Azure Jane Lunatic (Azz) 🌺 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
azurelunatic) wrote2002-10-10 11:36 am
azurelunatic) wrote2002-10-10 11:36 am
Research paper bare-bones draft/outline: ADHD vs. ritalin vs. careless doctors
Ritalin
From the 1980's on, there have been a rising number of increasingly younger children diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder/Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The standard treatment is the prescription of certain strong stimulants, such as Ritalin and Dexedrine, to allow the children to calm and focus themselves. With this information, we have to ask a few questions. Why are so many young children being given these dangerous drugs? Where did these huge numbers of ADHD children come from? What are the side effects of the medication, and how do the benefits outweigh the dangers? ADHD is being overdiagnosed in young children, and, once diagnosed, overmedicated.
ADHD was discovered.
ADHD is:
*symptoms
*proposed causes, true and false
*How it is diagnosed
-How it's supposed to be diagnosed
-How it actually is diagnosed
ADHD is typically treated:
Ritalin is, and does:
*effects on brain and body
-effects on those with ADHD
-effects on those without
*positives
*negatives
*long-term
*who it's recommended for
-that is to say, no one under 6
-who it's prescribed for (small children)
*other drugs in the same chemical family
ADHD should be the last-ditch classification, not knee-jerk answer: Why not to hastily diagnose: possible factors other than disease in childhood attention problems:
*class size
*age
*gender
*parenting
Why not to hastily diagnose: possible other diseases that can pass for ADHD:
-and why Ritalin is a Bad Thing in many of these cases
Ok, so the kid has ADHD, and was properly diagnosed. What then? In light of the problems with drugs, other solutions should be tried first.
Conclusion: While ADHD does exist, proper diagnosis of it is necessary, due to the number of more identifiable conditions that can be misidentified as ADHD by a careless doctor. Although ADHD is a very valid problem and can be combatted with drugs, the dangerous nature of the drugs involved makes it necessary that after ADHD is properly diagnosed, other solutions than drugs should be attempted first to make an attempt at a permanent solution to the problem.
From the 1980's on, there have been a rising number of increasingly younger children diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder/Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The standard treatment is the prescription of certain strong stimulants, such as Ritalin and Dexedrine, to allow the children to calm and focus themselves. With this information, we have to ask a few questions. Why are so many young children being given these dangerous drugs? Where did these huge numbers of ADHD children come from? What are the side effects of the medication, and how do the benefits outweigh the dangers? ADHD is being overdiagnosed in young children, and, once diagnosed, overmedicated.
ADHD was discovered.
ADHD is:
*symptoms
*proposed causes, true and false
*How it is diagnosed
-How it's supposed to be diagnosed
-How it actually is diagnosed
ADHD is typically treated:
Ritalin is, and does:
*effects on brain and body
-effects on those with ADHD
-effects on those without
*positives
*negatives
*long-term
*who it's recommended for
-that is to say, no one under 6
-who it's prescribed for (small children)
*other drugs in the same chemical family
ADHD should be the last-ditch classification, not knee-jerk answer: Why not to hastily diagnose: possible factors other than disease in childhood attention problems:
*class size
*age
*gender
*parenting
Why not to hastily diagnose: possible other diseases that can pass for ADHD:
-and why Ritalin is a Bad Thing in many of these cases
Ok, so the kid has ADHD, and was properly diagnosed. What then? In light of the problems with drugs, other solutions should be tried first.
Conclusion: While ADHD does exist, proper diagnosis of it is necessary, due to the number of more identifiable conditions that can be misidentified as ADHD by a careless doctor. Although ADHD is a very valid problem and can be combatted with drugs, the dangerous nature of the drugs involved makes it necessary that after ADHD is properly diagnosed, other solutions than drugs should be attempted first to make an attempt at a permanent solution to the problem.
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Bipolar disorder (yes, that young)
Abuse
Learning disabilities
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adding to list
Autism-spectrum stuff
Boredness, which can be due to giftedness
Re: adding to list
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It's just a matter of not much history of emotional imbalance at that age, because you don't have much history yet...
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*Sigh*
There was also a study done not to long ago by the NEPS (New England Psychaitric Society) on the nature of mental disorder and the perception of professionals in the field - might be worth noticing. They created a nonexistant mental disorder and disseminated it as a research project, and within months professionals were diagnosing patients with it..
Ishmael
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Ishmael
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observation aside..
It was the first time I had ever heard the words Attention Deficit.
Now, I see this word being thrown around so much, for so many kids. The parents and kids I have seen (on the job and as a camp counselor)...I mean the kids simply had an attitude problem. Their focus was just fine. But the parents provided them with no structure at home, and the kids were in charge. The only way they could get attention was if they acted out. They were young, inexperienced socially, and their parents did little or nothing except medicate them to guide them through life.
People like diagnosis b/c then it means it's not their fault and it never was. I'm glad you're doing a paper on such a worthy subject.
I'm not a doctor, so I probably don't know what I'm talking about, but I do know what I've seen in parenting structures, and it's a bad trend.
Re: observation aside..
There are a lot of things that cause the same symptoms, and it's very vital for them to be properly sorted out from each other.
Nephew is well-behaved, very social, and can't focus long -- which is perfectly normal for a six-year-old male, especially as he can spend hours playing video games. It's just, with him, a matter of finding things of interest.
The other day, I helped him spell "Oh my God! They've killed Kenny!" with his letter blocks. He got the biggest kick out of that.
kids
Luckily, my dad (a psychologist) cautioned them that Lily's behavior was normal and to avoid medicating her. And, when I was observing the girls at play, Lily was using short sentences just fine, and communicating in non-verbal ways.
Some of the problems I've observed in upper-class parents is that the mom's don't/want the kids in daycare, but they also don't have the time/patience to give a lot of communication time with the kids. It's just mom, a nanny, and child at home all day, so the kid doesn't get very well socialized until they start school.
And then you've got the working single parent category, and they are too stressed to be proactive about discipline structure, and the result is it being just easier/cheaper to put the stressed and unruly kids on drugs through Medicaid.
have you seen anything about ADHD along class lines? I'm definitely interested in what you find out in your research.
by the by, I'm so glad you are giving your Nephew a worldly education...:) My son, mimicing me, now says "Oh shoot! Where's my keys?!"
Re: kids
Kid behavior really varies. My rule is this: as long as the kid's happy and it's not causing problems...
I got the upper-class no socialization thing, and I'm a little grumped at my parents for it. Votania's got discipline structure in place, and it doesn't fall apart with new additions to the household, which is a very good thing. Nephew does test each new addition to the household to see if they'll hold him to it, though...
We're trying to cut down on some of the excessive mimicking right now. We're trying to teach him that once is enough when mimicking something; if it didn't get a reaction the first time, it probably wasn't that funny.
Re: kids
Well, I'll try not to thread out your entry too much, but I am still chuckling at the thought of "oh my god, they killed kenny!" spelled out in alphabet blocks.
Re: kids
We have an "Oh my God! They've killed Kenny!" mug, which says it when you push a little button. He loves that thing. He also plays with Mommy's Lenore dolly... He's going to grow up very well-balanced, between Lenore, the Playstation games, Star Trek from Auntie, and all the anime cartoons he watches. Not to mention knowing which way is widdershins, and that he should be banishing when running that direction...
Re: kids