Rather, it treats only the symptoms of the disorder. And that disorder may be hard to define. Doctors say ADD and ADHD are neurological syndromes with symptoms that can include impulsiveness, distractibility, hyperactivity and excess energy. No scientific evidence exists to show that ADD is a disease. Rather, it is an incurable, complex disorder.
Kids have symptoms to an extreme, more on the exaggerated end.
There are other reasons that kids are restless. Social worker Gay agrees that diagnosing the condition is not easy. There may be so many other factors involved, like neglect, abuse and broken families, that can cause the same symptoms. For those children, she says, Ritalin may be an appropriate drug. But Gay maintains that parents must be involved in the decision-making process when it comes to deciding whether their child should be taking the drug.