ADHD Little interest in abuse

ADHD: Little interest in abuse or neglect

11/11/2012

Once a child has the diagnosis of ADHD, clinicians are barely interested in whether psychosocial causes such as abuse or neglect play a role. London child and adolescent psychiatrist Louise Marie-Elaine Richards points to this in a study (1). In a comparison of ADHD children with children with behavioral problems, clinicians who did not know the children's diagnosis found the same number of psychosocial abnormalities in both groups. However, when they knew the diagnosis, they often overlooked such factors in ADHD (2). For the children, this must be devastating if their real suffering with the medical pseudodiagnosis ADHD is obscured and left untreated.
Richards therefore demands that the already extensively researched psychosocial factors in aetiology, diagnosis and treatment of ADHD no longer be denied. „It's time for better integration of bio-psycho-social factors in ADHD“, she rightly says.

Importance of psychosocial factors in the development of ADHD
The importance of psychosocial factors in the development of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has been significantly neglected so far. The clear links between ADHD and parental emotional health, child maltreatment, post-traumatic stress disorder, adjustment disorder, neglect, disturbed family dynamics, domestic violence, low psychosocial status, and other environmental influences should no longer be ignored. So far, clinicians have underestimated the importance of such psychosocial factors and see them at best as consequences of ADHD, but not as causes. Neurobiological research showing the influence of early abuse and adjustment disorders on brain development must also be noted.

The importance of many existing findings on the influence of psychosocial factors in ADHD for both clinicians and the general public is far-reaching, especially for our school system. The previously one-sided biological-medical disease model ADHD, which only describes behavior but does not explain it, must finally be qualified. (Conference ADHD)

Swell:
(1) Richards, LM .: It is time for a more integrated bio-psycho-social approach to 2012 Oct 26.
(2) Psychosocial adversities underestimated in hyperkinetic children. 1999 Feb; 40 (2): 259-63.