False diagnoses Often ADHD diagnoses in early school children

Early school children often receive ADHD diagnosis
Children who are enrolled at an early age are more likely to get the diagnosis of ADHD and related medications than older classmates of theirs, according to a study. Experts believe that the diagnoses are in many cases incorrect.

Frequent ADHD diagnoses in early school children
According to a new study by scientists from the Supply Atlas in cooperation with the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, children who have been diagnosed early on receive the diagnostic attention deficit / hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and corresponding medication more often than their older classmates. The investigation on the developmental disorder also called "zappelphilipp syndrome" was published on the portal "versorgungsatlas.de". Already in the past years studies have come to similar conclusions. An ADHD diagnosis hits especially the youngest, was about the conclusion of an investigation of the AOK last year. For the current study billing and drug prescription data of seven million children and adolescents from the years 2008 to 2011 were evaluated.

ADHD diagnoses mostly affects the little ones. Picture: Kitty - fotolia

Doubts about the diagnosis
As the news agency dpa reports, showed that of the children who were six years old shortly before the deadline for enrollment, 5.3 percent in the course of the next few years, the diagnosis of ADHD. 4.3 percent of the children about one year older were examined. Martin Holtmann, child and adolescent psychiatrist at the LWL-Universitätsklinik Hamm doubts that the diagnoses are all right. He told the "Süddeutsche Zeitung" (SZ): "It is likely that the children are rather negative because of their relative immaturity in the classroom."

Characteristics are heavily dependent on age
"You automatically compare the children within a class community," says Holtmann. Naturally, the youngest were fidgety. The child and adolescent psychotherapist Manfred Döpfner from the University of Cologne explained in the SZ that the characteristics of ADHD such as inability to concentrate, inner restlessness and impulsivity, are strongly age-dependent: "A younger child often has greater difficulties, the requirements of endurance and concentration But the teachers are largely the same demands on all children in a class.

Doctors can be influenced
And doctors are infected in their diagnoses, among other things, by annoyed teachers or desperate parents, worried that their offspring could be hung up at school. "Child psychiatrists do not put their diagnoses in a vacuum," says Holtmann. Ultimately, it depends on the strength and willingness of teachers to catch or write off the "hyperactive". As the Munich researchers also found in their study, the diagnosis of ADHD is often made in early school children, when classes are very large or many foreign children belong to it. However, it is assumed that the agile youngest under difficult teaching conditions are simply particularly negative.

Unnecessary medication
As a result of incorrectly diagnosing ADHD, it also results in unnecessary drug treatment. Such medications can negatively impact sleep and growth and increase the risk of heart problems. Although a study in this country, the Ritalin prescription for ADHD has declined, but according to a UN drug report is more and more abuse worldwide with ADHD drugs. Thus, many healthy people take such medicines to concentrate better and to become more efficient.

Later school enrollment can be a solution
But if there is actually ADHD, the funds are very helpful. "For a child with ADHD, treatment can be a blessing, because after a long period of refusal and feeling unwell, such a child can be integrated into the social community," said psychiatrist Holtmann. "But a non-indicated treatment in a child who is not sick, but just young, should be avoided at all costs." The psychologist Manfred Döpfner drew yet another consequence from the study: "I tend to recommend the later enrollment of a child especially if it is in some aspects delayed development and it is harder for him to sit still and concentrate. "But he said that it was not a solution to let all children" another year at home ". "Especially the fit in the last kindergarten year are often under-challenged, they are bored to death." According to experts, rather the "relative maturity". In the end, kids should like to go to school - no matter what their age. (Ad)