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Battling
ADHD Disinformation
by Mona Charen, TownHall.com, October 8, 2002
For more articles on disabilities and special ed visit
www.bridges4kids.org
and
www.educationnews.org.
Conservatives are sure it is
a sign of parental laziness. Liberals are sure it is big
business, in the form of drug companies, conspiring to ensnare
large numbers of American children. Observers of no particular
outlook are nonetheless likely to believe that ADHD is either
a fraud or an invention.
They are apt to believe this for several reasons: 1) because
the media have consistently misrepresented the facts about the
disorder, and 2) because so many trends of the past several
decades make it seem implausible that ADHD just burst onto the
scene.
Why, reasonable people may ask, did this disorder suddenly
explode just when parents were becoming less involved with
their kids' lives, and when discipline and good order were
abandoned by the schools? Isn't this "disease" just an excuse
for medicating high spirits and boyish antics out of
existence?
Christina Hoff-Sommers, author of "The War Against Boys"
initially thought so. But, a careful scholar, she looked into
the matter and discovered that clear evidence from neurology
and psychiatry show that the disorder is real, and that,
untreated, quite serious. Nor is it new. It has been
identified for decades and successfully treated with
medications for more than 40 years.
Anyone who has seen a parent unable to discipline a mouthy
child in public is right to conclude that parental authority
ain't what it used to be -- but wrong to suppose that ADHD is
a myth.
Admittedly, mental health experts don't help matters by
changing the names of disorders. ADHD used to be called
"hyperactivity" (and bipolar disorder used to be
manic-depression, etc.). The name Attention Deficit
Hyperactivity Disorder virtually invites ridicule.
But hundreds of studies and years of clinical experience leave
no room for doubt that the disease is real and measurable. The
American Medical Association, the National Institutes of
Mental Health, The American Academy of Pediatrics, the U.S.
Surgeon General, the National Mental Health Association, the
American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the
American Psychological Association, and many other
professional and scientific groups recognize ADHD's validity.
Children with the disorder have significantly diminished
capacity to regulate their conduct, control their impulses and
concentrate on a single task. Many are socially inept because
they lack the ability to understand subtle social cues. They
may or may not be hyperactive (if not, they are called ADD),
but in many cases they have associated problems -- typically
language disorders and depression.
The syndrome has a strong genetic component, and twin studies
have shown that home environment makes no separate
contribution to the incidence of the illness (though,
obviously, the environment can aggravate or ameliorate the
underlying disorder).
Among the myths circulated by the press is the notion that
medicating children with ADHD leads to drug abuse in
adolescence. In fact, as a consortium of leading doctors and
academics recently emphasized, the opposite is the case.
Untreated, ADHD sufferers are more likely than the general
public to abuse illegal drugs. Those who receive treatment are
less likely to do so. Untreated, 50 percent to 70 percent of
those with ADHD have few or no friends, 70 percent to 80
percent underperform at work, and 40 percent to 50 percent
engage in antisocial activities. They are also significantly
more likely than the average person to get pregnant while a
teen-ager, drive dangerously and have multiple car accidents,
drop out of school, and experience depression. (For more on
media misrepresentations, see Fumento.com.)
Medication, in concert with other therapies like behavior
modification, can produce dramatic results. Though the drugs
do not work for everyone, they do work -- at least to some
extent -- for the vast majority. Social skills groups, which
target the ADHD child's difficulties with peers and family
members, have also produced encouraging outcomes.
The idea of ADHD as a myth fits our suspicions about
contemporary America -- excuse seeking, short-cut finding and
irresponsibility. But on closer examination, it turns out that
the myth is a myth.
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