THURSDAY, May 16 (HealthDay News) -- As many as one in five American children under the age of 17 has a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year, according to a new federal report.

 

Released Thursday, the report represents the government's first comprehensive look at mental disorders in children. It focuses on diagnoses in six areas: attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), behavioral or conduct disorders, mood and anxiety disorders, autism spectrum disorders, substance abuse, and Tourette syndrome.

 

The most common mental disorder among children aged 3 through 17 is ADHD. Nearly 7 percent -- about one in 15 children -- in that age group have a current diagnosis, according to the report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

 

1 in 5 U.S. kids has a mental health disorder - FOX19.com-Cincinnati News, Weather & Sports

I wonder if we over diagnose in the United States?

My wife has been a Special Ed. teacher for twelve years now. She & I have had disagreements over the years about this stuff. We both agree that there is an over diagnosis problem, but we disagree on how much.

 

So for me, the answer to the question is yes.

I wonder if we over diagnose in the United States?

 

I think in some cases, yes. There are students that I teach that are diagnosed as "Other Health Impaired." I've seen cases where that means that there is no disability, but the kid is mean.

 

I've heard of kids 2, 3, 4 years old diagnosed with ADHD. The parent said their child was always moving, couldn't focus, etc. I have a 2-year old that is the same way and I believe it is because he is a 2-year old.

 

I'm not meaning to criticize the diagnosis system, but after teaching for a decade it appears to me that many kids get the label early, are taught/treated as less intellligent, and then because they aren't taught at an appropriate level, actually do become less advanced, thus making the diagnosis seem accurate.

I wonder if we over diagnose in the United States?

 

Yes!

My wife has been a Special Ed. teacher for twelve years now. She & I have had disagreements over the years about this stuff. We both agree that there is an over diagnosis problem, but we disagree on how much.

 

So for me, the answer to the question is yes.

 

My fiancee's mother is a special ed director for a Kentucky public school district and believes firmly that we over-diagnose.

And some parents beg for their kids to be diagnosed with something. It's like winning the lottery for them.

And some parents beg for their kids to be diagnosed with something. It's like winning the lottery for them.

 

Are there financial benefits from certain diagnoses? I've always heard there was but I never asked any of the special education teachers because I didn't want to come across as rude or insensitive!

• Eric Harris age 17 (first on Zoloft then Luvox) and Dylan Klebold aged 18 (Columbine school shooting in Littleton, Colorado), killed 12 students and 1 teacher, and wounded 23 others, before killing themselves. Klebold's medical records have never been made available to the public.

 

• Jeff Weise, age 16, had been prescribed 60 mg/day of Prozac (three times the average starting dose for adults!) when he shot his grandfather, his grandfather's girlfriend and many fellow students at Red Lake, Minnesota. He then shot himself. 10 dead, 12 wounded.

 

• Cory Baadsgaard, age 16, Wahluke (Washington state) High School, was on Paxil (which caused him to have hallucinations) when he took a rifle to his high school and held 23 classmates hostage. He has no memory of the event.

 

• Chris Fetters, age 13, killed his favorite aunt while taking Prozac.

 

• Christopher Pittman, age 12, murdered both his grandparents while taking Zoloft.

 

• Mathew Miller, age 13, hung himself in his bedroom closet after taking Zoloft for 6 days.

 

• Kip Kinkel, age 15, (on Prozac and Ritalin) shot his parents while they slept then went to school and opened fire killing 2 classmates and injuring 22 shortly after beginning Prozac treatment.

 

• Luke Woodham, age 16 (Prozac) killed his mother and then killed two students, wounding six others.

 

• A boy in Pocatello, ID (Zoloft) in 1998 had a Zoloft-induced seizure that caused an armed stand off at his school.

 

• Michael Carneal (Ritalin), age 14, opened fire on students at a high school prayer meeting in West Paducah, Kentucky. Three teenagers were killed, five others were wounded..

 

• A young man in Huntsville, Alabama (Ritalin) went psychotic chopping up his parents with an ax and also killing one sibling and almost murdering another.

 

• Andrew Golden, age 11, (Ritalin) and Mitchell Johnson, aged 14, (Ritalin) shot 15 people, killing four students, one teacher, and wounding 10 others.

 

• TJ Solomon, age 15, (Ritalin) high school student in Conyers, Georgia opened fire on and wounded six of his class mates.

 

• Rod Mathews, age 14, (Ritalin) beat a classmate to death with a bat.

 

• James Wilson, age 19, (various psychiatric drugs) from Breenwood, South Carolina, took a .22 caliber revolver into an elementary school killing two young girls, and wounding seven other children and two teachers.

 

• Elizabeth Bush, age 13, (Paxil) was responsible for a school shooting in Pennsylvania

 

• Jason Hoffman (Effexor and Celexa) – school shooting in El Cajon, California

 

• Jarred Viktor, age 15, (Paxil), after five days on Paxil he stabbed his grandmother 61 times.

 

• Chris Shanahan, age 15 (Paxil) in Rigby, ID who out of the blue killed a woman.

 

• Jeff Franklin (Prozac and Ritalin), Huntsville, AL, killed his parents as they came home from work using a sledge hammer, hatchet, butcher knife and mechanic's file, then attacked his younger brothers and sister.

 

• Neal Furrow (Prozac) in LA Jewish school shooting reported to have been court-ordered to be on Prozac along with several other medications.

 

• Kevin Rider, age 14, was withdrawing from Prozac when he died from a gunshot wound to his head. Initially it was ruled a suicide, but two years later, the investigation into his death was opened as a possible homicide. The prime suspect, also age 14, had been taking Zoloft and other SSRI antidepressants.

 

• Alex Kim, age 13, hung himself shortly after his Lexapro prescription had been doubled.

 

• Diane Routhier was prescribed Welbutrin for gallstone problems. Six days later, after suffering many adverse effects of the drug, she shot herself.

 

• Billy Willkomm, an accomplished wrestler and a University of Florida student, was prescribed Prozac at the age of 17. His family found him dead of suicide – hanging from a tall ladder at the family's Gulf Shore Boulevard home in July 2002.

 

• Kara Jaye Anne Fuller-Otter, age 12, was on Paxil when she hung herself from a hook in her closet. Kara's parents said ".... the damn doctor wouldn't take her off it and I asked him to when we went in on the second visit. I told him I thought she was having some sort of reaction to Paxil...")

 

• Gareth Christian, Vancouver, age 18, was on Paxil when he committed suicide in 2002, (Gareth's father could not accept his son's death and killed himself.)

 

• Julie Woodward, age 17, was on Zoloft when she hung herself in her family's detached garage.

 

• Matthew Miller was 13 when he saw a psychiatrist because he was having difficulty at school. The psychiatrist gave him samples of Zoloft. Seven days later his mother found him dead, hanging by a belt from a laundry hook in his closet.

 

• Kurt Danysh, age 18, and on Prozac, killed his father with a shotgun. He is now behind prison bars, and writes letters, trying to warn the world that SSRI drugs can kill.

 

• Woody __, age 37, committed suicide while in his 5th week of taking Zoloft. Shortly before his death his physician suggested doubling the dose of the drug. He had seen his physician only for insomnia. He had never been depressed, nor did he have any history of any mental illness symptoms.

 

• A boy from Houston, age 10, shot and killed his father after his Prozac dosage was increased.

 

• Hammad Memon, age 15, shot and killed a fellow middle school student. He had been diagnosed with ADHD and depression and was taking Zoloft and "other drugs for the conditions."

 

• Matti Saari, a 22-year-old culinary student, shot and killed 9 students and a teacher, and wounded another student, before killing himself. Saari was taking an SSRI and a benzodiazapine.

 

• Steven Kazmierczak, age 27, shot and killed five people and wounded 21 others before killing himself in a Northern Illinois University auditorium. According to his girlfriend, he had recently been taking Prozac, Xanax and Ambien. Toxicology results showed that he still had trace amounts of Xanax in his system.

 

• Finnish gunman Pekka-Eric Auvinen, age 18, had been taking antidepressants before he killed eight people and wounded a dozen more at Jokela High School – then he committed suicide.

 

• Asa Coon from Cleveland, age 14, shot and wounded four before taking his own life. Court records show Coon was on Trazodone.

 

• Jon Romano, age 16, on medication for depression, fired a shotgun at a teacher in his New York high school.

 

Missing from list... 3 of 4 known to have taken these same meds....

 

• What drugs was Jared Lee Loughner on, age 21...... killed 6 people and injuring 14 others in Tuscon, Az?

 

• What drugs was James Eagan Holmes on, age 24..... killed 12 people and injuring 59 others in Aurora Colorado?

 

• What drugs was Jacob Tyler Roberts on, age 22, killed 2 injured 1, Clackamas Or?

 

• What drugs was Adam Peter Lanza on, age 20, Killed 26 and wounded 2 in Newtown Ct?

 

Connection?

 

Learn more: Every mass shooting over last 20 years has one thing in common... and it's not guns

Yes we as a country tend to over diagnose and over medicate. Everyone want's answers in a nice little package. I'm not doubting there are kids with issues, but no way in heck is it 1 in 5.

Are there financial benefits from certain diagnoses? I've always heard there was but I never asked any of the special education teachers because I didn't want to come across as rude or insensitive!

 

Do Docs get kickbacks for writing certain scripts? Pharmaceutical companies spend a lot of money and hire a lot of former college cheerleaders to convince Doctors of how wonderful their latest drug is. Short answer, YES! This is absolutely about money! Do school get extra money per student for kids diagnosed with a mental health disorder, not sure but I bet they do.

It's really a multi-faceted problem. For one thing, SSRI's were an effective treatment for ADHD. But since this connection to adolescent suicide came to light, they aren't used. This has led to an increase in the problem.

 

While you could also argue that there has been an increase in awareness of the problem, there has also bee sort of a "rush to label" in my opinion. Many of these "disorders" are so broadly defined right now, that there is a huge temptation for parents and educators -- and clinicians for that matter -- to smack a label on a kid, get some federal bucks and throw some pills down his throat. That mindset isn't helping anybody. It just takes the responsibility and effort away from those who should be giving the kid what they really need, which is appropriately designed educational and emotional support with a healthy dose of family centered behavioral modification.

 

There's a manual that all mental health clinicians use to form their diagnoses, called the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The current version is the DSM IV-TR, which came out in 1994 with minor changes in 2000. Well, they will be publishing an updated version this year (DSM V) which is supposed to narrow down a lot of these diagnoses and give clearer definition to what is and is not a disorder. Hopefully, this will help reign in some of the (perceived or actual) over-diagnosis of children.

Edited May 20, 201313 yr by Birdsfan

Are there financial benefits from certain diagnoses? I've always heard there was but I never asked any of the special education teachers because I didn't want to come across as rude or insensitive!

 

There are both financial benefits and educational accommodations. Not sure of everything involved though.

There's not a doubt in my mind that the US is over diagnosing. This is yet another reason that I am glad I grew up when I did. I was extremely hyper as a child, and I'm willing to bet that I would have been diagnosed with ADHD today.

When I was in school ADHD especially the HD part was dealt with by using a long flat piece of wood with a handle applied to the students backside. Hyperactivity seemed to subside after one of those treatments, very few relapses either.