Misdiagnosis Of Adhd Essay

The medical field, a growing field in which discoveries are made on a day to day basis provide most diagnostics. This being the case, a lot of doctors within the field often misdiagnose the patient; ADHD and bipolar disorder are usually the results of this growing epidemic.“ADHD has become, by far, the most diagnosed condition in America medicine.”(Schwarz,1) This statement alone should bring concern since the disorder is a tricky and serious disorder. Doctors, patients, researchers and studies all have a different opinion or view on the misdiagnosis of ADHD and Bipolar Disorder. Exactly what is Bipolar Disorder and ADHD? What makes them the most commonly misdiagnosed mental disorder?

ADHD and Bipolar disorder are two commonly heard disorders

Between 1980 and 2007, there was an almost 8-fold increase in ADHD prevalence in the United States compared with rates of 40 years ago. Considering the prevalence of school-administered stimulants as synonymous with the prevalence of ADHD, Safer and colleagues3,4 estimated the prevalence of ADHD in American schoolchildren as 1% in the 1970s, 3% to 5% in the 1980s, and 4% to 5% in the mid to late 1990s. In 2007, using data from the National Survey of Children’s Health, Visser and colleagues5 reported that 7.8% of youths aged 4 to 17 years had a diagnosis of ADHD and 4.3% reported current use of a medication for the disorder.](Connor,www.psychiatrictimes.com) “The Daily Mail warned that some children diagnosed with ADHD were being given “needless and possibly harmful” treatment. The Independent talked about “Hyperactive UK” as prescriptions for drugs used in ADHD, such as Ritalin, have “soared” 50% in five years”(www.nhs.uk) These statistics alone should bring awareness or at least suspicion to the growing numbers of children diagnosed and medicated for this particular