A new report on ADHD has emerged, but instead of being a dry statistical evaluation of some clinical endpoint, it’s a lively representation of what children with ADHD themselves have to say about their condition. As the Telegraph reports:
Many are concerned that Ritalin and similar drugs, which aid concentration in those with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, are chemical straightjackets that prevent children from taking full responsibility for themselves.
But Dr Ilina Singh of King’s College London said she and colleagues found no evidence this was the case, after interviewing scores of children on the drug.
Instead she found children commonly thought it benefited them, by helping clear their heads to make the right decision. It did not “make the decision for them”, she insisted.
via Ritalin ‘doesn’t turn ADHD children into robots’ – Telegraph.
One perspective that is often AWOL from stories about neurobiological conditions is the view from those who have the condition. I’ve called before for including autistic voices in articles about autism, and that applies for ADHD, as well. That’s why I was glad to see this report from Ilina Singh, a bioethicist at King’s College London, and colleagues relaying what children with ADHD have to say about it and about the medications they take for it. The report [very large PDF], which has what I can only describe as a festive format, is not peer reviewed but does detail the inner lives of 151 UK and US children with ADHD.
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I learned about the ADHD Voices project when I contacted Singh about a New York Times article describing a doctor who doesn’t think ADHD exists but who prescribes ADHD medications on the grounds of leveling the academic playing field for low-income children. In her response, Singh alerted me to the upcoming report, funded in part by the Wellcome Trust. She also had this to say about using ADHD medications in children without the condition with the goal of boosting academic performance, a comment that the report echoes:
It’s a bad idea to use stimulants as a quick-fix educational solution anywhere, but especially in under-resourced settings. Evidence suggests (MTA Study) that stimulants don’t work to improve academic performance and they stop working over time. So pragmatically this is a bad strategy. It also leaves the social problems untouched – and I don’t accept the idea that we should give up trying to tackle those problems – especially because the environment is an integral component of a child’s behavioral and emotional health.
According to the ADHD Voices report, children with ADHD have three main concerns about their ADHD:
They want to be able to think before they act.
They want someone they can talk to about ADHD.
They wonder if they will be able to stop take ADHD medications some day.
These children often found themselves with no one to talk to about their ADHD and felt lost among educators and parents whose tactics in addressing ADHD behaviors were, let’s say, less than ideal. Even the physicians prescribing their medications spent little time discussing with them the hows and whys of the condition or the treatment. As the Telegraph article notes, doctor face-time was instead devoted to side effect checks and weigh-ins. One child, when asked what ADHD stands for, said that “ADHD is kind of like a cancer disease, but you’re not going to die from it.”
Finally, the Telegraph quotes Singh as saying,
Children value the medication because it puts them in a place where they can make good moral decisions, which is exactly what the ethicists are worried about.
This is the take-home message of the report: Children with ADHD viewed their medications as useful tools to help them with their behaviors, not as controlling drugs that hijacked their minds.
Article Link:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/emilywil...n-into-robots/
Great post JC!