You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
I write to acknowledge with thanks the timely warning from Dr Robert Furman in the April 1996 issue about the ‘epidemic’ of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, that is currently rife in the USA. Many of us involved in the treatment of children with disturbed behaviour share his concern that a similar epidemic could already be upon us here.
There is increasing realisation in this country that ADHD is unlikely to be a single disorder; the main subtypes probably reflect different causes (Taylor, 1994). The task of assessment and diagnosis only starts once the likelihood of ADHD has been recognised.
Outcome studies have shown that individuals diagnosed as having ADHD have a greatly increased risk of suffering from a further psychiatric condition in adult life.
Dr Furman's comments about the role of government and the extent to which the pharmaceutical industry funds research that supports the prescription of specified products (in this case of Methylphenidate) is a warning that we need to heed. There is an increasing climate now within the NHS for budgets to be dictated by so called market forces, with increasing emphasis to utilise brief therapeutic interventions. There is a risk that medication will be seen as providing a ‘quick fix’ for this group of problems that would otherwise take up more labour intensive interventions, in particular parental counselling and any form of psychotherapeutic work.
The recent rise in interest in ADHD/Hyperkinesis is being significantly fuelled by all branches of the media through newspaper articles and radio and television features. These are of very variable quality and many are dangerously misleading about the nature of these syndromes, often being over simplistic in their reporting with a tendency to encourage parents to demand medication for any child with behavioural problems without any recognition that the causes of those problems may be multifactorial and medication in many cases quite inappropriate. It is