Word: adhd
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Given the explosion in ADHD diagnoses and Ritalin use over the past decade, the disorder is surprisingly ill defined. No one is sure that it's a neurochemical imbalance that can be corrected with medicine, much the way daily insulin shots help diabetics. There is no blood test, no PET scan, no physical exam that can determine who has it and who does not. For many children, Ritalin is the answer simply because it works. "It's a fixed, stable, low-dose drug," says Dr. Philip Berent, consulting psychiatrist at the Arlington Center for Attention Deficit Disorder in Arlington Heights...
Last spring Erin's parents took her off Ritalin and enrolled her at UC Irvine's Child Development Center, a model program that specializes in ADD and ADHD. She attended the school's summer program. "It was a horrid summer," Tim recalls. "Behavior modification was controlling a lot of things, but the impulsivity would snowball. She would be told not to touch something--whether a car's gearshift or a radio or a computer. You'd say 'Don't touch,' and she would look at you and you could see she heard, but you'd see her hand slowly moving...
Even doctors who think ADHD may be underdiagnosed and are convinced of Ritalin's broad benefits emphasize the need to integrate drugs and behavior therapy. But it doesn't matter that children benefit from a multifaceted response if their health insurance won't pay for it. The trend over the past few years has been clear: the percentage of children with an ADHD diagnosis walking out of a doctor's office with a prescription jumped from 55% in 1989 to 75% in 1996. The number receiving psychotherapy fell from 40% in 1989 to 25% in 1996. "The reason Ritalin...
...weeks, we've seen heaven on earth," says Tim. "We have a semblance of family life." They spent a day recently at a church festival. "There were a lot of people there," Charlene says. "Normally that would produce a lot of anxiety for someone who has ADHD. But Erin had a great time." She can play games longer, take car trips, do homework. "I have a child I can relate to who is hearing me," Charlene says. "I'm not always in an adversarial situation." The fact that the medication seems to be working has liberated Charlene from irrational guilt...
...Prozac and its neurochemical cousins Zoloft and Paxil. In North America, up to 800,000 antidepressant prescriptions were written last year for children, some only five years old. A number of those kids were also taking stimulants like Ritalin, since depression can be a by-product of wrestling with ADHD...