Are children overdiagnosed with mental disorders?

[rehuxley]

There is an interesting article located here > http://www.dana.org/news/cerebrum/detail.aspx?id=13800 on the alarming rise of mental health diagnoses given to children. As a licensed child therapist I wholeheartedly agree with the articles premise that it is the

Comments

Oh the circles my mind is running!

[anonymous]

Hey Ron! Finally had the time to read this post...and I agree with all you have said. You paraphrase the article's author as suggesting tests to pinpoint real mental health disorders versus behaviors that are perhaps maladaptive reactions to, or just generally don't fit with, society's expectations for children today. I think there is a deeper discussion to be had about what is a "real" mental health disorder. The example that comes to mind is Generalized Anxiety Disorder, which is an official disorder (right? been awhile since I checked out the DSM!) but could also be seen as a physiological type that is maladaptive to modern society in terms of responding poorly to large amounts of stimuli. I also personally think that a person's biochemistry can be changed by thought patterns, bringing us to an unfortunate chicken-and-egg situation. OR it could be fortunate! Perhaps that would mean that parallel treatment methods for each path would result in better outcomes to be had no matter what the source of the disorder! We can always hope...

Thanks for the thought-provoking thoughts!
Jen Keir

Re: Oh the circles my mind is running!

[rehuxley]

Hi Jen! Generalized Anxiety Disorder is a real DSM descriptor for a mental health disorder. The DSM is a useful tool for clinicians but it definitely has it's limitations. Hopefully, anyone using these mental health disorder codes are looking closely at the criteria to make sure they really do fit and not, as the article suggested, giving the labels to appease a parent and get the child services... We now that life circumstances and change our brain chemistry as well as brain chemistry affecting our behaviors. It is all about which part of the proverbial elephant we are looking at! I like your suggestion of parallel treatment methods and evaluations for looking at a possible mental health disorder. Checks and balances are always good. I don't think we should eliminate "gut instincts" either when assessing and treating...but that is another topic for discussion. Ha.