Disturbing points about how ADHD is uniquely ingrained into American culture:
Why is the U.S. institutionally reluctant to question the “quick fix” mentality that views ADHD as an isolatable problem with a clearly defined medical solution? That’s a question that brings us to the final player in the ADHD game: drug companies. It’s no small matter that 90 percent of ADHD drug sales are from the U.S.–nor that ADHD is 50 times more likely to be diagnosed in the U.S. than in Britain or France.
Related posts:
- Is the bipolar child and ADHD a purely American phenomenon?
- Growing up with ADHD
- Should we pay American doctors less money?
- Should ADHD be re-branded as a blessing?
- Drug reps getting cranky
- Are doctors with ADHD better suited to primary care?
- Should children be screened with an EKG prior to starting stimulants for ADHD?
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It is simply the psychiatric manifestation of the process driving overuse of imaging and lab studies in general medicine even where superiority over clinical assessment has not been shown–Americans are absolutely enamoured of technology. People blame the shrinks–but it is very difficult to get people to make the necessary investment of time, money, nad effort to non-technological treatments–whether discussing management of depression or ADHD.
In assessment, we see the same overuse of psychological testing even where it has yet to come up to the level of clinical assessment. People who would reject $2000 worth of psychotherapy will eagarly demand $2000 worth of tests that add nothing to management or understanding–because it is “scientific”.
Another manifestation of that process is the ease with which unscrupulous quacks can sweep in patients and dollars with SPECT scans, amino acid assays, quantitative EEGS and other assessment methods of no proven clinical value as long as they fullfill the formula of MMV (Modern Medical Voodoo): Electronic equipment with blinking lights or blood, and pictures or colored charts in the output.
ADHD is often simply the behavioral manifestations of the near total failure of the hyper-feminized US education industry at teaching boys.
Ed Sodaro MD
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