If doctors find it clumsy to diagnose should parents know better?

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A.D.H.D what should parents do?

He sure did learn something from his Sunday school, the four years old boy whom his parents thought was affected by attention deflect/ hyperactivity disorder was asked what he learnt from Sunday school by his father. He really did not remember what he learnt from Sunday school but he remembered one of the topics his class teacher taught him. Atlas he told his father that he learnt table manner from the Sunday school!. Were the parent expecting too much from him? He was obviously not moving at the same pace with his other classmates. Could it be ADHD or his just having academics challenges?


Even the best of psychiatrists still finds it a bit uneasy to diagnose ADHD. Many health workers like Harriets Hellmen ;a certified paediatric nurse said she works with instincts; having heard all manners of reports on the child. What are the doctor’s parameters on pining ADHD on a child? Speaking on this, Dr Williams said during his residency for instance most paediatricians was treating infectious disease, ‘we don’t treat bacterial meningitis anymore. We are being asked to evaluate and handle mental-health issues in kids like ADHD. We have to speed up”,he agreed. Most general practitioners still need several lessons on this as they are usually the first point of call. Dr Jensen said doctors aren’t trained to say ‘I don’t know’. Recently in new York there was a major awareness on ADHD among doctors where another acronym was formed ‘D.J.D.S (Don’t Just Do Something). A parent played a comic role asking the doctors to give his daughter drugs to improve her grades in school. The whole essence is to pass the message of observing critically to be able to conclude if a child suffers from ADHD or not.



The parents of the 4 years had noticed that he was easily distracted and his teacher also confirmed this and the 4 years old boy had to be taught separately for 30 minutes during lunch in addition to the general teaching of other pupils in the class of which 95% of what was taught would not be retained due to any form of distractions. Rather than starting on medication for ADHD, another specialist has recommended behavioural therapy.
Behavioural therapy is very important for management of ADHD. A recent study found out that exposing kids to drugs at diagnosis for ADHD might not be the best solution. Using behavioural approach works and moreover is cheaper .The study recommends approach like ‘instruction in basic social skills’ because it has quick effect rather than the initial first medication of Adderall and Ritalin. The research studied 146 children with ADHD ages of 5 to 12; half of the children were on drugs (a small dose of Ritalin) while the other children’s parents resulted in the use of behavioural therapy which they learnt specially to help their kids out of this problem. This therapy revolves around rewards for good and excellent behaviour as well as compliments such as ‘good boy’, ‘you are a genius’ etc .There was also restriction to play time and games until the kids get their work right. They also learnt to be focused in the midst of noise using their visuals.


Speaking on the outcome of the new study, Williams E. Pelham, the lead author said children who started with behavioural modification were doing significantly better than those who began with medication by the end of the study ‘’no matter what treatment combination they ended up with’’ Some experts are of the opinion that the medication has the capacity to correct the attention problem thereby improving the child’s academic’s performance and do not see why it wouldn’t be the first approach to ADHD. Professor of psychiatry and paediatrics, Mark Stein, felt parents should be left with the options to decide whichever they want.
In American, about 500,000 children are affected with ADHD yearly; this isn’t getting attention in Nigeria because many people don’t know about it. Kids are obviously different but a parent should know better when there is too much gap in the difference. The four year old boy started with behavioural therapy and is equally improving and has began to ask his teacher why he wasn’t doing the same topic with his classmate.


 

 

 

Sources

NYtimes

Case file from emobileclinic

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