In the United States, at least 9% of school-aged children have been diagnosed with ADHD, and are taking pharmaceutical medications. In France, the percentage of kids diagnosed and medicated for ADHD is less than .5%. How come the epidemic of ADHD—which has become firmly established in the United States—has almost completely passed over children in France?
Is ADHD a biological-neurological disorder? Surprisingly, the answer to this question depends on whether you live in France or in the United States. In the United States, child psychiatrists consider ADHD to be a biological disorder with biological causes. The preferred treatment is also biological--psycho stimulant medications such as Ritalin and Adderall.
French child psychiatrists, on the other hand, view ADHD as a medical condition that has psycho-social and situational causes. Instead of treating children's focusing and behavioral problems withdrugs, French doctors prefer to look for the underlying issue that is causing the child distress—not in the child's brain but in the child's social context. They then choose to treat the underlying social context problem with psychotherapy or family counseling. This is a very different way of seeing things from the American tendency to attribute all symptoms to a biological dysfunction such as a chemical imbalance in the child's brain.
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8 comments:
Idiots! Drug companies are getting rich, While your pumping unnecessary pills down your child's throats.
behavior problems come from lack of guidance/punishment when child was growing up. And I don't mean busting their butts all the time.
The drug companies are the ones that created this condition!
Bravo, French doctors!
The common denominators are television, television programming, diet, and lack of physical and mental challenge, all controlled by parents.
Another thing... add and adhd have been linked to foods that children are consuming. Lots of work is going into simple nutritional adjustments. YOU DON"T NEED DRUGS TO HELP YOUR CHILD. STOP BEING LAZY, AND BE A PARENT FFS.
Exactly what the above posters said...
Most people in the US can't afford that kind of therapy. France has heavy taxes and a national health care system that pays for this. Also, there is mandatory (and very generous) paid leave that allows parents to work and care for their children. Pills are cheaper and don't require so much time and effort.
Big pharma is also responible for increase in suicides..people and parents these days are so weak..
As a teacher, I totally agree with the French. So many parents use the diagnoses of ADHD so their children have modifications in the classroom and do not have to be held accountable for their actions or their grades. I've even had parents who state that the children are on modified diets so their ADHD is in check .. Meanwhile the kids are in the cafeteria during lunch sucking down 10 cookies and drinking chocolate milk, with E's in all subject areas that have been raised to D's so the schools don't get sued. These are the same children who come to class with no materials, and when you try to book a parent conference to get the kid to meet with success, the parents either have changed phones without letting the school know where to contact them, have the school's number blocked (oh yes, actually blocked), or say they will come in for a conference and just never show up. If we're going to be responsible enough to have children, we need to be responsible enough to be parents. Granted there are kids who truly do have this problem, but in '99 when all ADHD children were allowed to enter special education, it has aniliated the ability of Special Ed funding and staff to truly focus on those who truly need special education. Case loads per special Ed teachers used to be around 7-8 students. Since '99, that number has increases by 110%, but the funding has not. And many of these kids simply are not ADHD, they just do not have parents who want to be parents, and doctors who cave to parent request.
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