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Medicine

1 in 9 American Kids Were Diagnosed With ADHD, New Study Finds (npr.org) 175

"About 1 in 9 children in the U.S., between the ages of 3 and 17, have been diagnosed with ADHD," reports NPR: That's according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that calls attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder an "expanding public health concern."

Researchers found that in 2022, 7.1 million kids and adolescents in the U.S. had received an ADHD diagnosis — a million more children than in 2016. That jump in diagnoses was not surprising, given that the data was collected during the pandemic, says Melissa Danielson, a statistician with the CDC's National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities and the study's lead author. She notes that other studies have found that many children experienced heightened stress, depression and anxiety during the pandemic. "A lot of those diagnoses... might have been the result of a child being assessed for a different diagnosis, something like anxiety or depression, and their clinician identifying that the child also had ADHD," Danielson says. The increase in diagnoses also comes amid growing awareness of ADHD — and the different ways that it can manifest in children...

The study, which appears in the Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, was based on data from the National Survey of Children's Health, which gathers detailed information from parents.

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1 in 9 American Kids Were Diagnosed With ADHD, New Study Finds

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  • TL;DNR (Score:5, Funny)

    by backslashdot ( 95548 ) on Monday May 27, 2024 @12:38AM (#64501659)

    Will check it later cause the first part of the sentence sounded intere

  • Pseudoscience (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 27, 2024 @12:48AM (#64501679)

    I've studied psychology and psychiatry. Been a patient of both for a very long time (autistic).

    These so called "professionals" don't know shit. It's all guessing and subjective personal feelings. These people are often more messed up than the people they treat. You go to 10 of them and you'll get 10 different "diagnoses" (ie. guesses).

    Not like it matters. The "medications" (ie. hard core physically addictive dangerous drugs) are all the same so it doesn't matter what they think, you'll be a guinea pig for their game of Russian roulette.

    I can tell you one thing: If you see one of these people and they won't admit they don't know how any of this stuffs works, then run away! Their overconfidence will harm you.

    • There are 3 main disciplines that study the human mind: Anthropology, Sociology, and Psychology.

      Nobody listens to the advice of Anthropology or Sociology when it comes to curing mental illness, and there's no big business in Anthropology or Sociology, they don't proscribe drugs either.,But I would argue psychology is the least reliable of the three, even though people seen to give it the most creedence and shovel money into it..

      • But I would argue psychology is the least reliable of the three, even though people seen to give it the most creedence and shovel money into it.

        Long as I Can See the Light, man, I'll keep giving it Creedence. But it sounds like you see a Bad Moon Rising.

      • by Shaitan ( 22585 )

        None of them are particularly reliable and their underpinnings are mathematical rather than physical. There are a few pieces like cognitive behavior therapy which I think amount to weaponized placebo and can be effective but the only science in these 'studies' is the science they borrow from physical aka real sciences. Basically, they are just like scientology.

      • Re:Pseudoscience (Score:4, Insightful)

        by YetAnotherDrew ( 664604 ) on Monday May 27, 2024 @04:53AM (#64501965)

        There are 3 main disciplines that study the human mind: Anthropology, Sociology, and Psychology.

        All three cover aspects of human behavior but only one studies the brain. Concepts of "mind" probably belong as much to philosophy just like "soul" is theological. I have no idea what either of those are and doubt that humans have them.

        Psychology is a big umbrella, including everything from what people would call "hard science" (evidence-based, empirical knowledge) like cognitive science (not the same-named therapy) to pseudoscientific just-so stories like evolutionary psychology. Calling it all the same label, "psychology," provides useful cover for charlatans.

        Also, there's no money in proscribing drugs. You gotta prescribe them!

        • Also, there's no money in proscribing drugs. You gotta prescribe them!

          Tell that to the justice system, they have taken in billions and billions of dollars from the drug war. Cops, private prisons, and any company that sells something with "tactical" in the name have all made bank.

    • by Peter C. Gotzsche, to support your point: https://www.amazon.com/Deadly-... [amazon.com]
      "DEADLY PSYCHIATRY AND ORGANISED DENIAL explains in evidence-based detail why the way we currently use psychiatric drugs does far more harm than good. Professor, Doctor of Medical Science, Peter C. Goetzsche documents that psychiatric drugs kill more than half a million people every year among those aged 65 and above in the United States and Europe. This makes psychiatric drugs the third leading cause of death, after heart disease

  • by Adrian Harvey ( 6578 ) on Monday May 27, 2024 @01:19AM (#64501723)

    This article contains an interesting comparison about how ADHD diagnoses are made, and the effect of different child-rearing cultures. It is from a few years back, but discusses why French kids arenâ(TM)t diagnosed with ADHD [psychologytoday.com]

    • Finland (Score:5, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 27, 2024 @02:39AM (#64501813)

      https://www.theatlantic.com/ed... [theatlantic.com]

      Normally, students and teachers in Finland take a 15-minute break after every 45 minutes of instruction. During a typical break, students head outside to play and socialize with friends while teachers disappear to the lounge to chat over coffee.

      Pellegrini and his colleagues ran a series of experiments at a public elementary school to explore the relationship between recess timing and attentiveness in the classroom. In every one of the experiments, students were more attentive after a break than before a break. They also found that the children were less attentive when the timing of the break was delayedâ"or in other words, when the lesson dragged on.

      There was also some article which I can no longer find where a Finnish teacher said that she can't teach if the kids weren't allowed to take breaks and play regularly.

  • If 1 in 9 is diagnosed you could argue that ADHD is just... normal. I see a lot of kids with ADHD being pushed to extremes by their parents. Some go rebel all the way, others go for it and get close to burn out. Give kids some room.
    • Sure, but also treat kids that actually suffer from ADHD. Approximately 5-10% is expected to suffer from the condition. So 1/9 is a little overdiagnosed, but compared to previous numbers I heard of 1/4, 1/9 is actually a relief, seems overdiagnosis is finally returing to the realm of sanity.

  • by Eunomion ( 8640039 ) on Monday May 27, 2024 @02:26AM (#64501783)
    People have a little thing called "moods." Emotions and variable attention spans are not a disorder, they're nature. But when your whole profession is funded by pharma companies, I suppose everything "looks like a nail."
    • by jd ( 1658 )

      Neither of these is considered diagnostic for ADHD.

      • Bullshit. Unless their entire industry has made a quantum leap in professionalism since I last ran into it. You seen some of the questionnaires? "Do you ever lose track of time?" "Do you ever forget what you meant to do?"
        • by jd ( 1658 )

          The questionnaires aren't used for diagnosis. Even the DSM isn't really used for diagnosis. Diagnosis is done by psychiatrists looking for patterns of behaviour and thought that are common in a condition, because that's all they can do. The questionnaire is a fluff piece designed to make patients feel involved.

    • People have a little thing called "moods."

      The DSM (manual used by "the whole profession") doesn't consider mood or emotion as a diagnosis for ADHD.

      But when your whole profession is funded by pharma companies, I suppose everything "looks like a nail."

      The DSM has over 300 mental illnesses defined, only a tiny portion of which involve any kind of medication as treatment. Thanks for demonstrating how ignorant you are about "the whole profession".

  • by Hadlock ( 143607 ) on Monday May 27, 2024 @02:32AM (#64501797) Homepage Journal

    If more than 10% of the population has a "condition" is it still a disorder? I am very pro LGBTQ+ etc and they represent ~4-7% (I've seen as high as 9% but that's not a common number). 1/9 is ~11.1% of the population. How is 4-7% of the population LGBTQ+ normal/accepted but 11.1% of the population ADHD (that last D is a "disorder") a disorder? That's a tall glass of water to drink. Is being red-headed a disorder? Red heads are ~4-6% of the population.
     
    I don't mean to directly compare the two groups, just make a point. I expect a "disorder" to be, I would expect, 1% of the population or less. I think 10% is a sane cut-off. If we're above 11% that's just part of human nature.

    • by Shaitan ( 22585 )

      Exactly and how many of the other 8 qualify for "something?" I'd venture all of them. People being called ADHD have a couple broad scopes of common strengths/weaknesses and ways of thinking. That isn't an illness, it is just a person who thinks differently than you do.

      Now, stop making excuses for your kid; employ discipline and do the hard damn work of parenting. Don't be fair, be consistent to the point of absurdity. The kid's behavior will improve by leaps and bounds. If they tend to get tunnel vision, th

      • Exactly and how many of the other 8 qualify for "something?" I'd venture all of them. People being called ADHD have a couple broad scopes of common strengths/weaknesses and ways of thinking. That isn't an illness, it is just a person who thinks differently than you do.

        Exactly. And humans need people who can think differently. They need them badly.

        Now, stop making excuses for your kid; employ discipline and do the hard damn work of parenting. Don't be fair, be consistent to the point of absurdity.

        There is something to be said for physical activity. If a child is prone to acting out, then work them out. Both my son and I played Ice Hockey. When you are done with a game, you are pretty calm.

    • by skam240 ( 789197 )

      The thing is that being gay or otherwise on the spectrum doesn't disrupt one's ability to do virtually anything that a straight person can do. On the other hand, ADHD is in fact a very real limitation to many who have it that can have very serious negative effects on what they get out of school and / or what they'll be able to do for a living.

    • Disorder has nothing to do with rarity. That isn't any part of the definition. The definition is about function:

      noun: disorder - "an illness or condition that disrupts normal physical or mental functions."

      LGBTQ+ people aren't a disorder. They are perfectly functioning people. ADHD suffers on the other hand have actual trouble functioning normally. Incidentally in the LGBTQ+ world there are "disorders" associated with being defined in a certain way. For example a disorder associated with "T" is gender dyspho

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by christoban ( 3028573 )

        At one time, homosexuality was considered a disorder by the psychiatric community.

        It comes down to what you consider negative traits, since you can group any group of "undesirable" traits together and call it a disorder.

        My brother was diagnosed ADHD back in the 90s. All it did was make his misbehavior far worse because now he had something to point to, something to blame rather than something to control. After that, he spun completely out of control and quit school, did meth, went to juvy, then jail.

        Diagn

        • by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Monday May 27, 2024 @10:47AM (#64502555)

          At one time, homosexuality was considered a disorder by the psychiatric community.

          At one time it was. VERY BRIEFLY. And no the "psychiatric community" didn't consider it largely a disorder. It was published in the second edition of the DSM and very widely criticised by the community for its inclusion. To show how much the community disagreed with it, DSM-II was published in 1968, and in 1973 they re-released a second edition of DSM-II, published exclusively to removed homosexuality considering the wide backlash the psychiatric community gave to its inclusion. That's how much of a "mistake" it was considered, they didn't even publish a new copy of the DSM but literally edited an existing one with a minor correction to remove it.

          In any case, the past is hardly relevant. What is considered a disorder has a clear definition, and rarity doesn't come into that definition, not in the dictionary, not in the DSM. The formal definition: A mental disorder is a syndrome characterized by clinically significant disturbance in an individual's cognition, emotion regulation, or behavior that reflects a dysfunction in the psychological, biological, or developmental processes underlying mental functioning. You can see how personal preference doesn't fit into that category.

          The definition has been changed over the years but it has always included an element of mental dysfunction. The fact that being gay didn't mean you had a functional problem was a large part of the reason for the backlash against the *VERY BRIEF* period where this all important book considered it a disorder. Note I said book, not psychiatric community.

      • by Ol Olsoc ( 1175323 ) on Monday May 27, 2024 @10:15AM (#64502483)

        Disorder has nothing to do with rarity. That isn't any part of the definition. The definition is about function:

        noun: disorder - "an illness or condition that disrupts normal physical or mental functions."

        LGBTQ+ people aren't a disorder. They are perfectly functioning people. ADHD suffers on the other hand have actual trouble functioning normally. Incidentally in the LGBTQ+ world there are "disorders" associated with being defined in a certain way. For example a disorder associated with "T" is gender dysphoria - the feeling of distress due to gender identity mismatching sex at birth. One of the treatments is transitioning, so being transgender is literally a cure to a disorder.

        Incidentally it is worth noting that the DSM which defines a list of recognised mental disorders does not recognise sexually as any kind of disorder. For that you'd need to talk to a priest.

        Sometimes transitioning helps. Sometimes it doesn't. I'd be hesitant to call it a cure.

        I'm quite sympathetic to people with gender dysphoria. And if someone wants to go through the surgery, then so be it.

        Now that being said, what is the source of this dysphoria? I watched a documentary about three people who underwent sex reassignment surgery. Transitioned male to female. Then changing their minds, they transitioned back to male - minus their penis of course. That was kind of disturbing, especially with the person who had a lot of plastic surgery to feminize their face. And after stopping the hormone treatments, they reverted mostly back to male.

        Now in those cases, it obviously wasn't a cure, and it made for a bit of a mess for them.

        Was it a mental disorder? I'm inclined to say no, but there are complications. Simple homosexuality - a definite no, not a disorder. People don't decide what they are sexually attracted to. I like tall slender women with long legs, small to average breasts, long hair and nordic faces. I know this because I pay attention to my bodies reaction when I see a woman with those characteristics.

        So a person who finds themselves attracted to a person of the same sex likewise didn't choose.

        But the situation becomes more complex with people wanting to ersatz physically become the opposite sex.

        No matter, they should never be mistreated.

        • Sometimes transitioning helps. Sometimes it doesn't. I'd be hesitant to call it a cure.

          It helps when the diagnosis was correct. The fact that it sometimes isn't is the source of the issue. For true gender dysphoria transitioning is the cure. The trick is that actually nailing down if the gender dysphoria is real is like all matters involving psychiatric care, difficult and just like with people who are misdiagnosed with ADHD can be all too frequently wrong.

          • Sometimes transitioning helps. Sometimes it doesn't. I'd be hesitant to call it a cure.

            It helps when the diagnosis was correct. The fact that it sometimes isn't is the source of the issue. For true gender dysphoria transitioning is the cure. The trick is that actually nailing down if the gender dysphoria is real is like all matters involving psychiatric care, difficult and just like with people who are misdiagnosed with ADHD can be all too frequently wrong.

            These people went through extensive psychiatric consulting and were approved as suitable for having their genitals removed, and hormone therapy.

            What may have happened is that the people wanting that knew how to manipulate the shrinks - it isn't difficult.

            Regardless, they came to regret their choice to transition. Now, they are genetic men with a constructed vagina.

    • Yes, more than 1/10 breaks their legs at some point in their lives, that doesn't mean it shouldnt be treated,

    • 10% is a totally arbitrary cut-off.

      I'd say being in the bottom 11% of IQ is going to affect your functioning negatively.

      I'd also say that at least 12% of people are rude or selfish enough that it affects them negatively.

  • ...yet we still persists in claiming there's such a thing as neurotypical

    That's the real mental disorder. We're all insane monkeys screaming BS delusions at each other and claiming to be the best monkey at monkeying about.

    Bad monkey. No bananananana...

    • I'm neurotypical, you're a weirdo.

      • I occupy a higher branch than yours and I fling faeces with greater gusto

        Thus, I am the better monkey. See?

      • by sinij ( 911942 )

        I'm neurotypical, you're a weirdo.

        From what I can see from reading your posts, you are simply below average in every metric, and that includes mental disorders.

  • ...is that virtually all diagnostics, categorisation, and treatment is based on symptoms that massively overlap between conditions. Indeed, it's very unusual to have one condition because the condition isn't the thing that actually exists.

    This will persist until medical practitioners forget symptom-based approaches and look for causes.

    Sure, they can't look for causes using 1.5T MRI scanners. Those can't detect anything beyond catastrophic injury. But the scanners authorised for medical diagnosis is 7.3T, th

  • I, for one, am sticking with the American consensus view that there have been, and will continue to be, no significant downsides to administering low-dose amphetamines on a lifelong permanent basis to eleven percent of US pre-adolescents to combat the debilitating and novel disorder of [checks notes] not liking school.
    • If you give methylphenidate to someone without ADHD, they get hyper stimulated. If you give it to someone with ADHD, it allows them to focus normally.

      In fact, a small test prescription is the primary way an ADHD diagnosis is confirmed.

      It's not handing out meth to random children for not liking school.

  • by Qbertino ( 265505 ) <moiraNO@SPAMmodparlor.com> on Monday May 27, 2024 @06:58AM (#64502121)

    ... statistics would suggest.

    Disclaimer: Officially diagnosed ADHD candidate here.

    ADHD is a real thing and certainly no pseudoscience. However, it _is_ a mixed bag with various interpretations of and even proven causes for the condition. The core component of ADHD is genetic and heritable. ADHD runs in families. However, so does generational trauma which is know to cause and even trigger ADHD dispositions. There are also environmental factors that cause ADHD, such as exposure to various degrees of lead-poisioning during childhood development. Gen X and older people who where exposed to leaded fuel fumes in their childhood have a higher risk of ADHD-like symptoms for instance.

    There is also a notable correlation with insecure attachment and various forms of childhood trauma or neglect, know and proven to cause and trigger the development of ADHD symptoms due to chemical and hormonal shifts during brain development.

    That younger generations on average show more ADHD symptoms than older generations isn't that much of a surprise to me, given that roughly half of the younger population seems even nerdier than me at my nerdy teenager peak due to entire child and teenage lives taking place mostly on the internet and online social media.

    Science btw. as of now unanimously agrees that ADHD is a misnowner and an unfitting term describing only a subset of external symptoms rather than the executive brain functions (or the weakness thereof) that are the fundamental cause of weaker impulse control and similar negative traits of ADHD. Science also unanimously agrees that it's to late to change the term and appropriate to stick with it as it has become a universal term to describe the disposition.

    As an ADHD candidate myself I can attest that finally closing in and locking down the diagnose after 10 years of testing for and discarding other conditions is a god-send and a relief of epic proportions. And while ADHD sure does run in my family as I and my uncle have come to discover in the last 10 years - which, btw. does explain quite a lot of special traits of various family members - I also see strong correlations to collective generational trauma, going back to previous generations exposure to WW2 and the trauma associated with it.

    On top of that ADHD correlates with a stronger need for emotional support and reaffirmation in relationships, a thing I think we can all agree on our times sorely lack. Many negative ADHD symptoms and effects can be mitigated or even eliminated simply by living and working in a social group that has presence of loved ones and friends as a value in itself. In that regard, negative ADHD symptoms and the universally correlated baseline anxiety that ADHD candidates feel harder and more pressing that "normal" people is somewhat of a "healthy" "natural" reaction to the constitution of our social world in modern times.

    I take my creativity and my adventurous streak as premium positives of my condition and mitigate my weaker thought- and impulse control with a chill and mellow approach to everyday life where I can, a minimalist lifestyle and sometimes with medication, which does help realign my self-perception and impulse control for a few days up to roughly a week.

    ADHD certainly is _not_ pseudoscience. It exists and it can be proven. There are some advantages to the ADHD brain and there are some plausible evlutionary hypothesis why roughly 4-8% of the population show ADHD symptoms (every society needs creatives, adventurers and natural risk-takers for instance). ADHD however can be and also and very often is a major PITA, needs conscious management and requires that those affected come to terms with the cold hard fact that they are very unlikely to live a "usual" life and will have to deal with the downsides of often having an excessive creative streak and propensity to lateral thinking.

    You have to play the cards you are dealt I guess.

    • Great summation but missed out one of the strongly correlated causes: Childhood diet.

      Malnutrition/poor diet in the formative years is strongly correlated with all manner of developmental issues, (ADHD, bipolar, sociopathy, etc)

      It's a fascinating topic but, given how Mind develops, not something we should expect to be pinned down outside of the individual because *every* mind is broken in it's own, special, manner

  • Maybe that's fine, assuming they meet the diagnostic criteria.

    Nobody runs around saying "there's too much heart disease being diagnosed", or "people pop too many heart pills". (Or at any rate, it's not a thing; it's not a reflexive thing that people do to sound smart and cool.)

    C'mon Slashdot, "trust the science", lol

    • Maybe that's fine, assuming they meet the diagnostic criteria.

      Nobody runs around saying "there's too much heart disease being diagnosed", or "people pop too many heart pills". (Or at any rate, it's not a thing; it's not a reflexive thing that people do to sound smart and cool.)

      C'mon Slashdot, "trust the science", lol

      In fact most heart disease is considered to be both preventable and a consequence of choices made. There are cultures extant today who have what would be considered extremely low rates of cardiovascular diseases, it primarily comes down to lifestyle and diet.

      So the fact that people aren't going around saying that it is over-diagnosed is true, but it is also true that it is completely unnecessary for the rate to be so high. In heart disease the problem is lifestyle, in ADHD, the problem is confusing the rang

      • In fact most heart disease is considered to be both preventable and a consequence of choices made.

        But... what about the 0.000001% of outliers who buck the trend! Surely they prove it's NOT realted to chugging enromous volumes of junk food and struggling to make more than 1000 steps a day!?

        Maybe there's a pill for that!

  • Brought to you by Novartis, Pfizer and the entire pharmaceutical industry.

  • That is what is expected of young children in elementary school. If they act like children, playing and talking, they're often labeled "ADHD" but schools.

  • Of course. They are children. Full of curiosity and energy. It's not the children who have a condition. It's the parents who can't keep up and blame it on their kids.

  • by OneOfMany07 ( 4921667 ) on Monday May 27, 2024 @02:06PM (#64503089)

    Or do we ignore how horrible life is, and think we can regulate away a tool that people actually need?

    Look up the COMT gene. What it does. There are high and low activity variants. What if we're just treating the high activity variant for the modern world? Something that was helpful in ancient times, but isn't as much now.

    Yes, people abuse things like amphetamine. And it's my opinion that other people function better with the right amount.

    And in general, other people want to blame their own life's pain on everyone else... And force them to live the way they personally believe 'everybody' should. When they should just mind their own business and fix themselves instead.

  • by ufgrat ( 6245202 ) on Monday May 27, 2024 @04:21PM (#64503437)

    I'm not convinced that ADHD is a real "disease". I think many of the people suffering from it just think differently (myself included).

  • I'm in my mid 30s, growing up I knew a few kids who were diagnosed with ADHD, 20+ years later it wasn't ADHD, it was a failed school system. My brother was diagnosed in early primary school, except I don't think he had ADHD, I think he was bored AF, because the school didn't keep him engaged. We both went to the same schools until university, and first-hand experience was the slow pace of education. Boring didn't start to explain how bad school was, we went at a pace that could only be described as suitable for the severally retarded.

    If boys have to sit in school, and have lessons that are slow, boring, and non-engaging, then we get gym, which is slow, non-engage, and boring, and we can't “play” at recess, what did you think was going to happen? We over corrected education to more “female” appropriate, but then screwed the males, and at the same time got mad at boys for having energy. You don't have ADHD because you can't sit still for 6 hours. You don't need medicine to help you sit still, you need an active, engaging and exerting system.

    We over feminized education, and then male rates of ADHD / ADD jump, and instead of asking why, we just over medicated the boys, and got mad at them for wanting more. In my younger daughter's class, she's always mentioning how the boys are disruptive, but they're not disruptive, they require more than tampon commercials and lectures about they're broken, sexist, pre-rapists. They don't have ADHD, they have a low tolerance for boring bullshit, but then can't get it out at gym or recess, and get in trouble because they're boys with hormones.

    My brother ended up being a successful trade person, who doesn't have ADHD anymore, but in reality, he never did, what he had was broken feminist based education system, that failed him. I once got in trouble for being dominating in gym class, because it was unfair to the “girls team”. Don't ask why ADHD rate spiked, ask why education failed. Maybe it's time to split schools up so we have girls and boys schools, because the system doesn't work the way it is.

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