research@

Mon, 6 Mar 2006 20:49:36 -0500

[sSRI-Research] Fix the diagnosis not the children

 

 

 

 

Fix the diagnosis not the children

 

JANICE HILL

http://news.scotsman.com/opinion.cfm?id=274972006

 

THE news that an Edinburgh academic believes Scottish youngsters are

handed out " mind-altering " drugs for hyperactivity when in fact their

bad behaviour is nothing more than a natural part of growing up will,

I'm sure, have alarmed the thousands of parents whose children are

currently taking medication such as Ritalin.

 

Edinburgh University's Dr Gwynedd Lloyd has said decisions to hand out

drugs are often made so that parents don't feel guilty about their

unruly children and that there is widespread abuse of drugs such as

Ritalin.

 

In fact, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder has been a source of

contention ever since the term was first adopted by committee at the

American Psychiatric Association back in 1987.

 

As the multi-million-dollar ADHD industry has grown, so has the amount

of literature describing fundamental flaws in logic and research and

pointing out that claims of a neurobiological origin have never been

substantiated.

 

For example, a debate in the British Journal of Psychiatry in 2004

observed: " Fundamental to the discussion are questions about whether

the diagnosis of ADHD actually holds water and what it is that

psychiatrists are trying to treat... there are no specific cognitive,

metabolic or neurological markers and no medical tests for ADHD " .

 

Ritalin is in fact a Class B drug which has the same pharmacology as

cocaine and one can safely assume any parent would have deep concerns

about their child taking it - if they are aware of all the facts. But

parents are not informed of the continuing division of medical opinion

surrounding ADHD and its validity as a diagnostic concept and the

nature of the drugs prescribed.

 

Although many children have been " medically diagnosed " with ADHD, very

few if any have been subject to basic procedures and medical tests to

establish a correct differential diagnosis - ie finding out what

causes the symptoms.

 

Clearly, many factors influence children's behaviour: poverty,

divorce, overcrowded classrooms, nutritional problems and more. It is

also true that many factors influence prescription rates for drugs

used to influence children's behaviour. The rise in prescriptions

rates - last year in Scotland prescriptions were up 11 per cent -

reflects an increase of publicity for ADHD as a condition afflicting

children, and the number of children so categorised.

 

ADHD has generated huge profits for the pharmaceutical industry but I

would argue this is against a background of poor-quality research,

publication bias and payments to some of the top academics in this

field. Thus the mainstream dogma on ADHD is contaminated and misleading.

 

This division of medical opinion is reflected in a wide variation in

prescription rates in different localities in Scotland - from 0.5 per

cent to 26 per cent - indicating variations in the acceptance of this

as a diagnosis by different practitioners or clinics.

 

The largest meta-analysis study, the results of which were published

in September last year by the Oregon Drug Effectiveness Review

Project, analysed 2287 pieces of research - virtually every

investigation ever done on ADHD drugs - to reach its conclusions: it

found no evidence to support the claims about these drugs' safety or

the legitimacy of the ADHD diagnosis.

 

A parent who is not aware of these points cannot be considered

sufficiently informed to give legally meaningful informed consent to

treatment proposed for their child. And in fact, the GMC requires as a

standard of practice that UK medical practitioners obtain informed

consent before treatment.

 

To continue to medicate children as young as two years old with

powerful mind-altering drugs is a public health scandal.

 

To give such drugs to toddlers still in nappies who have not yet

attended nursery school and whose brains and central nervous systems

are still developing, is nothing more than a form of social control

and fascism. Few of us would like to see the word " junkie " attached to

any of our children in the illicit sense, yet we are happy to give

them mind-altering drugs, whose long-term consequences have yet to be

determined.

 

Is self-control, self-monitoring, self-regulation and good diet, a

thing of the past? Will our kids remain the shiny happy people we had

hoped for with such medical intervention? Only time will tell but

there are those who would prefer to see the psychiatrists and drug

companies drugged and institutionalised as a better cure-all than the

drugging of children for profit.

 

.. Janice Hill runs Overload Network, a support group for parents with

hyperactive children

 

This article: http://news.scotsman.com/opinion.cfm?id=274972006

 

Last updated: 22-Feb-06 11:18 GMT