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Study: Young Children Diagnosed with ADHD Often Prescribed Medication Too Quickly (cbsnews.com) 198

Posted by EditorDavid from the focus-in-the-family dept.
"A new study released Friday found that young children diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, are often prescribed medication too quickly," reports CBS News: The study, led by Stanford Medicine and published in JAMA Network Open, examined the health records of nearly 10,000 preschool-aged children ages 3 to 5 between 2016 and 2023 who were diagnosed with ADHD... The Stanford study found that about 68% of those children who were diagnosed with ADHD were prescribed medications before age 7, most often stimulants such as Ritalin, which can help children focus their attention and regulate their emotions. The turn to medication often came quickly, according to the study. About 42% of the children who were diagnosed with ADHD were prescribed drugs within 30 days of diagnosis, the study found.

"We don't have concerns about the toxicity of the medications for 4- and 5-year-olds, but we do know that there is a high likelihood of treatment failure, because many families decide the side effects outweigh the benefits," Dr. Yair Bannett, assistant professor of pediatrics at Stanford Medicine and the lead author of the study, said in a statement. Those side effects can include irritability, aggressiveness and emotional problems, according to Bannett. "The high rate of medication prescriptions among preschool-age children with ADHD and the lack of delay between initial diagnosis and prescription require further investigation to assess the appropriateness of early medication treatment," the researchers concluded.

The study also found that the vast majority of the young children diagnosed with ADHD, about 76%, were boys.
CBS News interviewed Jamie Howard, senior clinical psychologist from the Child Mind Institute (who was not involved in the study). Howard said when treating ADHD in young children, clinical guidelines call for starting with "behavioral intervention...."

"I think that people have an association with ADHD and stimulant medication... But there is actually a lot more than that. And we want to give kids the opportunity to use these other strategies first, and then if they need medication, it can be incredibly helpful for a lot of kids."
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Study: Young Children Diagnosed with ADHD Often Prescribed Medication Too Quickly More

Study: Young Children Diagnosed with ADHD Often Prescribed Medication Too Quickly

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  • Overdiagnosed (Score:5, Insightful)

    by sinij ( 911942 ) on Sunday August 31, 2025 @07:47AM (#65627862)
    Young Children expected to act as adults in school is completely unrealistic expectation is the root cause of ADHD "epidemic". School day built around in-class instruction and passive sitting around does not work for many children. Fix that with more active play time and a lot of these issues will go away.

    • Re:Overdiagnosed (Score:4, Insightful)

      by fabioalcor ( 1663783 ) on Sunday August 31, 2025 @08:15AM (#65627890)

      Yup. I wonder how many of these kids "diagnosed with ADHD" actually have just a case of childhood.

      • Re:Overdiagnosed (Score:4, Informative)

        by mrbester ( 200927 ) on Sunday August 31, 2025 @09:15AM (#65627956) Homepage

        To paraphrase Buck Russell:
        I don't think I want to know a six-year-old who isn't a dreamer, or a sillyheart. And I sure don't want to know one who takes their student career seriously or "regulates their emotions" like a fucking Vulcan. But I know a good kid when I see one. Because they're ALL good kids, until those who deliberately choose to ignore what being a child is drag them down and convince them and their parents that they have a behavioural disorder in order to pump them full of mood suppressing pharmaceuticals and earn a nice kickback.

        • Kids need to learn to control themselves in a way that doesn't affect others though. Also they need to learn too. So if they are running around disrupting class than that's not normal.

          • if they are running around disrupting class than that's not normal.

            It's normal enough that almost every class has one or more disrupters.

            Perhaps a standard classroom isn't the right environment for these kids.

            Take them outside. Let them learn by doing, rather than expecting them to sit still through a lecture.

            Then the "normal" kids can learn without the disruptions.

            • Normal would be more than half the class being disruptors. One or two males it an anomaly. Also why haven't they been taught to respect people?

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by sinij ( 911942 )

            So if they are running around disrupting class than that's not normal.

            This depends on how young they are and how long they are asked to sit in class. Running around is a perfectly normal childhood behavior. It is not normal to be unable to sit and pay attention for any amount of time, it is not reasonable to expect kids to sit around for 6 hours a day.

            • That's why the school system has guidelines for each grade in terms of how much sitting that kid should be expected to do. That should be left to the child experts. If a child is disrupting a class and they are the right age for that class then they are not acting their age as determined by experts in the field.

              • If a developmentally challenged child can't eat with a fork, then we shouldn't be duct taping forks to their hands at lunch time and forcing them to work through their disability. Forcing kids to sit at desks for lecture is the same thing for children who have not developed as fast as their peers in this area.

                Here's a radical idea: take those kids out of their regular classes and put them together like they do with overachieving kids in some districts.

                • School teachers are not trained to deal with kids with developmental issues and therapists are generally too expensive for the school to afford on top of education. Perhaps the parents with those kids should pay to form special schools.

      • I genuinely wonder why?

        I turned 13 in 1980. We had more or less one kid in a class of 290 that had overt behavior that I would call ADHD today.
        But the schools were and ARE filled with people who see education as their life's work and who genuinely care about their charges.

        I guess sure you can wave your hand at Big pharma, teachers Union, government, GOP failing to pour even more $ into schools.

        But what happened that we stopped paying attention and thinking about our (collective) kids and just said "meh, gi

    • Ok internet doctor. Then why do most parents keep their kids on the medication over the summer, when they donâ(TM)t have to sit in calls all day?

      you are making a broad generalization that is simply untrue. It feels true, but kids who are medicated - in my experience with 3 ADHD kids, and ADHD brother and father - directly contradicts your assertions. Meds are certainly more helpful in school, but they are helpful art home and over the summer as well.
    • We started doing away with that kind of school in the 80s.

      Schools now exist to sort students into groups based on how useful they will be to large corporations and the billionaires that own those corporations.

      If your kid can't hack it there's billions of them to replace your kid in society and there's automation and AI to make them increasingly less relevant and necessary.

      It's a side effect of having a competitive society instead of a cooperative one. Everybody says they want to do the best for
    • I liked that form of schooling. I had broad interests and liked school... a bit. Plain theory, taking notes, some exercises... I'd hate it if there would be "engaging" activities. Give me the boring stuff. What is good for some is bad for others. School should suck a bit for everyone.

    • Reading the article and fixing the /. headline /. headline - Study: Young Children Diagnosed with ADHD Often Prescribed Medication Too Quickly
      Alternate ./ headline - Young Children, Mostly Boys, Diagnosed with ADHD Often Prescribed Medication, Including Stimulants, Too Quickly

      The most missing part of the entire study is household type. This data needs to show if there is a large percentage of children, mostly boys, diagnosed with ADHD from single-parent households, comparing two parent, single parent mothe

      • Lower education level in mothers, lower economic level in the household and a 54% higher diagnosis of ADHD, mostly all in boys.

        The media blackout and failure to discuss that the parent(s) in a household greatly affect the health, education and life outcomes for their children is what should be discussed

        https://www.sciencedaily.com/r... [sciencedaily.com].

        ADHD linked to low maternal education, lone parents and welfare benefits, Swedish study finds

        Date: June 1, 2010

        Key findings of the Swedish study include:

        • We should include that the actuarial and financial interests play a role here.

          Get a person on a maintenance medicine at an early age means that lots of interested parties get a decades long revenue stream:

          - Psychologists / psychiatrists - 3 to 4 visits paid by the insurance company per year
          - Pharmaceutical companies
          - Retail drugstores, pharmacists, and staff
          - State regulators, counting and monitoring the mass distribution of a controlled substance
          - Medical researchers
          - Insurance companies, claim processors

      • Derailing to other topics does not make the ADHD and how the media ignores the disproportionate negative life outcomes of boys with ADHD and ADHD's link to single-parent households does does not address the topic.

        It should be possible to have a reasoned discussion on ADHD and issues negatively affecting boys without knee-jerk, "insert other topic to derail" attempts.

        - 75% of children diagnosed with ADHD are boys
        - Boys raised in a single-parent household are more than 50% more likely to be diagnosed with ADH

    • Young Children expected to act as adults in school is completely unrealistic expectation is the root cause of ADHD "epidemic". School day built around in-class instruction and passive sitting around does not work for many children. Fix that with more active play time and a lot of these issues will go away.

      Some things that led up to the widespread claims of ADHD

      Most teachers are now females.

      Most girls are easier to manage than boys.

      Boys are rowdy, active, and goofy.

      Now would not it be so nice to have the boys act in a manner that the young ladies do?

      So just claim the boys have ADHD, and chemically straitjacket them so they will sit in their seats like nice little boys do.

      I have personal experience with the ADHD epidemic. In my son's middle school, the teachers diagnosed every male as suffering with

  • Too much money (Score:3)

    by tiananmen tank man ( 979067 ) on Sunday August 31, 2025 @07:52AM (#65627868)

    When watching YouTube short videos, I regularly see ads for adhd services (liven ADHD)

  • Boys (Score:5, Insightful)

    by markdavis ( 642305 ) on Sunday August 31, 2025 @08:09AM (#65627886)

    >"The study also found that the vast majority of the young children diagnosed with ADHD, about 76%, were boys."

    And that is because boys naturally have more problems with sitting still and complying with a boring lecture-style class. This is no secret, and anyone that has raised boys and girls knows this. They need more outlets for physical activity and working with "things" (instead of just listening and occasional communicating), and more discipline, and these are not being met. The system would rather drug them into compliant zombies than admit to and adapt to this reality. And then we wonder why many get even more screwed up later in life.

    • Says someone who clearly does not have an ADHD child.

      My son with ADHD went on meds because he would run into traffic without thinking and almost got hit by a car in front of my house. The school did not ask us to medicate, because his behavior there was BETTER than at home. His anxiety kept his external ADHD symptoms in check there, but his greater feelings of comfort at home means he expressed those impulses more readily at home. And our home had no shortage of discipline.

      my two daughters with ADHD ma

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by markdavis ( 642305 )

        >"Says someone who clearly does not have an ADHD child."

        That is true. I do not dispute that ADHD is a thing or a problem. But I do believe that it is over-diagnosed and that many kids, especially boys, are caught up in something that can be explained not as a medical/mental problem, but a natural variation in character. And for those, addressed without medications, with some adjustments to their environment, and methods of being caught/handled.

        >"my two daughters with ADHD manifest it differently th

        • are caught up in something that can be explained not as a medical/mental problem, but a natural variation in character.

          And what do you think is driving that variation in character if not underlying biology?

          There are two main explanations. Nature vs Nurture, Biology vs environment. We all know that complex traits like personality are influenced by BOTH. Kids with ADHD have a biological difference, which manifests in a different personality predisposition. You are attempting to separate biology from character, and that is not actually possible. Kids with ADHD have real differences in the way their brain processes neurotransm

    • Need more physical outlets. It's that the age at which boys settle down and can sit and study is a few years older than one girls can so girls basically get a couple more years of Early education than boys.

      • >"It's that the age at which boys settle down and can sit and study is a few years older than one girls can so girls basically get a couple more years of Early education than boys."

        Yes, I believe that is also a factor. But girls generally have better communication and attention-to-others skills, regardless of age; both are helpful in classroom settings. I don't think it is just the "headstart" they might have. Boys generally have better spacial and calculative skills. The former isn't generally helpf

      • Personally I think it's just because people make excuses for the boys until a later age.

    • The study was on preschool children. They're not sitting through a "boring lecture-style class" unless it's their parents choosing to do that to them at home.

      There's also a racial bias in the data. White kids are more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD then minority kids. White kids are also more likely to be given a prescription soon after diagnosis.

      This has nothing to do with "the system" beyond the fact that a lot of primary care physicians are very busy and will hand over a prescription without argumen

    • And that is because boys naturally have more problems with sitting still and complying with a boring lecture-style class. This is no secret, and anyone that has raised boys and girls knows this.

      Yet even those boys must learn to live in a world where there are other people who have needs that their unacceptable behaviors are interrupting.

  • I'm over 50 with ADHD. I wish someone had helped me sooner.
    • Exactly. We need to take the experience of those who went undiagnosed for years far more seriously than the opinions of those who do not have ADHD.

      meds were life changing for my wife, my kids, and my brother.

      this anti-medication position is just buildout bigotry against neurodivergent folks wrapped up in a paper thin veneer of lovejoy-esque âoethink of the childrenâ which completely ignores the actual children.

    • Mental health and mental health care has come with a stigma and resistance for generations. When my wife had postpartum depression years ago, I had no idea what was going on. I just thought she was angry with me all the time, and that our marriage was falling apart. Thankfully, a marriage counsellor had the insight to tell us that we didn't need a counsellor, we needed a doctor. That led to treatment that transformed our lives. Later, when my son started dealing with major depression, we knew how to get him

  • This is dumb (Score:5, Interesting)

    by crmarvin42 ( 652893 ) on Sunday August 31, 2025 @08:55AM (#65627930)
    I have 2 kids with ADHD diagnoses, and a third is likely to if we were to get them tested.

    The reason the doctors jump straight to meds is because behavioral modification has failed already. Our oldest was not diagnosed until they were 12. We spent years addressing their symptoms through behavior and only turned to meds when it became clear they surely needed them.

    the next one started younger, but was in active therapy for their behavior for 2 years before we went to a neurologist for a diagnosis and drugs. The final straw was we moved, and he started running across the road to play with the new neighbors without looking due to his impulsivity and almost got hit by a car twice in a week. We started with a drug for impulse control first, and only added a stimulant a year later when his inability to focus was causing problems in school.

    last one is clearly ADHD, but has not been formally diagnosed and is not on meds because, so far, their symptoms are not manifesting in harmful ways and are being successfully managed by addressing their behavior.

    Parents turn to drugs, which cost money every month and time for trips to the doctor, when it is clear behavioral modification, which is free, has failed. This whole write up comes across as though it were written by RFk jr as a prelude to coming after psychological medications the way he has come for vaccines. With a lot of dumb rhetoric, fear mongering, and even worse âoesolutionsâ to the problems these medications address.
    • So how good do the drugs help? I hear some kids stop because the side effects are worse than the benefits. It sounds like it is a give and take thing.
      • We had to try several different drugs for my oldest, before they found something that worked without serious side effects.

        My son is actually on 2 different medications. One for impulse control (non-stimulant) which took half a year to sort out the right dose and timing. It makes him sleepy about 2 hr after he takes it, and makes him irritable in the 2 hr before he needs to take it again. At first he was taking it in the morning. That meant he was causing fights in the morning before school and then falling
  • Put kids (or adults) on meds for indefinite amount of time.

    • The unfortunate thing is that ADHD, as a developmental disorder, is either something that kids grow out of or it persists through their adult life. And for most (about 2 out of 3 in some studies), it persists into adulthood.

      What's the best treatment for ADHD? Medication.
      How effective is medication treatment? Very effective for most individuals.
      So yes, unfortunately, putting kids, who turn into adults, on medication for the rest of their lives is what we usually have to do for ADHD.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Cyberax ( 705495 )
      Do you know how much ADHD meds cost? Go on, check.

      OK, I can give you a clue: a month's supply of amphetamine salts (generic for Adderall) costs a whopping $15 ( https://www.goodrx.com/ampheta... [goodrx.com] ). Such money. Great wealth. Definitely a world conspiracy.
  • I have noticed a troubling trend of labeling any boy with energy as ADHD. Too much work for the teacher? Give him pills to keep him quiet.
    • There is no such thing as "too much energy". No one should have so much that they can't control themselves. That's a medical or parental issue.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by PPH ( 736903 )

        Or a neurodevelopmental disorder. Inability to self-regulate the energy one has.

        In today's society, kids can't just work it off on the farm like they used to. If you want your kid to succeed, he has to sit in class all day. Chemistry is often the most expediant solution.

  • A blood test would really help (Score:3)

    by Tony Isaac ( 1301187 ) on Sunday August 31, 2025 @10:06AM (#65628028) Homepage

    Most diseases can be diagnosed through some kind of blood test. Send it off to the lab, and you get your answer, and the doctor knows how to treat the illness. ADHD and other psychiatric illnesses, have no such test. Doctors are forced to try to sort through symptoms, often with uncooperative patients, to determine what treatments (medicines or behavioral therapy) might help. There's a lot of trial and error, compounded by a selection of medicines that have a 30-40% success rate.

    THE biggest advance we need in mental health, is the development of diagnostic blood tests.

    ADHD may be over-diagnosed, I don't know. A test would help greatly.

  • Doctors just suck. I've met maybe 5 good ones in the 100 I've seen. They're rushed, annoyed, sloppy, underinformed, and ineffective. I honestly can't rely on them to guide my treatment...just enable my own journey. Also, my entire family, except me, has ADHD...the real kind, not the "children behaving like children" kind. It runs in my wife's family and she went under the radar because her family is very accomplished, excellent grades, ivy league educated, etc...but hers is actually pretty bad. So I h

  • The doctor writes very fast?

    I think they meant early.

  • So I am a teacher. I have a few kids with ADHD in my classes. The hyperactive ones you notice in 30 seconds. It is challenging, but when the kids understand the situation, it usually is ok. Sometimes you let them go, other times you reign them in. Usually if you let them notice you understand the situation, they accept it. Be real, compromise, ... They can be a cuckoo in the nest though, especially the young ones. So medication? I think it is in everyone's advantage in these cases. The kids suffer themselve
  • SSRIs and School Shootings, FDA Corruption, and Why Everyone on Anti-Depressants Is Totally Unhappy [rumble.com] (01:52:52):

    “Probably a fifth of the entire American population is on SSRIs. Psychiatrist Josef Witt-Doerring explains why that’s terrifying and dangerous.”

  • Well, it shouldn't be, but in the US, there is a lack of availability for therapeutic resources and pressure for doctors to just bill for medication consults (quick and pays well). This is despite many doctors getting into psychiatry because they like doing multi-modal treatment with therapy and medications as need, but always providing both or working with a team to provide both. And it's not just ADHD. Depression, there is huge pressure to prescribe when CBT based intervention could give a better outcome

    • Psychiatry is perfectly capable of distinguishing why someone is struggling with school.

      Nonsense. Psychiatry is not a robust science - if we could even classify it as "scientific". Psychiatric treatments end up being "Let's throw a bunch of crud at the wall and see what sicks!"

      Youre arguing from an authority that has none.

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