ADHD is not real
[h="1"]Children's hyperactivity 'is not a real disease', says US expert[/h]Neuroscientist says children are being 'labelled' as having ADHD when there could be other reasons for their disorder
One of the world's leading neuroscientists, whose work has been acknowledged by work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith, has suggested that attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is not "a real disease".
On the eve of a visit to Britain to meet Duncan Smith and the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, Dr Bruce D Perry told the Observer that the label of ADHD outlined a broad set of symptoms. "It is best thought of as a description. If you look at how you end up with that label, it is remarkable because any one of us at any given time would fit at least a couple of those criteria," he said.
Prescriptions for methylphenidate drugs, such as Ritalin, which are used to treat children diagnosed as suffering from ADHD, have soared by 56% in the UK, from 420,000 in 2007 to 657,000 in 2012. Such "psychostimulants" are thought to stimulate a part of the brain that changes mental and behavioural reactions.
However, Perry, a senior fellow of the ChildTrauma Academy in Houston, Texas, said he was concerned that children were being labelled as having ADHD when that merely described the symptoms of a range of different physiological problems. The symptoms that lead to a diagnosis of ADHD include inattentiveness, hyperactivity and impulsiveness over a sustained period.
Perry added that clinicians were also too readily prescribing psychostimulants to children when the evidence suggested there were no long-term benefits. Animal studies have raised concerns over the potential for damage to be done.
Perry, who will also meet cabinet secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood during his visit as a guest of the Early Intervention Foundation, a charity aimed at tackling the root causes of childhood dysfunctions, said: "We are very immature in our current evolution in giving diagnoses. A hundred years ago, someone would come to the doctor and they would have chest pain and would be sweating. And they would say, 'Oh, you have fever.' They would label it, just like we label it [ADHD] now. It's a description rather than a real disease."
He added: "If you give psychostimulants to animals when they are young, their rewards systems change. They require much more stimulation to get the same level of pleasure.
"So on a very concrete level they need to eat more food to get the same sensation of satiation. They need to do more high-risk things to get that little buzz from doing something. It is not a benign phenomenon.
"Taking a medication influences systems in ways we don't always understand. I tend to be pretty cautious about this stuff, particularly when the research shows you that other interventions are equally effective and over time more effective and have none of the adverse effects. For me it's a no-brainer."
Perry said he favoured an approach that went back to the root causes of the problem, and often required attention being focused on the parents. "There are number of non-pharmacological therapies which have been pretty effective. A lot of them involve helping the adults that are around children," he said.
"Part of what happens is if you have an anxious, overwhelmed parent, that is contagious. When a child is struggling, the adults around them are easily disregulated too. This negative feedback process between the frustrated teacher or parent and disregulated child can escalate out of control.
"You can teach the adults how to regulate themselves, how to have realistic expectations of the children, how to give them opportunities that are achievable and have success and coach them through the process of helping children who are struggling.
"There are a lot of therapeutic approaches. Some would use somato-sensory therapies like yoga, some use motor activity like drumming.
"All have some efficacy. If you can put together a package of those things: keep the adults more mannered, give the children achievable goals, give them opportunities to regulate themselves, then you are going to minimise a huge percentage of the problems I have seen with children who have the problem labelled as ADHD."
The chairman of the Early Intervention Foundation, Labour MP Graham Allen, said Perry was the "best in his field" and was meeting senior officials and politicians already "convinced by the philosophy of his research. I would argue that if you can diminish adverse childhood experience, then we eliminate a lot of the causes of dysfunction."
One of the world's leading neuroscientists, whose work has been acknowledged by work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith, has suggested that attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is not "a real disease".
On the eve of a visit to Britain to meet Duncan Smith and the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, Dr Bruce D Perry told the Observer that the label of ADHD outlined a broad set of symptoms. "It is best thought of as a description. If you look at how you end up with that label, it is remarkable because any one of us at any given time would fit at least a couple of those criteria," he said.
Prescriptions for methylphenidate drugs, such as Ritalin, which are used to treat children diagnosed as suffering from ADHD, have soared by 56% in the UK, from 420,000 in 2007 to 657,000 in 2012. Such "psychostimulants" are thought to stimulate a part of the brain that changes mental and behavioural reactions.
However, Perry, a senior fellow of the ChildTrauma Academy in Houston, Texas, said he was concerned that children were being labelled as having ADHD when that merely described the symptoms of a range of different physiological problems. The symptoms that lead to a diagnosis of ADHD include inattentiveness, hyperactivity and impulsiveness over a sustained period.
Perry added that clinicians were also too readily prescribing psychostimulants to children when the evidence suggested there were no long-term benefits. Animal studies have raised concerns over the potential for damage to be done.
Perry, who will also meet cabinet secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood during his visit as a guest of the Early Intervention Foundation, a charity aimed at tackling the root causes of childhood dysfunctions, said: "We are very immature in our current evolution in giving diagnoses. A hundred years ago, someone would come to the doctor and they would have chest pain and would be sweating. And they would say, 'Oh, you have fever.' They would label it, just like we label it [ADHD] now. It's a description rather than a real disease."
He added: "If you give psychostimulants to animals when they are young, their rewards systems change. They require much more stimulation to get the same level of pleasure.
"So on a very concrete level they need to eat more food to get the same sensation of satiation. They need to do more high-risk things to get that little buzz from doing something. It is not a benign phenomenon.
"Taking a medication influences systems in ways we don't always understand. I tend to be pretty cautious about this stuff, particularly when the research shows you that other interventions are equally effective and over time more effective and have none of the adverse effects. For me it's a no-brainer."
Perry said he favoured an approach that went back to the root causes of the problem, and often required attention being focused on the parents. "There are number of non-pharmacological therapies which have been pretty effective. A lot of them involve helping the adults that are around children," he said.
"Part of what happens is if you have an anxious, overwhelmed parent, that is contagious. When a child is struggling, the adults around them are easily disregulated too. This negative feedback process between the frustrated teacher or parent and disregulated child can escalate out of control.
"You can teach the adults how to regulate themselves, how to have realistic expectations of the children, how to give them opportunities that are achievable and have success and coach them through the process of helping children who are struggling.
"There are a lot of therapeutic approaches. Some would use somato-sensory therapies like yoga, some use motor activity like drumming.
"All have some efficacy. If you can put together a package of those things: keep the adults more mannered, give the children achievable goals, give them opportunities to regulate themselves, then you are going to minimise a huge percentage of the problems I have seen with children who have the problem labelled as ADHD."
The chairman of the Early Intervention Foundation, Labour MP Graham Allen, said Perry was the "best in his field" and was meeting senior officials and politicians already "convinced by the philosophy of his research. I would argue that if you can diminish adverse childhood experience, then we eliminate a lot of the causes of dysfunction."
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Original post by Aylish
I've read about this, but how much evidence do they have to have to prove it dosn't exist?
I have no idea - And I don't know how to treat my pupils who have been diagnosed to have ADHD and are on medication in light of this.
Original post by clh_hilary
I have no idea - And I don't know how to treat my pupils who have been diagnosed to have ADHD and are on medication in light of this.
My mum who was a teacher used to give them one to one support, keeping the parents updated and one of them made it into the secondary school, i went to when otherwise he wouldn't have got in. so maybe one to one supports the way forward.
Original post by Aylish
My mum who was a teacher used to give them one to one support, keeping the parents updated and one of them made it into the secondary school, i went to when otherwise he wouldn't have got in. so maybe one to one supports the way forward.
Not necessary actually. I have a friend who had ADHD and got no support. He got very good grades.
Original post by clh_hilary
Not necessary actually. I have a friend who had ADHD and got no support. He got very good grades.
I was just meerly stating what could be done to help them.
Their are always exceptions but most ADHD students would need support in class.
without support they risk disrupting the class, not getting the education they deserve.
I know someone who got thrown out of their school for having ADHD because they were disruptive but instead of the school giving support to the student they took the easy way out.
Original post by Aylish
I was just meerly stating what could be done to help them.
Their are always exceptions but most ADHD students would need support in class.
without support they risk disrupting the class, not getting the education they deserve.
I know someone who got thrown out of their school for having ADHD because they were disruptive but instead of the school giving support to the student they took the easy way out.
Their are always exceptions but most ADHD students would need support in class.
without support they risk disrupting the class, not getting the education they deserve.
I know someone who got thrown out of their school for having ADHD because they were disruptive but instead of the school giving support to the student they took the easy way out.
The approach I am seeing now is to tolerate and let them be within reasons. But if they do not actually have anything wrong then it means they should be subjected to the same expectations teachers have for other misbehaving children.
I feel a bit awkward about this since I have ADD - Attention Deficit Disorder, so no hyperactivity.
Does this include me? Am I being dumb? Have I just spent the years since I was diagnosed with it under false belief?
Much confusion.
Does this include me? Am I being dumb? Have I just spent the years since I was diagnosed with it under false belief?
Much confusion.
Original post by clh_hilary
I have no idea - And I don't know how to treat my pupils who have been diagnosed to have ADHD and are on medication in light of this.
As you're expected to by the school, and as the law dictates. If you don't you may find yourself in serious trouble.
Original post by River85
As you're expected to by the school, and as the law dictates. If you don't you may find yourself in serious trouble.
That user is in Hong Kong.
Original post by Yi-Ge-Ningderen
That user is in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong still has its Disability Discrimination Ordinance, does it not? Though I can't say I know much of it, and how well covered students with ADHD in education are.
I have ADHD, but I wouldn't say I'm badly behaved, just easily distracted and fidgety if I'm not interested in something.
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That description can apply to anyone.
Original post by majmuh24
I have ADHD, but I wouldn't say I'm badly behaved, just easily distracted and fidgety if I'm not interested in something.
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Original post by tehforum
ADHD = middle class way of justifying poor parenting.
Discuss.
Discuss.
I don't think it's a 'real' illness or condition. Just kids not paying attention.
Original post by tehforum
That description can apply to anyone.
It can, but I have been diagnosed with it as well. It may just be an bad decision on the part of the doctor, but from what I've heard the conditions are pretty common so it's hard to diagnose, and a checklist is normally used. If someone exhibits a certain amount of conditions, they are though to have it.
Check the wiki article out, I'm not too sure.
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There's a long running issue that the psychiatric profession have a tendency to label things quickly and simplistically, using not very precise or scientifically robust methods. These 'broad brush' labels get picked up by the media and then by the drug industry, who produce 'medications' for vague or even non-existent conditions. Often these medications have harmful side effects and turn out on close examination and in hindsight to have been the wrong thing entirely. We should never underestimate how powerful the psycho-pharma industry is, the profits to be made from new conditions and the propaganda machine announcing them.
Meanwhile, back in the real world, there doubtless are some children with some sort of real medical issue who display 'ADD' or 'ADHD' and there are also a lot of children who have simply been labelled that, lazily in some cases, in order to medicate them, often with very harmful long term consequences.
This is also of course a gift to reactionary politicians like Duncan Smith, who support a Victorian hang 'em and flog 'em and give 'em five cold showers a day educational methodology.
It's rare for proper scientific discussion or real practical knowledge to burst through all this and for a proper discussion to take place that carefully considers the evidence.
Meanwhile, back in the real world, there doubtless are some children with some sort of real medical issue who display 'ADD' or 'ADHD' and there are also a lot of children who have simply been labelled that, lazily in some cases, in order to medicate them, often with very harmful long term consequences.
This is also of course a gift to reactionary politicians like Duncan Smith, who support a Victorian hang 'em and flog 'em and give 'em five cold showers a day educational methodology.
It's rare for proper scientific discussion or real practical knowledge to burst through all this and for a proper discussion to take place that carefully considers the evidence.
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