|
Archives | (September 2003)
Printer Friendly
With A Stroke Of The Pen Part Two (cont.)
------------------------------------------------------------------ Page 2 of 6 What’s worse is that in many instances the children are being medicated despite their parent’s objections! Increasingly, local school officials are demanding that parents place their children on Ritalin even though there has been no psychiatric evaluation to determine with certainty that they have ADHD! If the parents fail to comply, school officials report them to child protective services for abuse and neglect. What remains undetermined in many cases, however, is whether the child actually has a psychological problem, of is merely active. In one example, a mother was informed that her first grade son was “talking out of turn, clowning around and not sitting still.” The teacher, who had no psychological training, filled out a psychological profile of the boy and sent it to his pediatrician who, after a cursory examination diagnosed ADHD and placed on Ritalin! If the parent did not comply and allow her child to be medicated she could be charged with child abuse! This, despite the fact that according to experts in ADHD at NIH, the disease should be addressed with a carefully structured treatment regimen beginning with behavioral interventions and using medication only as a last resort! But the real question is how many normal active children are being misdiagnosed by teachers who simply don’t want to make the effort to keep order in the classroom? The President’s Commission on Excellence in Special Education implied the number may be substantial! In a recent report it stated “ADHD is a clinical judgment that has very specific diagnostic criteria. It is widely believed, however, that many children who are identified through this process are not adequately evaluated. … Medications should have nothing to do with identification and must be done in consultation with a physician.” An article in the February issue of the American Journal of Pediatrics also provided evidence that many children are being misdiagnosed as having ADHD. It noted huge regional variations in the prescription rates for Ritalin – a sure sign that some jurisdictions are merely using the drug to control children, not to treat a disease! But that’s not all! |
|
