The ADHD diagnosis is an important first step to helping children recover from severe inattention or hyperactivity.  Unfortunately, the world of medicine is very rushed, and it’s easy for doctors to make the ADHD diagnosis without proper evaluation.  Here are five common mistakes by doctors that often lead to an ADHD misdiagnosis.

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News of children dying due to an overdose of ADHD medications and antipsychotics have made more parents aware about the issue of using such drugs to “cure” behavioral problems in children.  While these tragic occurrences show the most extreme outcome of the issue, they serve as a good reminder of the decisions parents must face, especially when their children receives the ADHD diagnosis.  Should you medicate your child in the hopes of getting good behavior? Here is a straightforward look at what these stimulants can do to your child.

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Children with ADHD are by no means easy to deal with, even when they’re already taking ADHD treatments that will help them focus or keep them calm. When the treatments don’t quite deliver the results they promise, families and teachers get frustrated and feel at a loss as to what to do next. Let’s examine five reasons that explain why ADHD treatments sometimes fail.

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Pharmaceutical companies must be having a field day. A recent study conducted at the University of Pennsylvania found no support for the belief that ADHD medication like Ritalin and Adderall increased the risk of cardiovascular complications among patients. After reviewing the records of more than 241,000 children and adolescents on the drugs from five different states, Dr. Sean Hennessy and his team of researchers concluded that taking medication for ADHD did not increase the chance of heart disease or cardiac arrest among younger folk. In other words, this study effectively declared ADHD as safe for children.  But is it really as harmless as the study claims?

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Strattera (atomexetine), a drug initially designed to treat depression, is now a popular medication for ADHD and thought to be a safer alternative to Ritalin. Unlike Ritalin, it’s not a stimulant, which means there’s little potential for abuse. It was also thought to be safe and effective for young children, although this has not been studied until recently. A new study published in the journal Pediatrics on March 21 reviewed the use of Strattera on 5- and 6-year olds with ADHD and found mixed results.

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As students struggled to study for their final exams before the holidays, I noticed that news reports about Adderall use in campus began to appear more frequently. Adderall is a long-acting amphetamine used to treat ADHD, with effects that last up to 10 hours.  It’s ability to boost focus, concentration, memory, and energy levels make it a popular drug among young professionals and college students, who need them to enhance performance. But does Adderall really work for this purpose?

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It’s hardly surprising to learn that more children receive the ADHD diagnosis today.  A new report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) discovered that the number of ADHD diagnosis among children in the United States went up 22% in four years – from 7.8% in 2003 to 9.5% in 2007. These findings are certainly consistent with other research on the rapid rise of the ADHD diagnosis around the world. However, I’m more interested in finding out why this is happening. What could be causing this so-called ADHD epidemic? Here, I posit four possible reasons.

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If ADHD medications like Ritalin are chemically similar to substances like cocaine and amphetamines, does that mean they are addictive? Technically, the answer is no.  Although both Ritalin (methylphenidate) and cocaine stimulate the production of dopamine, Ritalin takes longer to metabolize while cocaine works instantly. For pleasure-seeking recreational users who want the immediate gratification of stimulants, this makes all the difference in the world.  The effects of cocaine wear off faster than Ritalin, causing the user to crave for more drugs to sustain the high. Based on this major difference, experts conclude that ADHD medications metabolize too slowly to be habit-forming – as long as kids and teens take their pills as instructed by their doctor, that is.

But as it turns out, not all teens that use ADHD medications take them as prescribed.  In fact, many of them might not even have ADHD. According to a new study published in the journal Pediatrics, the number of teens who overdosed on ADHD medications rose 76% over the last seven years.

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Stimulant medications are not the only drugs used to treat ADHD in children.  Over the last several years, doctors have been turning to antidepressant medications like Desipramine and Imipramine for various reasons. Sometimes, these drugs are prescribed because of a co-morbid mood disorder like depression or anxiety.  In other cases, anti-depressants are given when stimulants fail to yield positive results.  Many believe that the increase in the use of anti-depressants for ADHD is a response to popular media’s criticism of stimulant medications and its harmful side effects. But are anti-depressants necessarily more effective and safe than stimulant medications? Can mood disorders and behavioral problems be treated naturally?

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While stimulant medications have helped some children reduce their hyperactivity and inattention, we cannot ignore the fact that a number of children need a more comprehensive treatment for ADHD. Not only do ADHD medications fail to work in the long run, but they also carry serious long-term side effects. Unfortunately, it’s a lot easier to get children and parents to agree to use stimulant drugs. According to a study published in Pediatrics, one in 20 American children received free drug samples from their doctors a year. As for those who decided to take prescription medications that year, almost one in 10 received a free sample. However, the study points out that these free samples may be unsafe.

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