The great ADHD myth (Psychiatrist who identified ADD admits many may not be ill)

The Daily Mail (U.K.) ^ | March 9, 2007 | Jenny Hope

[Stoat]

The great ADHD myth

By JENNY HOPE - More by this author » Last updated at 22:34pm on 9th March 2007

 

Have hyperactive kids been misdiagnosed with ADD?

The psychiatrist who identified attention deficit disorder - the condition blamed for the bad behaviour of hundreds of thousands of children - has admitted that many may not really be ill.

Dr Robert Spitzer said that up to 30 per cent of youngsters classified as suffering from disruptive and hyperactive conditions could have been misdiagnosed.

They may simply be showing perfectly normal signs of being happy or sad, he said.

'Many of these conditions might be normal reactions which are not really disorders,' he continued.

Dr Spitzer developed the bible of mental disorder classification in the 1970s and 1980s, which identified dozens of new conditions including ADD and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Since then hundreds of thousands of children have been diagnosed with ADD, a behavioural disorder linked to poor attention span, and ADHD, which adds an element of hyperactivity.

The disorders describe disruptive and restless behaviour that results in children having difficulty focusing their attention on specific tasks. ADHD is most commonly noticed at the age of five, and as many as one in 30 British children is said to have it.

It is often treated with drugs, with Ritalin being the most commonly prescribed.

Some scientists say ADHD is a genetic disorder that does not disappear with adulthood.

But sceptics believe the diagnosis is a 'biobabble' label, which has evolved from a soundbite culture that is too prepared to medicalise anti-social human traits.

Dr Spitzer, professor of psychiatry at Columbia University in New York, now says the classification led to many people being diagnosed as medically disordered when their mood swings and behaviour were simply normal feelings of happiness and sadness.

In a BBC2 documentary series The Trap, which begins on Sunday, he says that between 20 and 30 per cent of mental disorder diagnoses may be incorrect.

His admission comes as figures show that the amount spent by the Health Service on drugs to treat ADHD and similar disorders in children trebled to £12 million in just five years, from 1999-2003.

Almost 400,000 British children aged between five and 19 are believed to be on the drugs - despite doctors' fears about side-effects.

That is the equivalent of every child in Britain each taking more than four doses of the drugs every year.

NHS guidelines recommend drug treatment for the most severely affected, although there have been reports of cardiovascular disorders, hallucinations and even suicidal thoughts.

There have been at least nine deaths reported to the UK's Medicinesand Healthcare products Regulatory Agency since Ritalin became available in the early 1990s.

But Dr Spitzer, who chaired the taskforce that compiled the international Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, said he is less concerned by wrong diagnoses and possible side-effects from drugs, than failing to prescribe them where needed.

'By and large the treatments for these disorders don't have serious side effects,' he told the Times Educational Supplement.

'I mean, some do, but they're not that serious, whereas the failure to treat can often be very hard on the child and on the family.'

He acknowledged that some parents put pressure on doctors to diagnose ADHD and obsessive-compulsive disorder, and prescribe drugs.

'We don't know to what extent that's been happening inappropriately,' he added.

Ian Graham, headmaster of Slindon College, an independent boys' boarding school near Arundel, West Sussex, has 20 out of 100 pupils diagnosed with attention deficit disorder and a few more with related diagnoses such as oppositional-defiant disorder.

About 17 of the boys are prescribed drugs including Ritalin, while the remainder have their condition controlled through diets that exclude chocolate, sweets or gluten.

The school also employs therapy techniques, and the old-fashioned tactic of getting pupils to run off their energy in outdoor activities.

Mr Graham said: 'I've never met a parent who is happy with the medication. They would all prefer not to use them, but to a man and woman, they all say they can't believe the change in their sons' ability to concentrate in lessons.'

[lysie]

How did we ever do it?

Lucky, for all of that, I guess. I have no complaints.

[Stoat]

Question to All:

I know that someone is maintaining a "Junk Science" pinglist, but I'm not seeing that listed at what I understand to be the latest pinglist roster

NEW FOR 2007 UPDATED MASTER List of FReeper PING LISTS; Vol. VII - JANUARY Edition!

If anyone happens to know who is maintaining that pinglist could you please either let me know or contact him / her yourself to let them know about this news item?

Thank you!

[BRITinUSA]

Home remedy for Hyper-Activity and attention deficit:

Remove foods that contain excess sugar and caffeine.

Exercise child at least once per day for at least one hour or until they collapse.

Problem solved.

[brwnsuga]

My Grand Ma always said we just needed to learn how to sit down and be quiet

Those who suffer from A.D.D. can be cured by a simple, affordable and effective a$$whippin'.....

[Popman]

A high percentage of 'Doctors' I have paid for the privilege of seeing were quacks.

Two true stories. They happened to me.

First time my senile primary care doctor put me on hypertension medication, I though I was about to die.

I eventually went to the hospital and the resident doctor who looked at me and figured out what medication I was prescribed was shocked.

He told me the medication I was put on was at least twenty years old and rarely prescribed any more, it was probably the worst medication I could have been put on.

My son has a serious ankle bone issue, the first doctor told him he would have to have his bones fussed together and be a cripple for life.

I told him to see a real doctor, today, he can run again.

[FreeReign]

If the inventor of this 'disease' says its 30% misdiagnosis then the real rate is probably 90%.

Yep, psychiatrists gone mad.

Let's medicate them.

[driftdiver]

A friend of mine was told he would have to go on hormone treatment which unfortunately would make him permenantly sterile. Tough thing to hear for a newly wed.

He got a second opinion and this doc told him it was the medicine the first doctor had prescribed.

QUACKS I SAY!!

[driftdiver]

"Lucky, for all of that, I guess. I have no complaints."

I got tons of complaints but NOBODY will listen.



:)

[Amelia]

When it came time for him to be admitted to kindergarten he was a well behaved child, but, his mom told me that the school would not accept him unless he was on Ritalin.

Did the school require all boys to be on Ritalin?

Why were they requiring it for this "well behaved child"?

I realize that due to local control, these things vary widely, but in my district, schools and teachers aren't allowed to even suggest that a child might need certain drugs or have certain conditions, because that would constitute practicing medicine without a license.

[COEXERJ145]

When I was a kid, the doctor said I had ADD because my teacher was complaining that I wasn't paying attention in class. I was put on all kinds of medication that made me constantly sick. Finally I told my parents that I would not take the medication anymore and they'd have to hold me down and force me to take it. Thankfully they didn't do this.

No one seemed to realize that the reason I wasn't paying attention in class is I found it boring. When the teacher talked about something I cared about, I would pay close attention. When she was doing math, I could have cared less.

[Stoat]

Isn't Spitzer the same guy who had homosexuality removed from the DSM back in the 70's and recently expressed his regrets at doing so?

Yes he is.  Here is an excerpt from his bio at Wikipedia;

Robert Spitzer (psychiatrist) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dr. Robert L. Spitzer is a Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University in New York City, United States. He was chair of the task force of the third edition of the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III) which was released in 1980. He has been referred to as a major architect of the modern classification of mental disorders which involves classifying mental disorders in discrete categories, with specified diagnostic criteria

Views on homosexuality

He was controversial in 1973 for arguing that homosexuality is not a clinical disorder. The mainstream psychiatric community agreed, and declassified homosexuality from its list of mental disorders.

In 2001, Spitzer delivered a controversial paper at the 2001 annual APA meeting arguing that "highly motivated" individuals could "successfully" change their sexual orientation from homosexual to heterosexual. The APA immediately issued an official disavowal of the paper, noting that it had not been peer reviewed and bluntly stating that "There is no published scientific evidence supporting the efficacy of reparative therapy as a treatment to change one's sexual orientation."^[1]

Two years later, Spitzer published the paper in the Archives of Sexual Behavior.^[2] The publication decision sparked controversy and one sponsoring member resigned in protest. The paper has been criticized on various grounds, including using non-random sampling and poor criteria for "success" ^[3].

[Stoat]

Homosexual Agenda Ping

Thanks to the sharp memory of FReeper Salvey who asked an essential question at post #5, I looked up Dr. Spitzer's bio and found that he is indeed the one who spearheaded the declassification of homosexuality as a psychiatric disorder, and then later at least partially reversed himself.

I thought that Homosexual Agenda pinglist members might be interested in this news item.

[wagglebee]

Homosexual Agenda Ping

Freepmail wagglebee or little jeremiah to subscribe or unsubscribe from the homosexual agenda ping list.

Click FreeRepublic homosexual agenda keyword search for a list of all related articles.

Add keywords homosexual agenda to flag FR articles to this ping list.

Ping to #31.

[lysie]

Did the school require all boys to be on Ritalin?

I don't know.

Why were they requiring it for this "well behaved child"?

I don't know.

After he left my care it was out of my hands.

All I know is he was a child who needed rule enforcement with no backing down. It didn't take that long to establish that. No and then stick with it and reward with a yes and stick by that.

[CatQuilt]

Yes, as Stoat verified, he is one-in-the-same...

I'm not sending any patients to him...seems he's been wrong on 2 big ones so far. What's next?!

[little jeremiah]

Interesting.

"Dr Robert Spitzer said that up to 30 per cent of youngsters classified as suffering from disruptive and hyperactive conditions could have been misdiagnosed."

My addendum - and the other 70% just needed a better diet, the TV turned off, outdoor play and exercise, and some good quality time with their parents. And no caffeine laced sodas or junk food...

Did you see this thread? More on the drug solution for kids:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1798557/posts?page=63
Law bars schools from strong-arming parents to put kids on psychotropics

[trimom]

We were told our son was ADHD. We maintained that he was a boy. It took until third grade to find a teacher that got it: he was just bored!

He's 24 and running his own business. Doing fine!

[Right Wing Assault]

If 70% are diganose correctly, then the headline is misleading.

[Volunteer]

PING

[sure_fine]

Home remedy for Hyper-Activity and attention deficit: Remove foods that contain excess sugar and caffeine. Exercise child at least once per day for at least one hour or until they collapse.

ADD: