Moses Stutzman
Mid-Michigan Community College
Abstract Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder has drastically increased in recent decades. Medication to treat this disorder has become an easy way out is overused. There are many alternatives to the use of medication to treat the symptoms of ADHD (non-medical treatments). This essay reviews the main symptoms of ADHD and the methods that are used to diagnose ADHD. It is also important to understand the various medical and non-medical treatments that are available to the patient with ADHD. This essay will go through these treatments and conduct an in-depth analysis of each one in order to educate the reader and hopefully a parent of an ADHD child. An analysis of the long and short term effects of medication and non-medical treatment will also be performed so that the best possible treatment will be chosen.
ADHD Intervention Analysis: Is ADHD Medication Being Overprescribed?
Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), in recent decades, have become the most diagnosed mental/behavioral disorders among children, teenagers, and adults. Most of the increases in ADHD are seen in children. According to Rafalovich (2001), there have been an increasing number of diagnoses of ADHD and about four million children in the United States alone have been diagnosed with ADHD. More diagnosis of this mental/behavioral disorder brings forth different methods of intervention. Pharmaceutical intervention is one of the most common interventions when dealing with ADD and ADHD.
Along with an increasing number of diagnoses in ADHD, a soaring number of medications are being prescribed to these patients. Rafalovich (2001) also mentions this increase in prescribed medication and discusses the fact that since 1990 pharmaceutical interventions have gone up by 700 percent which could be considered a massive increase. As it
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