Friday, January 21, 2005
Soothing the Savage Beast
Evangelical Outpost has a piece today regarding possible Ritalin overuse in children with ADHD.
Since I see patients with this diagnosis a lot, I will give my opinion on it.
First of all, there is such a thing as ADHD . It's usually not a problem until the behavior begins to affect the child's school performance. My part usually begins when the parents bring the child in complaining that he (and it's usually a boy) is failing at school and disrupting normal class functions. The parents have generally adapted to the way the child acts at home, so this isn't as much of an issue. However, it can be if the dynamics in the home change, such as a sudden absence of the primary caregiver through death or divorce.
All children have some difficulty focusing on a certain task for very long, but with these kids it's extreme. They are generally bouncing off the walls 5 minutes into the visit. Somewhere along the way they are seen by a child psychologist and Ritalin (or one of the other agents in that class) is prescribed.
The medicine usually works well. The child is able to focus, they seem more content and their grades improve. Everyone is happy, but does that mean it's right?
School, like society, demands a certain amount conformity if the individual is going to suceed. I don't hold it against the parents, or the medical provider, for taking action when there is action to take. Who can watch their child struggle and not intervene?
Would it be best to let the child "grow out of it" on their own? In a perfect world, yes. But, in the real world we aren't afforded the luxury of time. The child will find themselves repeating years or being transferred to "special schools" long before they are naturally able to deal with ADHD. That is very traumatic to a child's psyche. One that they may never be able to recover from.
So would Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn be put on Ritalin if they lived today?
You betcha!
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Since I see patients with this diagnosis a lot, I will give my opinion on it.
First of all, there is such a thing as ADHD . It's usually not a problem until the behavior begins to affect the child's school performance. My part usually begins when the parents bring the child in complaining that he (and it's usually a boy) is failing at school and disrupting normal class functions. The parents have generally adapted to the way the child acts at home, so this isn't as much of an issue. However, it can be if the dynamics in the home change, such as a sudden absence of the primary caregiver through death or divorce.
All children have some difficulty focusing on a certain task for very long, but with these kids it's extreme. They are generally bouncing off the walls 5 minutes into the visit. Somewhere along the way they are seen by a child psychologist and Ritalin (or one of the other agents in that class) is prescribed.
The medicine usually works well. The child is able to focus, they seem more content and their grades improve. Everyone is happy, but does that mean it's right?
School, like society, demands a certain amount conformity if the individual is going to suceed. I don't hold it against the parents, or the medical provider, for taking action when there is action to take. Who can watch their child struggle and not intervene?
Would it be best to let the child "grow out of it" on their own? In a perfect world, yes. But, in the real world we aren't afforded the luxury of time. The child will find themselves repeating years or being transferred to "special schools" long before they are naturally able to deal with ADHD. That is very traumatic to a child's psyche. One that they may never be able to recover from.
So would Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn be put on Ritalin if they lived today?
You betcha!
# posted by Joe Florida @ 7:23 AM 
