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Parents Angry After School Put Autistic Son in Bag

VanceMack said:
So certain are you. Hmmm...well...I suppose they got it all figured out AFTER August 2011...

"ADHD is the most extensively studied pediatric mental health disorder, yet controversy and public debate over the diagnosis and medication treatment of the disorder continue to exist.1 Questions and concerns are raised by professionals, media commentators, and the public about the possibility of overdiagnosis of ADHD in youths and the possibility of overprescribing stimulant medications"

"The evaluation process is essentially a time-consuming cognitive endeavor of pattern matching the patient’s symptoms and disease course with what is known about the natural history of ADHD and hypothesis testing and integrating all available data. This systematic evaluation establishes that all clinical criteria for an ADHD diagnosis are met. Faced with severe payer and clinical time constraints, many physicians diagnose ADHD by emphasizing a present oriented, cross-sectional symptom evaluation. This type of evaluation may result in overdiagnosing ADHD, or underidentifying ADHD in children with complex and comorbid presentations"

But then...what would Dr Daniel Connor, the Lockean Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Chief, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine know....

Problems of Overdiagnosis and Overprescribing in ADHD - Psychiatric Times

Anyone that speaks in absolutes about such things...well...all we know for sure is THEIR mind is made up, regardless of whether or not the science can prove ANYTHING.
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present company excepted - of course [/s]
 
VanceMack said:
So certain are you. Hmmm...well...I suppose they got it all figured out AFTER August 2011...

"ADHD is the most extensively studied pediatric mental health disorder, yet controversy and public debate over the diagnosis and medication treatment of the disorder continue to exist.1 Questions and concerns are raised by professionals, media commentators, and the public about the possibility of overdiagnosis of ADHD in youths and the possibility of overprescribing stimulant medications"

"The evaluation process is essentially a time-consuming cognitive endeavor of pattern matching the patient’s symptoms and disease course with what is known about the natural history of ADHD and hypothesis testing and integrating all available data. This systematic evaluation establishes that all clinical criteria for an ADHD diagnosis are met. Faced with severe payer and clinical time constraints, many physicians diagnose ADHD by emphasizing a present oriented, cross-sectional symptom evaluation. This type of evaluation may result in overdiagnosing ADHD, or underidentifying ADHD in children with complex and comorbid presentations"

But then...what would Dr Daniel Connor, the Lockean Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Chief, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine know....

Problems of Overdiagnosis and Overprescribing in ADHD - Psychiatric Times

Anyone that speaks in absolutes about such things...well...all we know for sure is THEIR mind is made up, regardless of whether or not the science can prove ANYTHING.
Click to expand...

Did you actually read this link? Because it supports my view too. :roll:

The quotes simply state the fact that a controversy, driven mostly by a confused public and not medical expertise, exists. If you read to the end, you'd find that the author has accepted from the get-go the legitimacy of ADHD diagnoses in general and that it is probably not significantly overdiagnosed.

:roll:
 
X Factor said:
And, in the meantime, what about the other 20-30+ kids? (I know I'm late to this thread, so apologies if it's already been addressed). I'm not defending this, I don't know enough about it, but I can't help but to feel sorry for teachers. One especially disruptive kid takes focus and attention away from other kids who may need it as well but are just quiter about it.
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Teachers do, or should, get appropriate assistance in that case, such as a teacher's aide or other supports.
 
misterman said:
Teachers do, or should, get appropriate assistance in that case, such as a teacher's aide or other supports.
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but so often they don't because there are none available

locally, they eliminated assistant positions before cutting teacher positions, increasing class sizes

most teachers are - at least here - are teaching solo
 
misterman said:
True. The schools should fix that.
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if they had the money available, they would first rehire the laid off teachers and reduce the class size, before bringing back aids
 
Here's the deal with ADHD. People who don't know what they're talking about like to throw out the urban myth that it's overdiagnosed, without evidence. Is it overdiagnosed? Could be. But most of the available evidence now says it isn't. So that's that. Scientific evidence vs. urban myth.
 
misterman said:
Here's the deal with ADHD. People who don't know what they're talking about like to throw out the urban myth that it's overdiagnosed, without evidence. Is it overdiagnosed? Could be. But most of the available evidence now says it isn't. So that's that. Scientific evidence vs. urban myth.
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official over diagnoses? maybe not. but i can tell you this, every parent who has had a child, especially a boy, disrupt class on a frequent basis, has been asked whether or not the child had adhd. we stupidly expect young children to sit quietly at desks all day when it's not in their make-up to do so. we stupidly think that every child who acts differently than the others has a "syndrome". i hate it, personally. teachers and parents are ****ing lazy. engage the child, don't give him drugs. the incidence of adhd diagnoses went up tremendously when the drug companies got involved.

ADHD and the Rise in Stimulant Use Among Children, Harvard Review of Psychiatry, Informa Healthcare
 
misterman said:
Did you actually read this link? Because it supports my view too. :roll:

The quotes simply state the fact that a controversy, driven mostly by a confused public and not medical expertise, exists. If you read to the end, you'd find that the author has accepted from the get-go the legitimacy of ADHD diagnoses in general and that it is probably not significantly overdiagnosed.

:roll:
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I did, actually. And unlike you that cherry picked an abstract from pubmed (did you realize that with a few variations there are literally THOUSANDS of studies posted on pubmed on mis/over diagnosis of ADHD...to say nothing of bipolar d/o or the autism spectrum) I actually bothered to read several articles. The reality is that there ARE med doctors who diagnose without sending kids in to actually be tested. There are clinicians and psychiatrists who will pronounce people as disordered after hearing only a few short paragraphs of descriptors. We dont even know what brain chemistry is being affected, which chemicals are imbalanced and how the psychopharmaceuticals are actually working, or IF they are.

Its no wonder a well known researcher states that "With the increasing prominence of ADHD in the professional and popular literature, psychologists are often faced with many inappropriate referrals from parents and teachers. Understanding inappropriate referrals and inaccurate diagnoses is likely to have important implications for the child, the family and the school." Many people (starting with parents but often the patient themselves) will read up on the diagnosis dujoir, pronounce themselves as being so inflicted, go to a doctor and 'voila' they are said diagnosis.

No one is questioning the legitimacy of diagnosis...only the prevalence. Its not unlike the explosion of MPD diagnosis in the 70's and 80's. And we all know what happened with THAT disorder.
 
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justabubba said:
present company excepted - of course [/s]
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Its cute that you imply that I have my mind made up one way or the other.

I KNOW medical doctors with no training in the field that typically would slap labels on kids without sending them in for testing. Its one of the reasons why psych consulting is becoming far more prevalent. Sometimes its laziness...sometimes its just to shut the mother up and get her out of the office. Sometimes its arrogance (heres a shocker...MDs can be ARROGANT). Any time a child is diagnosed by an MD with a psych disorder there is a good liklihood no testing has occured and they are taking a parents word for symptoms.

Is ADHD (like many of the potential co-morbid disorders) being misdiagnosed? In many cases...absolutely. Over diagnosed? Unknown. Here is what IS known...there are some VERY GOOD doctors and clinical folks out there doing a VERY GOOD job of screening and assessing. And there are some doctors and clinicians that dont do such a good job of screening and assessing.
 
liblady said:
official over diagnoses? maybe not.
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Okay then.

but i can tell you this, every parent who has had a child, especially a boy, disrupt class on a frequent basis, has been asked whether or not the child had adhd.
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So what? If they aren't officially diagnosed, that's different. The claim was that it is overdiagnosed, and that's false.
 
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VanceMack said:
Its cute that you imply that I have my mind made up one way or the other.

I KNOW medical doctors with no training in the field that typically would slap labels on kids without sending them in for testing. Its one of the reasons why psych consulting is becoming far more prevalent. Sometimes its laziness...sometimes its just to shut the mother up and get her out of the office. Sometimes its arrogance (heres a shocker...MDs can be ARROGANT). Any time a child is diagnosed by an MD with a psych disorder there is a good liklihood no testing has occured and they are taking a parents word for symptoms.

Is ADHD (like many of the potential co-morbid disorders) being misdiagnosed? In many cases...absolutely. Over diagnosed? Unknown. Here is what IS known...there are some VERY GOOD doctors and clinical folks out there doing a VERY GOOD job of screening and assessing. And there are some doctors and clinicians that dont do such a good job of screening and assessing.
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Now this I can agree with.
 
VanceMack said:
I did, actually. And unlike you that cherry picked an abstract from pubmed (did you realize that with a few variations there are literally THOUSANDS of studies posted on pubmed on mis/over diagnosis of ADHD...
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Then post one.

I posted a metastudy encompassing most of them - and no, there aren't thousands.

No one is questioning the legitimacy of diagnosis...only the prevalence.
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There is no distinction though. If it is overprevalent, it's due to illegitimate diagnosis.
 
liblady said:
autism is becoming like adhd, the disease of the month. it's over diagnosed and misdiagnosed.
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Actually it is being seen for what it is... ADHD was not over diagnosed, it was finally diagnosed correctly. Same with Autism. They are finding that ADHD is a part of, at perhaps 20%, of the human population and has been so for thousands upon thousands of years. The best hunters and eventually soldiers had this trait. Highly intelligent and very active, athletic and coordinated. Now it is viewed as a ADHDisorder and that is a shame. We are calling people's strengths "disorders" and the term itself is offensive.
 
misterman said:
Patience is still being married.
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Not to be rude, even though your comment can be taken that way, but... that comment is steeped in ignorance.
 
Kali said:
Well you can mock me til the cats eat your face: this whole thing was wrong and the end.
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Til the cats eat my face? Should I be worried?
 
Bodhisattva said:
Not to be rude, even though your comment can be taken that way, but... that comment is steeped in ignorance.
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It was meant as a joke, based on my 15+ years of marriage.
 
j-mac said:
So you see your marriage as an exercise in patience? Sorry to hear that.


j-mac
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Although meant to be funny, that statement's actually true. Isn't it?

Patience is often the ability to overlook certain 'indiscretions' in favor of the big picture. Marriage 101. ;)
 
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misterman said:
It was meant as a joke, based on my 15+ years of marriage.
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All good then... :)

...to be serious for a second though... tough to be patient when the other has BPD and treats you like **** for 10 years and then cheats on you.
 
j-mac said:
So you see your marriage as an exercise in patience? Sorry to hear that.


j-mac
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All relationships are. I am a great dad, I pride myself in being the Super Nanny of dads and I have perhaps the two best daughters in the Northern Hemisphere and it still takes patience. Patience in relationships takes many forms and has many benefits. If one does not experience patience then they might have some issues that they are not aware of, in all honesty.
 
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