Re: Doctor skeptical of ADHD 'labelling'

[Guest guest]

Lovely article, thanks!

Jim

On 4/22/2011 4:37 AM, Abra S Ashleigh wrote:

http://www.whakatanebeacon.co.nz/cms/news/2011/04/art10009130.php

Doctor skeptical of ADHD ‘labelling’

Wednesday, 20 April 2011

By Motion

A VISITING Swedish paediatrician says parents and teachers

should be

sceptical about “labelling” children with ADHD, and of drugs

like Ritalin

prescribed to treat it.

Leif Elinder, a doctor who was based at Whakatane Hospital

from 1985 to

1990, said some naughty children were being misdiagnosed

with a

neuropsychiatric condition like Attention Deficit

Hyperactivity

Disorder.

As a result amphetamine and stimulant drugs were being

prescribed with

inadequate unbiased research into their long-term effects,

he said.

He believed in most cases, the cause of the behaviour was

cultural, not

medical.

“I’m sceptical of medical solutions because very rarely is

it a medical

cause – 95 to 99 per cent of the time it is a cultural

problem.

“Parents have less time for their children. Teachers have

classes that are

too big.

“Kids need to be attended to especially when they do nice

things, and

often they are only noticed when they do something wrong,”

the

father-of-four said.

In the late 1990s Dr Elinder became concerned Swedish

doctors were

unnecessarily prescribing amphetamine or stimulant drugs for

children

diagnosed as ADHD.

He read an article by prominent neuropsychiatrist

Gillberg and

school doctor Sophie Ekman that claimed 10 per cent of

Swedish children

had a lifelong neuropsychiatric dysfunction.

Dr Elinder was concerned by the figure, the result of a

longitudinal

study, believing less than one per cent of children would

actually qualify

for such labelling.

He took the researchers to court three times and won the

right to examine

the raw data from the study.

Each time researchers refused to co-operate and, after the

final ruling,

Gillberg’s associates shredded more than 100,000 pages of

data, citing

participant confidentiality.

They were convicted of obstruction, fined and given

suspended sentences.

During the court battles Dr Elinder was accused of being an

antagonist and

having links to the Scientology religion – though he has

none.

“I wouldn’t have taken the challenge of going up against

Sweden’s most

famous researcher unless I thought there were good reasons

to look at this

material and take a closer look at the data.

“I’m worried that doctors will use this research and assume

this is a

congenital or hereditary condition when there is no proof.

“No long-term studies have been done because there is no

funding for

them.

“In the absence of any unbiased research I think it is

better to stick to

the assumption that it is a cultural condition and should be

treated in a

cultural way.”

Mr Elinder believed the criteria for determining an ADHD

diagnosis were

“so arbitrary that any child failing at school could get a

diagnosis”.

There were no medical tests, he said. Diagnosis was based on

an interview

with the child’s parents and sometimes teachers, which is

interpreted by

the doctor.

“If a doctor says this is congenital or this is hereditary,

how can

parents or teachers argue against that?

“It’s a quick-fix solution, a medical solution – just give

them a drug –

and it relieves parents and teachers from responsibility.

“But the knowledge parents and teachers have is more

important that the

knowledge doctors have about naughty kids.

“My message is be sceptical when doctors say this is

congenital or

hereditary.

“Of course congenital conditions exist but they are rare.”

An example of a cultural treatment could be swapping some of

a child’s

television time for time spent “sitting on their parent’s

knee reading a

book”.

Mr Elinder is visiting New Zealand for three months and

recently spent a

fortnight with friends in Whakatane, which he described as

“absolutely the

best place in New Zealand”.

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Sartorelli AKA Abra Cadabra

"Grow, grow, the lightning tree, never give in too easily."

Check out Patient Rights Advocacy's website, Choice for

Wellness:

http://prawi.sartorelli.gen.nz