Posted by Hmmm... on October 24, 2003 at 16:32:55:
In Reply to: Re: ADHD students? posted by Dr. Doolittle on October 22, 2003 at 13:16:11:
I'm beginning to think that ADHD's over-diagnosed. Last year, I worked (or attempted to) with a 6th grade student who was extremely disruptive--talking all of the time, getting up and running around the room, tinkering with objects not his own, cursing, etc.
This year, it's like night and day--he went to live with his mother and she apparently set him right--without medication. I'm now dealing with a reasonably polite attentive student.
So, I have no doubt that a fair number of so-called "ADHD" cases are nothing more than a case of bad parenting--and believe that it's criminal to medicate these kids with drugs that have lasting permanent side effects.
Even more alarming is the growing insistence on a behavioral "norm" by the psychological profession. Read the description below that describes "Asperger's Syndrome" (which is now widely medicated) and see if you don't know more than a few adults who could fit the symptomology--including several regular contributors on this BBS.
I belive that medication may well be the last recourse to children with severe behavioral disorders, but to turn psychoactive drugs into a growth business by widening the diagnostic net is reprehensible.