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 a, 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)
“As a work of art it has the same status as a long conversation between two not very bright drunks.”
—Clive James (b. 1939)
“[In early adolescence] she becomes acutely aware of herself as a being perceived by others, judged by others, though she herself is the harshest judge, quick to list her physical flaws, quick to undervalue and under-rate herself not only in terms of physical appearance but across a wide range of talents, capacities and even social status, whereas boys of the same age will cite their abilities, their talents and their social status pretty accurately.”
—Terri Apter (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)