Young children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder are being prescribed drugs too readily, research suggested.
About 42% of US children diagnosed with the condition were given drugs, usually stimulants, within 30 days, a study looking at 10,000 children’s medical records found: The researchers said that the high rate and lack of delay called into question the “appropriateness of early medication treatment.”
Concerns have been rising over the rate of diagnosis, as well as of prescription: ADHD diagnoses in children more than doubled in both the US and UK between 2000 and 2018 and have continued to rise since then, with even greater increases in adult diagnoses. Experts disagree over whether that change represents increased awareness or overdiagnosis.
