Healthy Skepticism Library item: 7876

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Publication type: Journal Article

Phillips CB.
Medicine Goes to School: Teachers as Sickness Brokers for ADHD
PLoS Med 2006 Apr; 3:(4):
http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0030182

Abstract:

Over the last twenty years, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has emerged as a disorder of importance in childhood. Prescription of psychostimulants for ADHD escalated in many countries through the 1990s. Between 1990 and 1995, prescriptions of methylphenidate for young people increased 2.5-fold in the US [1], and 5-fold in Canada [2]. In New South Wales, Australia, rates of treatment for children in 2000 were nine times those in 1990 [3].

ADHD joins dyslexia and glue ear as disorders that are considered significant primarily because of their effects on educational performance. Medicalising educational performance can help children receive specialised medical and educational services; at the same time it can lead to them receiving medications or surgical therapies which may have short-term and long-term ill effects…

Notes:

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