christian counseling today
Vol. 20 no. 2
21
I
the course of treatment.
5
Because the data does not sort out
who is correctly or incorrectly diagnosed, cardiovascular health
is a potential issue for both groups using medications.
Another negative physical concern is how ADHD medi-
cations affect child growth patterns. The National Institute
of Mental Health (NIMH) Multimodal Treatment Study of
ADHD examined this issue and found that ADHD medica-
tions radically reduce child growth rates.
6
Thus, chronic use
of stimulant medications with children who do not have the
biological markers of ADHD may result in slow growth, a
risk that has to be weighed by parents who decide to use these
psychotropic chemicals with their young children, regardless
of the diagnosis.
The Cost of Misdiagnosis
Prescription options are expensive and families who use them
to treat their children often find they are spending a signifi-
cant portion of their monthly budget on these medications.
Less talked about are the estimated costs that burden so many
families when misdiagnosis occurs. Elder estimates that $320
to $500 million is spent annually on ADHD treatments for
children who fall into this category.
7
Obviously, teachers,
parents and clinicians need to work together to ensure
accurate diagnoses. The cost of treatment, combined with
the potential side effects of medications, not only concerns
parents, but also care providers.
Looking at the Course of
Preschool ADHD Treatment
In order to better understand the course of preschool ADHD,
researchers at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine,
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Division
of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, formed the Preschool
Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Treatment Study
(PATS) and decided to follow preschoolers who were diag-
nosed with ADHD over a period of six years. They wanted to
see if those children diagnosed in preschool would have symp-
toms that persisted into elementary school.
The initial results of the study were published in 2006
and concluded that low doses of medication, closely moni-
tored and taken over the short-term, showed benefits in
preschoolers. The later part of the study analyzed the follow-
up group and was reported in February 2013 in the
Journal of
the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
.
