Speeding Through Life
Last month, the American Psychiatric Association released the latest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, DSM-V. In it, they changed the diagnosis criteria for Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) which actually made it slightly easier for physicians to make a diagnosis. Previously, if the symptoms were observed before the age of 7, the diagnosis could be made. Now that age has been moved to 12.Here's a sample of the criteria:
- Often does not give close attention to details or makes careless mistakes in schoolwork, work, or other activities.
- Often has trouble keeping attention on tasks or play activities.
- Often does not seem to listen when spoken to directly.
- Often does not follow through on instructions and fails to finish schoolwork, chores, or duties in the workplace (not due to oppositional behavior or failure to understand instructions).
- Often has trouble organizing activities.
- Often avoids, dislikes, or doesn't want to do things that take a lot of mental effort for a long period of time (such as schoolwork or homework).
- Often loses things needed for tasks and activities (e.g. toys, school assignments, pencils, books, or tools).
- Is often easily distracted.
- Is often forgetful in daily activities.
If a child exhibits six or more of these consistently and it could be said that you have an attention deficit. (See the full criteria at the CDC website) But if you're an adult, you now just have to exhibit five of these criteria.
What's the impact?
Changing the age from 7 to 12 for kids, and from 6 criteria to 5 in adults, makes it easier to make an ADHD diagnosis. And, as Pieter Cohen of the Wall Street Journal points out, it sets up a whole lot more people to be prescribed various forms of amphetamine. (Forms of this drug have been abused for generations.)He writes:
Even before DSM-5, doctors were already on track to prescribe enough stimulants this year for each American man, woman and child to receive the equivalent of 130 mg of amphetamine (about 40 five-mg pills of Adderall) and an even greater amount of the very similar drug Ritalin. In this era of excessive prescribing, we seem to have forgotten the cautionary history of amphetamines in America—a history that shows how overprescribing stimulants leads to widespread dependence and addiction.Source
Did you catch that? 40 pills of Adderall for every person in America. That's a lot of drugs.What do you think? Was changing the criteria a good thing or a bad thing?