New Guidelines Help Doctors Diagnose
ADHD
NEW YORK, May 01 (Reuters Health) - The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) released new guidelines on Monday aimed at helping physicians diagnose attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), one of the most common psychological disorders affecting children.
Children with ADHD may experience academic underachievement, difficulty interacting with family and peers, and behavioral problems such as aggression and impulsivity. According to the AAP, the disorder affects 4% to 12% of all school-age children.
However, surveys among pediatricians and family physicians reveal wide variations in diagnostic criteria and treatment for ADHD, and a significant increase in prescriptions for stimulant medications among children has fueled concern that the disorder may be over-diagnosed in children over the past decade.
Because children may benefit from the early recognition, treatment and management of ADHD, the AAP has issued its guidelines to create standards for diagnosis.
The new guidelines encourage physicians to use criteria developed by the American Psychiatric Association. These require that ADHD symptoms be present and negatively affecting the child's academic or social functioning for at least 6 months.
AAP experts note that the information used to diagnose ADHD should come from parents, caregivers and teachers. Physicians should determine the age when symptoms first appeared, how long symptoms tend to last, and how much they impair the child's ability to function in various settings.
Diagnostic evaluations should determine other conditions--such as learning and language problems, aggression or disruptive behavior, depression, and anxiety--since as many as one third of children with ADHD have one of these conditions, the guidelines explain.
The AAP stresses that the guidelines are not intended to apply to all children and should not replace the opinion of any individual physician.
A second set of guidelines being developed by AAP experts will address the treatment of ADHD in children.
SOURCE: Pediatrics 2000;105:1158-1170.
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