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TOO QUICK TO MEDICATE
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How can we explain this increase of medication used, not to cure a disease, but
to modify behavior?
One reason for the increase is that the criteria for labeling ADHD have
expanded over time, so many more children are diagnosed with the disorder.
Unfortunately, the diagnosis isn't dependent on something as scientific and
unquestionable as a blood test; it's based on subjective criteria: a child's
behavior, behavior that must be distinguished from the behavior of normally
active, exuberant preschool children. Plenty of parents describe their normal
children as hyperactive and inattentive at times. So who's to decide how much
constitutes a disorder and how much is just normal?
The rise in ADHD cases is more than a shift in medical perspective--it's a
lowered acceptance of the wide range of normal children's behavior. With both
parents working and more children than ever before in preschool programs,
parents and teachers have less time and energy to help children develop social
behavior, and less tolerance for the spectrum of their developmental
differences.
TOO QUICK TO LABEL
Unfortunately, hyperactivity or attention deficit is used much too readily by
schools as a label for any behavior that may be challenging to a teacher. Many
parents are also too quick to express their anxiety that a child may fall into
this category. They often feel pressure from a school to put a child on
medication or run the risk of being asked to remove their youngster.
WHO'S DOING THE PRESCRIBING?
More serious, however, is that drugs like Ritalin are being prescribed by
pediatricians who are not specifically trained in developmental behavior or
psychopharmacology, and who do not adequately monitor the use of the drug.
Often a family's HMO will not approve referral to an expert because it's less
costly to have the pediatrician prescribe.