Teenagers Diagnosed With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Teenagers Diagnosed With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.
Some colonize denominate it "brain doping" or "meducation". Others label the problem "neuroenhancement". Whatever the term, the American Academy of Neurology has published a placement paper criticizing the practice of prescribing "study drugs" to encouragement memory and thinking abilities in healthy children and teens. The authors said physicians are prescribing drugs that are typically reach-me-down for children and teenagers diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity scuffle (ADHD) for students solely to improve their ability to ace a critical exam - such as the college affirmation SAT - or to get better grades in school.

Dr William Graf, lead father of the paper and a professor of pediatrics and neurology at Yale School of Medicine, emphasized that the statement doesn't put in to the appropriate diagnosis and treatment of ADHD. Rather, he is concerned about what he calls "neuroenhancement in the classroom". The delinquent is similar to that caused by performance-boosting drugs that have been used in sports by such athletic luminaries as Lance Armstrong and Mark McGwire.

So "One is about enhancing muscles and the other is about enhancing brains". In children and teens, the use of drugs to get better unrealistic performance raises issues including the dormant long-term effect of medications on the developing brain, the distinction between normal and abnormal intellectual development, the grill of whether it is ethical for parents to force their children to take drugs just to improve their academic performance, and the risks of overmedication and chemical dependency.

The speedily rising numbers of children and teens taking ADHD drugs calls limelight to the problem. "The number of physician office visits for ADHD running and the number of prescriptions for stimulants and psychotropic medications for children and adolescents has increased 10-fold in the US over the survive 20 years," he pointed out.

Recent parent surveys show about a 22 percent expand in ADHD, a 42 percent rise in the disorder among older teens and a 53 percent growth among Hispanic children, according to the paper. While Graf acknowledged that the statistics about rising numbers associated with ADHD includes a number of cases that have been appropriately diagnosed as ADHD, he said the gain - especially among older adolescents - suggests a problem of overdiagnosis and overmedication.

And "We should be more alert with healthy children in treating them with drugs they don't need. The right balance tips against overuse and toward caution because children are still growing and developing and there's a lot we don't know". The bent paper, published online March 13, 2013 in the monthly Neurology, was also approved by the Child Neurology Society and the American Neurological Association.

Dr Mark Wolraich, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center and chairman of the subcommittee that wrote ADHD guidelines for the American Academy of Pediatrics, said that his assort was not consulted in the growth of the establish paper Graf developed. Wolraich noted that the AAP also did not recommend the use of stimulant medications for accomplishment enhancement or pleasure.

Yet Wolraich said he is concerned that recommendations against the use of ADHD drugs may confuse parents, who already are habitually hesitant to give prescription medications to their children for ADHD. "The paper may have an unfavorable impact. I concern that we're focusing too much on the downside and it will deter people from getting the help they need price. We have a lot of commendable evidence about the use of medications and it is clearly effective in the short term for treating the symptoms you take in with ADHD".