Attention Deficit

The Tide of Medicine Is Rising

A great read is LIDIA WASOWICZ’s Suffer the Child: How the Healthcare System Is Failing Our Future, published by Capital Books.

Wasowicz questions the growing popularity of drug treatments as an almost reflexive action by healthcare providers. She indicates that current research shows a steady rise in the use of prescription drugs by children and adolescents, particularly among girls.

Wasowicz says in a recent article for United Press International, that “Numerous studies document the favoritism shown pharmaceuticals over non-chemical solutions. In many instances, medicines are the optimal option, but some worry parents, patients and practitioners are over-relying on drugs in certain cases at the cost of safer, less expensive and more effective alternatives.”

Some amazing statistics she provides:

177.9 "doctor visits with at least one drug" per 100 population, meaning for every infant, toddler and adolescent, there were nearly two meetings with a physician during which a pharmaceutical – prescription or not – was ordered, continued, administered or otherwise provided.

While many of these medications are beneficial like penicillins, antiasthmatics bronchodilators, antihistamines, etc, Wasowicz sites “…market analysts have noted a seismic shift is in an "unparalleled" jump in the number of adolescent girls using prescription drugs to treat diabetes, sleep disturbances and such psychological problems as ADHD.”

This is quite a good read and should accompany Dr. Lawrence H. Diller’s book, The Last Normal Child: Essays on the Intersection of Kids, Culture, and Psychiatric Drugs. Both are balanced and based on fact rather than emotional pharmaceutical smashing.

A different vantage point can be viewed in a study published in the May 2007 issue of the Journal of Attention Disorders. The authors of that study contend that ADHD has been traditionally viewed as a childhood disorder while ADHD in adults has been underdiagnosed and undertreated.

The study shows that treatment rates have been increasing in all age groups; however female patients show the greatest increase of all. The study also concluded that there exists a rapid growth of ADHD medication use in all demographic groups except seniors, with some groups showing markedly faster rates than others.

“Between 2000 and 2005, treatment rates grew more rapidly for adults than for children, more rapidly for women than for men, and more rapidly for girls than for boys. Interestingly, researchers found that methylphenidate and dextroamphetamine [Speed] use declined for both children and adults, the use of amphetamine mixtures increased for adults, atomoxetine [Strattera®]use grew rapidly across both groups, use of extended-release products increased in children more dramatically than adults, and generic ADHD medication use declined significantly in pediatric patients while remaining relatively stable in adults.”

They should thank good marketing for the shift.