ADHA diagnosis and State Education systems.

Good Morning carrot eaters!
It is nice to have this going again, isn't it?! I read an article this morning during breakfast in the Deseret News for 10/13/13 entitled Paying Attention. It's about ADD & ADHD diagnosis.

"As Hinshaw and Scheffler looked at the numbers they noticed an interesting pattern: states with high school exit exams (tests students must take as a condition for graduation), also tended to have above-average rates of ADHD. "In these states, you don't get a diploma unless you can show you've mastered certain material," Hinshaw said. The stakes are high for students: "Fail the test and you won't make it to college" Hinshaw said. But the tests aren't just for the students. Many states use exit exam outcomes to measure school and teacher performance. "District funding, not to mention jobs, are contingent on student performance on these exams," Hinshaw said. With stakes this high, educators must find ways to get their students' performance to mandated levels, and an ADHD diagnosis, according to Hinshaw, might be helpful.

...there is a strong possibility over diagnosis of ADHD in some areas of the country and under diagnosis in other parts is taking place. It's a potentially worrisome trend because the consequences of giving ADHD medication to children who do not have ADHD can be disastrous.

"The trouble is that there is no uniformly adhered to standard for diagnosing ADHD." "You can't do this in 10 minutes...There are so many factors that need to be considered before you can say it is ADHD."

Percentage of school age children diagnosed with ADHD--
Oregon 8.8%;
Utah 6.7%;
Texas 7.7%
North Carolina 15.6% (the highest in the country)
Nevada 5.6% (the lowest in the country)



Dr. Stephen Hinshaw, professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley and his colleague, Berkeley economics professor Richard Scheffler.