Status As A Disorder
The controversy surrounding ADHD involves clinicians, scientists, teachers, policymakers, parents and the media with opinions regarding ADHD ranging from those who do not believe it exists to those who believe that there are genetic and physiological bases for the condition. While the existence of ADHD is generally accepted, controversy exists over the high rates of diagnosis in children and adolescents, the treatment of individuals with ADHD medically, educationally as well as legally and whether treatment should continue into adulthood. The controversies around ADHD have been on-going at least since the 1970s. In the most accepted authority on clinical diagnoses of psychological behavior, the DSM-IV, ADHD is included as a genuine disorder while significant controversy surrounds how it is diagnosed and treated.
Researchers from McMaster University identified five features of ADHD that contribute to its controversial nature:
- It is a clinical diagnosis for which there are no laboratory or radiological confirmatory tests or specific physical features.
- Diagnostic criteria have changed frequently.
- There is no curative treatment, so long-term therapies are required.
- Therapy often includes stimulant drugs that are thought to have abuse potential.
- The rates of diagnosis and of treatment substantially differ across countries.
Read more about this topic: Attention-deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Controversies
Famous quotes containing the words status as, status and/or disorder:
“As a work of art it has the same status as a long conversation between two not very bright drunks.”
—Clive James (b. 1939)
“Recent studies that have investigated maternal satisfaction have found this to be a better prediction of mother-child interaction than work status alone. More important for the overall quality of interaction with their children than simply whether the mother works or not, these studies suggest, is how satisfied the mother is with her role as worker or homemaker. Satisfied women are consistently more warm, involved, playful, stimulating and effective with their children than unsatisfied women.”
—Alison Clarke-Stewart (20th century)
“Both of us felt more anxiety about the South—about the colored people especially—than about anything else sinister in the result. My hope of a sound currency will somehow be realized; civil service reform will be delayed; but the great injury is in the South. There the Amendments will be nullified, disorder will continue, prosperity to both whites and colored people will be pushed off for years.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)