EBD Blog

Over on Psych Central, John Grohol has an entry about accurate diagnosis and treatment of ADHD. Mr. Grohol, who sometimes publishes direct copies of others’ articles but appears to have written this one himself, muses about whether ADHD is over-diagnosed, referring to a couple of news stories on the topic coming from publications in Great Britain. I recently heard a local news interview with a school psychologist who also contends that ADHD is over-diagnosed and medications over-prescribed.

Although I’m sympathetic with the argument that we need to help parents and teachers use better behavior management and instructional procedures and agree that doing so would help reduce problems commonly associated with ADHD, I’d be interested in the evidence for these claims of over-diagnosis. The trick in conducting such studies, in my view, is to know a true level of ADHD so that one can assess whether prevailing levels are too high or too low. How does one determine this standard?

Link to the entry on Psych Central. The radio interview with was on With Good Reason, but that show’s Web site does not provide a link to the audio nor a transcript.