Doctor skeptical of ADHD 'labelling'

[Guest guest]

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. "

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