Report:
43 Percent Increase in ADHD Diagnosis for U.S. Children Between 2003-2011
by
Dr. Susan Berry 25 Dec 2015
A
report finds the overall number of children in the United States diagnosed with
Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) jumped 43 percent between 2003
and 2011.
In
2003, 7.8 percent of 3-17 year-olds were diagnosed with ADHD, but in 2011 12
percent of children and teens had the diagnosis. According to researchers Dr.
Sean Cleary of the Milken Institute School
of Public Health at George Washington University and Kevin Collins of Mathematica
Policy Research, the analysis finds that 5.8 million U.S. children
between the ages of 5 and 17 now have the ADHD diagnosis.
The
analysis, published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, used the reports
of ADHD diagnosis by parents – data that was sponsored by the Maternal and
Child Health Bureau and the National Center for Health Statistics of the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) –
during the period between 2003 and 2011.
“We
found rising rates of ADHD overall and very sharp jumps in certain subgroups,”
Cleary said, according to Science
Daily.
Specifically,
the researchers found the 43 percent increase in parent-reported ADHD overall
among children. For children aged 10–14 years the increase was 47
percent over the eight-year period, and the jump for teens between 15–17
years was 52 percent.
In
addition, ADHD prevalence was found highest among whites, though increases were
observed for all racial/ethnic groups with the most remarkable among Hispanics
where an increase of 83 percent was found from 2003 to 2011. Researchers also
found a greater increase in ADHD among females – 55 percent – compared with
males at 40 percent.
According
to the American Psychological Association (APA), the U.S.
Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) raised the quota for production of stimulant
medications used to treat ADHD – such as Adderall and Ritalin – when it was discovered
that demand for the drugs outpaced supply and pharmacies were sold out.
Psychologist
Dr. Stephen Hinshaw and health economist Dr. Richard Scheffler examined the
issues surrounding the jump in ADHD diagnoses in their book, The ADHD Explosion: Myths, Medication,
Money, and Today’s Push for Performance.
“The
hard part is that ADHD is just like depression, just like autism, just like
schizophrenia in that it’s a symptom-based mental disorder,” Hinshaw told APA.
“We don’t have a blood test or a brain scan yet that’s definitive. I believe
that ADHD is a real condition, but it’s on a spectrum, just the way that high
blood pressure and autism are. It’s always a bit arbitrary as to who is
actually above the cut and who is below because we don’t know exactly where the
cut is.”
Hinshaw
said after exploring many factors that might account for the varying state and
regional rates of ADHD diagnosis, the researchers ultimately could not explain
the major differences.
Looking
outside of psychology and the health care system, however, the researchers said
they found their answer in education.
Scheffler
observes:
We
found that during the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s, several states
passed consequential accountability laws, which basically changed the
philosophy of schools: Instead of funding schools based on the number of
students in them, funding became based on their students’ standardized math and
reading test scores. Schools were rewarded for doing better. At the same time,
standardized test scores in the South were the lowest in the nation — and as a
result, these states didn’t get as much funding.
That’s
when we knew we were onto something, because if you want to improve test
scores, one way of doing that is to have children diagnosed so you can get
extra money from the school district to help tutor them or put them in smaller
classes. Basically, you diagnose these kids because improving their performance
helps the school’s performance.
Some
states even allowed you to take students diagnosed with ADHD out of the pool
that was used to judge your school, with the understanding that these kids
probably perform lower, and if you have more of them, that shouldn’t be held
against you.
The
researchers were able to compare 30 states that passed accountability laws
prior to 2002 – when No Child Left Behind (NCLB) went into effect, thereby
setting standards and establishing measurable goals in order to close the
achievement gap between white and minority students – to the 20 states that did
not have accountability laws until NCLB took effect.
Hinshaw
explains the results:
What
we found was that standards-based education reform had likely played a large
role in the nation’s huge increase in ADHD diagnoses. Between 2003 and 2007, in
those 20 states that didn’t get consequential accountability until No Child
Left Behind was implemented, we found a 59 percent increase in ADHD diagnoses
among children who were within 200 percent of the federal poverty limit — so among
the poorest kids in the state. Among middle- or upper-class kids in those
states, there was only a 3 percent increase in ADHD diagnosis. That’s a huge
and statistically significant difference. But in states that had already passed
the accountability laws before No Child Left Behind, rates of ADHD diagnosis
only went up 20 percent, which is pretty much the national average, and there
was no difference between poor and rich kids.
Hinshaw
says that while the study did not prove a causal relationship between
consequential accountability and the high rate of ADHD diagnosis, the data show
a “really strong association.”
“[A]nd
it’s almost a smoking gun that when test scores really, really count in the
public schools, for the poorest kids in a state, ADHD diagnoses go up
dramatically shortly thereafter,” he asserted.
Now
that NCLB is history, and the latest version of the Elementary and Secondary
Education Act – the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) – has been signed into
law, establishment Washington Republicans have boasted that the new law reduces the federal
footprint on education, returns education to the states, and stops the federal
government from mandating the Common Core nationalized
standards.
“In
fact, ESSA will have pretty much the opposite effect,” writes Jane Robbins,
senior fellow at American Principles Project, at The Pulse 2016. “It lays out
particular requirements for state standards and uses code language throughout
that gives the federal government the tools to pressure the states to stick
with Common Core rather than risking their federal money by adopting something
better.”
“It
maintains the federally dictated testing regimen and requires states to
implement assessments that are expensive, that have been proven to be
ineffective and unworkable, and that operate not by assessing students’
academic knowledge but rather by measuring their attitudes and dispositions,”
she continues.
Since
a strong association has been found between consequential accountability in
schools and rate of ADHD diagnosis, there is no indication the rate of ADHD
diagnosis will fall any time soon and fewer children will be medicated.
As
Education Week observes, with ESSA, the U.S. Department
of Education must still approve
states’ “interim tests” that will provide “summative results” for the purpose
of accountability, but how this is done is yet to be determined because the
“administrative state” makes the rules on that point.
“Which
interim tests the U.S. Department of Education will consider acceptable for
summative results is an open question, since regulations and guidance on the
new law haven’t been written yet,” the report states. “And states will have to
prove to the Education Department that their tests are valid for their intended
purpose.”
Novartis
Pharmaceuticals Corporation (Ritalin)
Ritalin
Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation
Daniel Vasella was the chairman
for Novartis AG, and is a trustee at
the Carnegie Endowment for International
Peace (think tank).
William W. George was a director at
Novartis AG, and a trustee at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
(think tank).
Open Society
Foundations
was a funder for the Carnegie Endowment
for International Peace (think tank), and the Economic Policy Institute.
George Soros is the founder
& chairman for the Open Society
Foundations, and was the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open
Society.
Foundation to
Promote Open Society
was a funder for the Carnegie Endowment
for International Peace (think tank), the Brookings Institution (think
tank), the Economic Policy Institute,
and the Aspen Institute (think tank).
Donald Kennedy was a trustee at
the Carnegie Endowment for International
Peace (think tank), an editor-in-chief for Science (a media company), and a commissioner for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Margaret A.
Hamburg
was a commissioner for the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration (FDA), and is the VP for the Nuclear Threat Initiative (think tank).
Ronald L. Olson
is a director at the Nuclear Threat
Initiative (think tank), a trustee at the RAND Corporation, and a director at Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
RAND Corporation
was a funder for the Mathematica Policy
Research.
Warren E. Buffett
is the chairman & CEO for Berkshire
Hathaway Inc, and an adviser for the Nuclear
Threat Initiative (think tank).
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank) was a
funder for the Nuclear Threat Initiative
(think tank).
Jessica Tuchman Mathews is a director at the Nuclear
Threat Initiative (think tank), was the president of the Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace (think tank), a director at the American
Friends of Bilderberg (think tank), an honorary trustee at the Brookings
Institution (think tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference
participant (think tank).
Ed Griffin’s interview with Norman Dodd in 1982
(The investigation into the Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace uncovered the plans for population control by involving the
United States
in war)
Mark B. McClellan was a senior fellow at
the Brookings Institution (think tank), and a commissioner for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Diane S. Ravitch was a senior
fellow at the Brookings Institution (think tank), a Common Core educational standards critic, and was an assistant
secretary for the U.S. Department of
Education.
Ann M. Fudge is a trustee at
the Brookings Institution (think tank), a member of the National Commission on Fiscal
Responsibility and Reform, a director at the Novartis AG, and a U.S. program advisory panel chair for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Paul Ryan is a member of
the National Commission on Fiscal
Responsibility and Reform, and a member & speaker for the U.S. House of Representatives.
John A. Boehner was a member
& speaker for the U.S. House of
Representatives, a sponsor for the No
Child Left Behind Act, and is a member of the Burning Tree Club.
Jack Valenti was a member of
the Burning Tree Club, and a trustee
at the Aspen Institute (think tank).
National
Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform is a paid for
staff by the Economic Policy Institute.
Jared Bernstein
was an economist at the Economic Policy
Institute, and is a fellow at the Milken
Institute.
Andrew L. Stern is a member of
the National Commission on Fiscal
Responsibility and Reform, a director at the Economic Policy Institute, and a lifetime trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank).
Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation
was a funder for the Aspen Institute
(think tank).
Bloomberg Family
Foundation
was a funder for the Aspen Institute
(think tank), and the CDC Foundation.
CDC Foundation is a foundation
for the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC).
Jeb Bush is a director at
the Bloomberg Family Foundation, and
a Common Core educational standards supporter.
Achieve Inc.
helped develop the Common Core
educational standards.
Carnegie
Corporation of New York was a funder
Common Core educational standards, and the Nuclear Threat Initiative (think tank).
Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace (think
tank) was a funder for the Nuclear
Threat Initiative (think tank).
Daniel Vasella is a
trustee at the Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace (think tank), and was the chairman for Novartis AG.
William W. George
was a trustee at the Carnegie Endowment
for International Peace (think tank), and a director at Novartis AG.
Novartis
Pharmaceuticals Corporation is a U.S. affiliate of Novartis AG.
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