Diagnosing Children Research Paper

Nathan Morse
ENC 1101, 6:30-9:50
Essay #3 Final Draft
June 13, 2016
Are We Helping or Hurting Children: As the nation’s children grow to be more and more reliant on antibiotics and medication the problem only increases as generations go by. What is not realized or discussed, as much as it should be, are the consequences of over diagnosing children and the resulting medication treatments. Instead of making children stronger and healthier over-medicating and over diagnosing can cause children to be worse off by suffering the effects from drugs. While there are numerous mental disorders that are relevant to the topic of over diagnosing and medicating I will focus on Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)/Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
In the article she explains, “In some cases, for example, the symptoms of ADHD can look similar to Bipolar disorder in children. Currently there is debate about whether or not Aspergers is simply a subset of Autism, another diagnosis that has increased a great deal in frequency.” There are mental disorders which have large comorbidity, like that of ADHD and Bipolar disorder; consequently making over-diagnosing incredibly easy. Smithstein’s article also presents a seemingly overlooked, but reasonable counter argument she
Children who may not even truly have the diagnosed condition and then are subject to a continuous treatment of drugs and their side effects. ADHD medication side effect can vary depending on the specific medication and dosage. Most common side effects of these medications are nervousness, suppressed appetite, insomnia, high blood pressure and heart rate, headaches, stomach pains and tics. There are other side effects from all stimulant medications. In a 5 year review of children taking psych stimulants Dr. Esther Cherland and Dr.Renee Fitzpatrick had 192 children diagnosed with ADHD and 98 children were treated with ADHD medication. They found the following