Is attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (AHDH) a valid diagnosis or is it generally a deception? The answer has significant implication for many people and the community as a whole. The diagnosis is supported as legitimate by the psychiatric profession but continues to draw intense criticism. ADHD is a common medical condition marked by an ongoing pattern of inattention or hyperactivity-impulsivity (Saul, 2014).Worldwide, cases and diagnoses of the disorder among children have been growing steadily within the past few years. According to CDC,11 percent of American children, ages 4 to 7 have ADHD. Children with ADHD face a difficult time with central regions of functions that are responsible for focus, impulse control among other skills (Saul, 2014). There is a general consensus among global professionals and entities that the medical condition is a valid diagnosis based on available empirical studies. (Sjöberg & Dahlbeck, 2017). However, a series of articles and books denying the legitimacy of ADHD have appeared lately. This paper used existing literature and research to demonstrate that ADHD diagnosis presents a real and a valid medical condition.
Study after study demonstrates ADHD medications to be extremely effective at preventing impulsivity and distractibility. Like each drug, ADHD medications have side effects, but reliance is not a major one ( Sjöberg & Dahlbeck, 2017). For the most part, the benefits of taking ADHD medication outstrip the risks. There is a vast wealth of research on safety or Ritalin (Friedman, 2014). However, the diagnosis of ADHD predates the widespread medical utilization of drugs to treat it the available wealth of research on the medical condition has been carried out with no contribution of the pharmaceutical industry. According to Lange (2010), ADHD was initially described in children in 1902 and was considered an impulse control disorder. However, the first example bears some resemblance to the disorder given in 1978 by Scottish doctor Sir Alexander Crichton. He discovered school difficulties among children, which are typically observed in children with ADHD (Lange et al., 2012). The concept that ADHD is a disease of childhood and affected children grew out of the disorder during adolescence was typical until the 1990s. The growing wealth of research shows that about half of children diagnose with ADHD, the disease persists well into adulthood. All symptoms observed by Crichton can be related to ADHD (Lange et al., 2010). Nevertheless, his accounts do not fully mirror the existing notion of ADHD.
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ADHD gained fame with the publication of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III) in 1980, which formulated three distinct symptoms classifications for inattention, impulsivity, hyperactivity. They were relatively more detailed than initial ones. Lange et al. (2010) comment that some scientists believed that the behaviors were normal among children while others claimed that leaving the affected children without medical care would have consequences in adulthood and would put them in a social, academic, and emotional disadvantage (Quinn & Lynch, 2016). The two forms primary forms of the ADHD were hyperactivity-impulsivity and inattention. In the late-1980s, multiple studies investigated the existence of subtypes of ADD (Lange et al., 2010). Scientists observed that children with ADD without hyperactivity behaved differently from children with ADD with hyperactivity (Quinn & Lynch, 2016).
Furthermore, some skepticism emerged as to the critical function of the deficit in attention in the alleged ADHD. The perception arose that motivating factors and deficiencies in the reinforcement mechanism were of enormous significance (Lange et al., 2010). It was eventually identified in the 1990s that ADHD was not solely associated with children, which vanished with age as was previously considered. Instead, it was a chronic disorder that persisted into adulthood. The American Psychiatric Association accreditation of the diagnosis of ADHD in adulthood by using accounts of workplace challenges in the manifestation of symptoms seems to mirror a growing consensus concerning the medical field of ADHD (Lange et al., 2010). Furthermore, the above-mentioned illustrations, as well as etiological theories of hyperactivity, resemble existing descriptions of the medical conditions.
The symptoms of the disorder do not introduce a new phenomenon. German physicians Franz Kramer and Hans Pollnow also made references to a condition we nowadays recognize as ADHD (Quinn and Lynch, 2016). Descriptions of hyperactivity behavior in childhood have also been described in children’s literature books. For instance, the German physician Heinrich Hoffman is credited with creating several depictions children’s tales such as “Fidgety Phil,” who is today an allegory for children with ADHD (Lange et al., 2010). Hoffman criticized the prevailing viewpoint of his time that psychiatric patient was obsessed or criminal but instead treated mental disorders as clinical challenges (Sutcliffe, 2015). Today, global professionals and entities have accepted ADHD as a valid condition. Several of these entities have published detailed principles that offer evidence-based proposals for the prognosis and intervention of the medical disorder (Quinn & Lynch, 2016). For instance, considering the available wealth of evidence, the National Institute of Mental Health has endorsed ADHS as real medical condition In recent years, neurological research has supported the argument that ADHD (Quinn & Lynch et al., 2016). For example, within the dopamine process, genetic, molecular studies have pinpointed genetic anomalies. Dopamine is an important chemical pathway used between nerve cells within the brain. It is associated with many functions such as movement and mental health.
According to one study by Volkow et al. (2009), ADHD is a real disease associated with changes within the production of dopamine. Volkow et al. (2009) examine the dopamine reward circuit in individuals with the disorders. Employing PET imaging, Volkow and her counterparts compare several dopamine receptors within this part of the brain in a cluster of healthy adults participants with ADHD with a group of healthy controls. The research findings are astonishing (Friedman, 2014). The participants with ADHD have considerably lower D2 and D3 receptors, which included brain regions of the dopamine reward paths than did healthy individuals (Volkow et al., 2009).
Moreover, the lower than usual dopamine receptor is higher in the participants' showing symptoms of inattention (Volkow et a., 2009). This finding reveals that individuals with ADHD have reward receptors that have become less sensitive at baseline than those without the disorder (Volkow et al., 2009). Having a slow reward pathway makes usually interesting events appear tedious. This explains, to some extent, why people with the disorder find repetitive activities unrewarding and even painfully dull.
On the contrary, research in children has demonstrated lowered dopamine production as well. For the most, it is because a child’s brain has too many molecules that use dopamine before it does its thing ( Volkow et al., 2009). These studies mean that decreased production of dopamine is associated with ADHD and can assist in explaining why many people with the condition also abuse drugs (Friedman, 2014). The findings are significant, as they dispel the myth that ADHD is not a real disorder but was developed to generate pharmaceutical sales.
Another study done by Shaw et al. (2007) applies MRI scans to examine the brain structure of 105 children with ADHD and 103 healthy children. The researchers also carried DNA testing. The findings from the MRI scans provided a clue that children with ADHD have the dopamine D4 receptor gene (DRD4) gene variation had thin brain cortex in parts associated with attention when the study began, but their cortex thickened during the follow-up phase. Shaw et al. (2007) observed that a variant in the (DRD4) was related to ADHD (Dunham, 2007). However, the research by Shaw et al. (2007) does not attempt to state that the DRD4 is the only gene linked to ADHD. Many genes likely influence ADHD. Overall, these findings are vital as they add to growing evidence that ADHD is a genetic condition with hereditarily established neurobiological underpinning and add further evidence that this is a legitimate mental disorder (Dunham, 2007).
Several critics of the ADHD construct argue that it is not a disorder, but rather a trait. What is alluded to as ADHD they claim is merely a component of the constellation of temperaments that constitutes human nature. Symptoms manifest themselves, but there is a call for a better understanding of them. As Sutcliffe (2015) proclaims, no brain disorder results in some condition called ADHD, and none has ever been proved. As such, this implies no diagnostic test can identify an individual with ADHD. Instead, the diagnosis is merely a label to link specific behaviors to a non-sufferer (Saul, 2014).
Conclusion
This study has used existing literature and body of research to demonstrate that ADHD is a real disorder. These studies demonstrate that the ADHD is legitimate, valid and extensively impairs individual’s capacity to successfully get involved in essential life activities. While Ritalin is an effective drug in combating ADHD, skepticism toward this disorder as a phenomenon is far from over. There might be a valid criticism of ADHD and psychiatry but that does not imply the disorder is fraud. The scientific evidence, both medical and neurological is robust. However, there is a need for further research and investigation of this contentious medical disorder.
References
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