Corwin

If you've been around someone with ADD, you recognize it. Inability to sit still, (and yes I mean constantly fidgeting) and inability to focus on a task even when they want to are classic symptoms.

That having been said, the condition is horribly overdiagnosed. Kids fidget sometimes. It's normal. Parents get frustrated and want them 'cured.' Additionally, it's not unusual for a parent to push for an ADD diagnosis so that their kid will get ritalin. The kid, (not actually having anything wrong with them) never gets the meds.... the parents do. Ritalin is basically a chemical cousin to speed. (Meth amphetamine.)

Loren Pechtel

You're just supporting my point. It is a continuum, where you draw the line between ok and ADD or ADHD is inherently arbitrary. I'm not saying the problem isn't real, I'm saying the diagnosis isn't clear-cut, thus making for a lot of nonsense from those who stand to benefit.

variable

the corruption that the pharmaceutical industry puts on doctors / psychiatrists is what is abusing the procedure for diagnosis. so while there can be extreme cases in many of the existing disorders that require some form of treatment, the capacity for proper diagnosis is undermined by an overwhelming conflict of interest.

Optional

The biggest problem I see with the diagnosis and treatment of ADD is the same one that exists for all mental disorders, and one of my pet peeves.

There are perfectly good procedures and tests to facilitate correct diagnosis; as mentioned above, there are grey areas, but even then it is generally known how much or how little an individual would be helped by meds and therapy.

And, benefitiently, there are professionals that go to school for up to 8 or 10 years in order to learn precisely how to administer tests and correctly (or as correctly as possible) interpret the results. They're called Psychologists. And, generally speaking, it is EXTREMELY expensive to go to one, because most insurance covers 50% or less for anything whatsoever to do with mental health.

And the meds themself are still more an art than a science; the correct dosage varies wildly by individual based on factors still poorly understood. Too little or too much of this stuff can often have bad side effects. Benefitiently, there are doctors out there who, in addition to all the years of med school, have spent extra years learning everything that is known about all these drugs, and have learned and practiced as to exactly what dosages should be used and how to adjust dosage to hit the correct mark. They're called Psychiatrists. And, generally speaking, it is EXTREMELY expensive to go to one, because most insurance covers 50% or less for anything whatsoever to do with mental health.

There is a third kind of professional tho... A general practicitioner, whose charges are generally payed 100% except for a small co-pay, that is legally able to diagnose anything at all, and prescribe anything at all. And who has had ZERO formal training in anything whatsoever to do with mental health.

Now. Ask again why ADD and ADHD are so wrongly-diagnosed.

Note I don't say over-diagnosed there; according to statistical studies, there are actually significantly MORE people out there that would benefit from ADD and ADHD treatment and therapy than is EVER diagnosed. But... The expense, you see... *grumble*

Health care in this country is so fucked up right now, I don't know if its even POSSIBLE for it to get any better without scrapping the whole system and starting over from scratch.

-me

echidna

Whether ADD exists or not depends largely on what exactly is a disorder. Truth is we all have problems concentrating from time to time and dexamphetamines such as Ritilin commonly affect �normal� brains as well. Really I�d almost prefer that the term disorder was removed altogether and that dexamphetamines and the like were re-labelled concentration-enhancing-agents rather than disorder-medications, while retaining their prescription-only status.

A problem with blaming lack of attention on a psychological disorder, is that it can easily absolve an individual (including the parent) from their responsibility to control that behaviour via other means and thereby interfere with normal patterns of growing up. Often I�ve heard kids recite �I can�t help it, it�s my ADD� & too often it becomes a self-justifying and self-perpetuating diagnosis.

Note that such nebulous disorders run in fashions. A few decades ago mild autism was the rage, but when diagnoses were tightened the trend moved to ADD & ADHD. Now Aspergers is becoming more fashionable. There are definitely some parents who shelter behind the child psychology industry which seems only too happy to find new clinical excuses why their child should be �special� & not behaving the way they�ve prescribed.

echidna

That�s a fairly fanciful statement. How do you plan to attract top people of the calibre necessary to research pharmacology, & the funds to appropriately target disease ? Would our progress in finding new treatments be quicker if we removed the commercial competition to find treatments for AIDS & cancers ?

In the cycle of life I would have thought that food was a more basic requirement, and yet that industry survives quite morally on a profit basis. The fundamental difference with medicine is that being at the high tech end of the scale, it�s more closed to competition & outside scrutiny, and so more prone to corruption, however that in itself doesn�t mean that the profit motive should be eliminated.

I�m no great fan of the pharmacology industry in the way it manipulates science, artificially inflates prices & immorally protects patents at the expense of the poor, however I don�t think that the answer is to bring it back to a non-profit industry. Increased regulation, increased transparency & government subsidy where necessary are the way to go IMO.

Loren Pechtel

You're missing another factor. Patient pressure. ADD is a disability. Disability has it's advantages. It won't make a difference on the the good psych guy--but how many are diagnosed by the MD? If one won't, they'll go elsewhere.