The other day while writing on another issue, I came across two maps. One was a map that showed the red and the blue states (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_states_and_blue_states) and the other was the map of children receiving federal payments for mental disabilities (http://www.boston.com/news/health/specials/SSI_us_map/), with the number one mental disability being listed as A.D.H.D. From there, I decided to look at other things such as the income levels. I continued to poke around for more information.
Following are facts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (www.cdc.gov)
o In 2003, 4.3% of children with an A.D.H.D. diagnosis (2,473,000) were being medicated. By 2005, 56.3% of children with an A.D.H.D. diagnosis were being medicated.
o Approximately 9.5% or 5.4 million children 4-17 years of age have been diagnosed with ADHD, as of 2007.
o The percentage of children with a parent-reported ADHD diagnosis increased by 22% between 2003 and 2007.
o Rates of ADHD diagnosis increased an average of 3% per year from 1997 to 2006 and an average of 5.5% per year from 2003 to 2007.
o Boys (13.2%) were more likely than girls (5.6%) to have ever been diagnosed with ADHD.
o Rates of ADHD diagnosis increased at a greater rate among older teens as compared to younger children.
o The highest rates of parent-reported ADHD diagnosis were noted among children covered by Medicaid and multiracial children.
o Prevalence of parent-reported ADHD diagnosis varied substantially by state, from a low of 5.6% in Nevada to a high of 15.6% in North Carolina.
After I moved past feeling angry then sad, and back into impassioned, here are some things I found interesting:
Nineteen states are giving support to families if they have labeled and medicated their children for A.D.H.D., who are at or exceed 30% of their total SSI payout for children with disabilities, with the national average of SSI support being for families with an A.D.H.D. child hovering around 31%. In numbers, that’s around 200,000 cases. Because these “cases” can only qualify if the child is medicated the system is playing doctor/parent here. Of those 19 states, 10 are red, 7 blue and 1 is purple. Thirteen of those nineteen states are below the national household income average, including 7 out of 10 of the poorest states.
So why are poorer, more conservative states more likely to insist on labeling and medication? Because ADD/HD children are more challenging, more rebellious, less likely to conform to the old ways of doing things and always pushing forward to new and better ways of doing things. Also, parents in those states tend to be less educated, and are not likely to be as aware of or able to access alternative resources and options.
But the one fact I found most interesting is that no monies or support is being provided to families who are struggling financially but want to deal with their children in non-medical ways. Imagine that.
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Dr. Kevin Ross Emery is the author of Managing the Gift: Alternative Approaches for Attention Deficit Disorder
I worked in early childhood education, I found the children with add to be challenging and I had to come up with new ideas that administrators didn’t agree with! It was very frustrating becz of two or three children that needed more charts and different approaches I couldn’t change my whole classroom curriculum! I was changed to become a one on one support with all children in center with special needs this isolated them even more. I can tell you working as a nanny with families and providing behavior charts made more of a difference than working in a school setting. Teachers are limited by strict guidelines and no matter how effective your tactics you can’t change school policy and that’s the problem. (Yes I do see your point on the lower class getting more medication but again its school policy that won’t change)
I am also interested in what drugs are being used to treat these children. It seems to me that there is a cultural drug experiment going on here. Off labeling of antipsychotics is rampant in this population. The Tuskeegee experiments jump to my mind immediately. In Maine 40% of children in foster care are on up to 5 atypical antipsychotics…some for ADD/HD and for being “violent”. I can only imagine if I were in foster care, and the acts that led to that situation would make me violent too, even as an adult that can put the situation into some paradigm, much less as a young person who may not be able to do same.
The long term side effects of these drugs are virtually unknown and the short term side effects are often lifelong even after the drugs have been terminated. As scientists we need to delve into these issues without bias, and with renewed vigor.