Is there under-medication or over-medication of ADHD kids?
I don’t know if there’s under-medication or over-medication. I’m not sure if the right kids are getting medicated. That’s part of the problem. To do a proper diagnosis of a child who has a psychiatric illness or a child who has ADHD really requires time. It takes time to interview the mother and father. It takes time to get ahold of a questionnaire, for observation from the teacher. It takes time to examine the child and talk to the child. And all this then requires some thinking and putting together and synthesizing this information, to decide what is the possible diagnosis, and what else could be causing these symptoms. When kids are being diagnosed by primary care physicians on a very, very tight time schedule . . . I question whether or not the right children are always getting the medication. There are also certain populations in the United States that are very opposed to giving their children medication. Historically, the African-American population has a bias against giving psyc
