New ADHD Health Standard for Diagnosis and Treatment

Attention-deficit
hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has taken major interest in the health world in
the past decade. According to the Center of Disease Control in 2007, approximately
9.5% or 5.4 million children between the age of 4-17 have been diagnosed with
AHDH. ADHD is a common disorder,
affecting both children and adults, associated with broad functional impairment
causing a person to have; inappropriate patterns of inattention, hyperactivity,
impulsivity, difficulty organizing tasks and sustaining attention during
school, work, or leisure activity. The condition has reached beyond the
stereotype of rambunctious young boys to include both sexes of all ages. The
incidence of ADHD has increased making the need for a new standard necessary
for the public to seek accurate diagnosis and treatments. The current standard
set in place will be described as well as a description of a new health standard
including a better diagnosis for treating accurate cases of ADHD. A part of the new health standard will be
policies to make it more affordable for the public to get diagnosed and treated
with little error of misdiagnosis.
ADHD is a real issue; many people believe the
reasons for the symptoms are due to: learning disabilities, Mood disorders like
bipolar disorder, depression, and or anxiety, but with cases increasing each
year it is important for doctors and the public to be better education on the
matter. According to the National
Institutes of Health Consensus Conference in 1998, The NIH said regarding ADHD:
"We do not have an independent, valid test for ADHD, and there is no data
to indicate that ADHD is due to a brain malfunction." Currently the
awareness and knowledge of ADHD has grown with treatments but without stable
diagnosis. Millions of children in the country are being treated these addictive,
dangerous, and potentially deadly treatments. The reasoning for the new ADHD health standard
is to accurately diagnosis the condition so the children are not put in danger
from the treatments. Currently there is no single medical, physical, or other
test for diagnosing ADHD. To determine if a child has ADD/ADHD, health
professionals use a number of different tools: a checklist of symptoms, answers
to questions about past and present problems, or a medical exam to rule out
other causes for symptoms. (helpguide) Currently health professionals vary on
their knowledge of ADHD. The main experts include psychologists, psychiatrists
and family doctors (Additude). The professionals are also limited in their
treatments. It has been shown that both drugs and counseling shows best results
for treatment of ADHD. A Psychiatrist is usually the best option because they
have intense knowledge of the area and are able to prescribe medication for it,
but a disadvantage would be they are not trained in counseling or help with managing
day to day life skills. On the other hand a psychologists in trained in both
diagnosis and counseling but cannot prescribe a prescription leaving a patient
to see multiple health professional like in the case of the psychiatrist option.
A family doctor has the ability to diagnose and prescribe drugs but has a
limited knowledge of the disorder. Due to this lack of knowledge, Doctors are over
diagnosis and mis-diagnosis.
The New ADHD health standard will make all health
professionals knowledgeable of the condition and require psychiatrists and psychologists
to be trained in counseling afterwards. The diagnosis will be based on a
criteria stated within “DSM-IV Diagnostic
Criteria for ADHD” where six or more symptoms have
to be met from either a list of inattention or hyperactivity. After an
accurate diagnosis from any health professional, treatment can now be set accordingly
but the patient must maintain schedule visits with a family doctor for health
concerns and safety due to the treatments. Due to increase risk of cardiovascular disease it
necessary that patient’s young and old are monitored while taking the
stimulants. Also along with doctor visits a patient must
see a specialist in counseling either a psychologists or psychiatrists twice a month. In
bi-monthly counseling, the professional will assess the improvement in the patient’s
behavior from them personally, parents, teachers and or co-workers and bosses.
In this current economy, most families are struggling
to meet ends meet and would not be in favor of extra time and money spent
towards better diagnosis and treatment. According to article “A review of the economic burden of ADHD,”
“A growing body of literature, primarily published in the United States, has
demonstrated that ADHD places a substantial economic burden on patients,
families, and third-party payers. Results of the medical cost studies
consistently indicated that children with ADHD had higher annual medical costs
than either matched controls or non-matched controls without ADHD.” This
research study suggests that ADHD leads to increased costs in healthcare and
other domains including the families. Families affected with ADHD are already
affected socially, emotional, and finically by the condition and probably do
not want to spend more money and maintain scheduled counseling and doctor
visits. But what the families might not know is spending and investing money in
the right resources might help them in the future. According to “New Options for ADHD,” doctors discovered in the 30s that an amphetamine called Benzedrine
helped improved behavior in hyperactive kids. Since then studies have furthered
that research to include other amphetamine stimulants Dexedrine, Adderall, and methylphenidate called Ritalin
and Concerta. The biggest problem with these medications is they lack
flexibility and uniformity. For
stimulants to work they required repeated dosing during the day and do not
always provide smooth, continuous effects. This can be emotional damaging for a
family and school system to know how to deal with this issue. All kids are
different as well as ones diagnosed with ADHD, One medicine may work well for
one child, but not for another. That it is why it is extremely important to
create a standard to train health professionals to understand that ADHD is
individualized and one treatment will not always work for all but there are
side effects and health concerns for misdiagnosis. Although some state there
are no health risks as mentioned in the article “ADHD drugs do not raise heart risks”, where a study of 1.2
million US children and young adults aged 2 to 24 years old concluded that
cardiovascular problems are not associated with stimulant drugs such as Ritalin
and Adderall used in ADHD treatment.
This study might show to be true but it shows a flaw of logic. Most
cardiovascular problems start when people start getting older. The study only
uses children and young adults up to 24 years old. The study would be more
valid if they followed a Retrospective approach,
which look backward over a period of time, showing older subjects that
used the drugs that did or did not develop cardiovascular problems. The new ADHD health standard will
be costly but financial help will be set in place to help decrease the burden and
make it more affordable and cost efficient to incorporate the necessary changes.
To help fund the new health standard, medical costs to see health professionals
will be approved by insurance policies and non-profit organizations for family
services will be set up to help pay for the prescription and copay costs.
As seen, ADHD is a growing concern for everybody
because the increasing cases and the uncertainty of the diagnosis and treatment
options. The new ADHD health standard will help fix these uncertainties with
more costs which are proved to be necessary for health safety. With financial help
available for those affected, the public will sure the support the cause for
better diagnosis and treatment of ADHD.

Work
Cited:

"Attention-Deficit
/ Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Data & Statistics ." cdc.gov.
N.p., n.d. Web. 29
Nov. 2011.
.

"ADD
/ ADHD Tests and Diagnosis." helpguide.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Nov.
2011.

.

"Death
from Ritalin." ritalindeath.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2011.

.

"Titles
and job descriptions can be confusing, especially in the alphabet soup of PhDs,
M.D.s, LCSWs
and others. What difference does it make?"
additudemag.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2011.

.


additudemag.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2011.
565.html>.

"A
Review of the Economic Burden of ADHD." Cost Effectiveness and Resource
Allocation: n. pag.
resource-allocation. Web. 29 Nov.
2011. 1/5>.


"New Options for ADHD ." ebscohost: n. pag.
http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.lib.utexas.edu. Web. 29
Nov. 2011.

detail?sid=02a0ccf9-f7a5-4dcd-b993-9c88ca537b3b%40sessionmgr4&vid=1&hid=8&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2Z
Q%3d%3d#db=voh&AN=10822064>.

"ADHD
drugs do not raise heart risks." lexisnexis: n. pag. LexisNexis
Academic. Web. 29 Nov. 2011.

.