ADHD - Diagnosis, Treatment and Careful Management

In recent years, ADHD has received more and more public attention. Rates of diagnosis have increased in children nationwide – 11% of all American children had been diagnosed with ADHD as of 2011, compared to 7.8% in 2003 and 9.5% in 2007.[i] Understandably, such an increase has provoked skepticism and concern about the validity of the diagnosis, particularly as treatment for the disorder usually involves stimulant medications that can be easily abused. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why, in 2011 CDC data, statistics showed that less than a third of all US children over 6 with ADHD were receiving both medication and behavioral therapy as is generally recommended, and nearly 20% of children with the disorder were receiving neither.[ii] Plenty of people are skeptical about whether ADHD is all that serious a problem, when many of the symptoms seem to be simply magnified versions of normal behavior for children.