From the article: Henry Shelford, the CEO and a co-founder of ADHD UK, said: “ADHD is a disability and the sudden removal of medication is akin to removing a wheelchair from a disabled person that needs it.”
Ok, but you’re still refusing to let another disabled person have a wheelchair in the first place so…
No, (I get why you asked that, I should have worded my comment differently) it’s just funny to me this idea of fairness is to exclude those who haven’t yet been afforded the thing that would put them on more even footing with neurotypical individuals. I did read the article, I just am surprised that that’s how someone would say well let’s not help anyone that we’re not already helping, because fair’s fair. I also noticed it only seems to include 3 medications, so there are other options. I just kind of chuckled at the idea of no new wheelchairs angry face emoji
As far as I have followed this issue, this is a US problem. Pharmaceuticals are treated very differently in Europe. For example, there’s no public ads for prescription drugs allowed, meaning that patients usually don’t push doctors to prescribe random stuff they've heard about on TV.
Maybe not that way around, but in the EU the pharmaceutical companies take physicians out for dinner, take them on skiing trips etc. to accomplish the same result; push for more of this medication to be prescribed.
People downvoting me probably don't work in healthcare and have no idea how these businesses work.
As someone who was medicated as a child, people are right to be suspicious of providing toddlers with stimulants.
Diagnosed at age 4. Prescribed stimulant medication. It had serious negative consequences for both me and my development. I'm not alone in this regard. School systems should be made to accommodate children with ADHD, not forcing stimulants on children to make them compatible with school systems.
Unfortunately, that study was done a couple of hundred years after the UK lost control of North Carolina, so it doesn't support the claim that ADHD medication is overprescribed in the UK.
While it's likely true that the condition is overdiagnosed in adolescent populations, it's also widely acknowledged that ADHD is less commonly diagnosed once in adulthood.
Your quote doesn't say they calculate the result globally. It's estimated based on the results in Carolina. They say estimate because the don't have the data to say it is true.
ADHD administrative prevalence (based on rates of diagnosis and/or prescriptions) in children and adolescents in the UK has been estimated to fall between 0.2 and 0.9% since the mid-2000s (39). These rates remain below community prevalence estimates in the UK estimated at around 2.2% in 1999 and 2005 (55, 56), with more recent estimates of 1.6% in 2017, based on the more restrictive ICD-10 Hyperkinetic Disorder criteria (57). Administrative prevalence of adult ADHD in the UK stands at around 0.1% (40), far below even some of the lowest prevalence rates documented in adults (9).
Failure of Healthcare Provision for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder in the United Kingdom: A Consensus Statement, 2021
This suggests about 1% of the UK population has ADHD and isn't diagnosed. The would be more than 600,000 people.
This used to be true and perhaps still is in some places, but in some European countries the laws have changed a bit recently which means bad time for pharma companies. They now don't have enough finances to bribe doctors effectively. (Source: family member in European pharma.)
It's not about money, they have more than enough of that. It's about regulations on how they can spend it. They are not allowed to give doctors a mini holliday anymore, they used to to that, but they still have more than enough ways to influence doctors.
I had to jump through multiple hoops and complete a nearly perfect CAARS test before I could even get into contact with my psych. And then it was roughly a couple months talking with her before I was diagnosed. All in podunk USA. So it’s not rampant everywhere, especially since it’s nearly impossible to even find a psychiatrist within 150 miles of my house.