ADHD Drug Warnings

[AGDee]

I'm basing that statement on my experience working on child/adolescent psych units for 13 years. There were many times that we would be discussing the treatment plan of a child who was hyperactive and impulsive and the psychiatrist would immediately want to put the kid on Ritalin. The support staff didn't always agree because those symptoms can be indicative of anxiety as well and we wanted to be sure it was truly ADHD through testing, etc. The doctors had the attitude "We try him/her on Ritalin and if it gets better, then it was ADHD". I saw it thousands of times, even if the only time the child became hyper and impulsive was an hour before family therapy and was fine the rest of the day.

[Drolefille]

Originally Posted by AGDee

I'm basing that statement on my experience working on child/adolescent psych units for 13 years. There were many times that we would be discussing the treatment plan of a child who was hyperactive and impulsive and the psychiatrist would immediately want to put the kid on Ritalin. The support staff didn't always agree because those symptoms can be indicative of anxiety as well and we wanted to be sure it was truly ADHD through testing, etc. The doctors had the attitude "We try him/her on Ritalin and if it gets better, then it was ADHD". I saw it thousands of times, even if the only time the child became hyper and impulsive was an hour before family therapy and was fine the rest of the day.

I definately understand that from a psych unit perspective. I'm looking at it from a "kid goes to doctor and/or therapist" perspective. That was the info I found while doing a bit of research. Were those put down with an official diagnosis? (Wondering if that would skew the statistics)

I interned on an adult psych unit and I can't say I ended up with a lot of respect for the MDs there sadly

[AlexMack]

Originally Posted by AGDee

I'm basing that statement on my experience working on child/adolescent psych units for 13 years. There were many times that we would be discussing the treatment plan of a child who was hyperactive and impulsive and the psychiatrist would immediately want to put the kid on Ritalin. The support staff didn't always agree because those symptoms can be indicative of anxiety as well and we wanted to be sure it was truly ADHD through testing, etc. The doctors had the attitude "We try him/her on Ritalin and if it gets better, then it was ADHD". I saw it thousands of times, even if the only time the child became hyper and impulsive was an hour before family therapy and was fine the rest of the day.

It's not overdiagnosed generally, in fact it's felt that it's underdiagnosed, but in some areas it is grossly overdiagnosed which is where the hysteria about every kid in america needs ritalin comes in.
Your three year old can't pay attention? It's called being three. Your seven year old is sitting in a classroom with a group of other students, assigned to do work and wanders off because something else is more interesting? ADHD. (ME!)
Some people just don't want to deal with their kids being kids...

[AGDee]

As an OT, I often argued with the psychiatrists about some of the kids. With the kinds of tasks I did in my groups, it was pretty clear who couldn't focus ever and who had bouts of anxiety or boredom.

And yes, I was working with a unique population of kids who had a wide variety of complex behaviors that needed to be looked at. It just seemed crazy to me to diagnose by whether the meds worked or not. There is testing available and full time observation by staff in those situations.

And, as with most things, there are varying degrees. Some have only mild ADD and can learn to compensate. My ex-husband is definitely ADHD but did learn to compensate and got his MBA without meds. I sometimes wonder how he manages to be an accountant, but he did finally get a diagnosis and went on meds briefly. Because he was so adjusted to functioning in his own way, the meds threw him off kilter and he was a mess. He thought there was something really odd about focusing on one task for a couple hours at a time and it made him really uncomfortable.