Medicating children
Subtitle: ADHD and pediatric mental health
By: Rick Mayes, Catherine Bagwell, Jennifer Erkulwater.
Contributors: Bagwell, Catherine.; Erkulwater, Jennifer L.
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Published: 2008
Place of publication: Cambridge, Mass
Language: eng
Number of pages: 352
ISBN-13: 9780674031630
Subjects: Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder -- Chemotherapy -- United States -- History; Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity -- drug therapy; Central Nervous System Stimulants -- adverse effects; Child; Drug Therapy -- ethics; Health Policy; Mental Health Services
Description: "Why and how did ADHD become the most commonly diagnosed mental disorder among children and adolescents, as well as one of the most controversial? Stimulant medication had been used to treat excessively hyperactive children since the 1950s. And the behaviors that today might lead to an ADHD diagnosis had been observed and known since the early 1930s as "organic drivenness," and then by various other names throughout the decades." "Rick Mayes and his coauthors argue that a unique alignment of social and economic trends and incentives converged in the early 1990s with greater scientific knowledge to make ADHD the most prevalent pediatric mental disorder. New movements advocating for the rights of children and the disabled and a massive increase in Medicaid spending on psychotropic drugs all contributed to the dramatic spike in ADHD diagnoses and stimulant use." "Medicating Children is unique in that it integrates analyses of the clinical, political, historical, educational, social, economic, and legal aspects of ADHD and stimulant pharmacotherapy. Thus, it will be invaluable to educators, clinicians, parents, and policymakers, all of whom are trying to determine what is in the best interest of millions of children."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: An introduction to ADHD; title: A survey of the evolution of ADHD and pediatric stimulant use, 1900-1980; title: The transformation of mental disorders in the 1980s: from the DSM-III to managed care and the emerging debate over 'cosmetic psychopharmacology'; title: ADHD and the politics of children's disability policy; title: The backlash against ADHD and stimulants; title: Current questions about stimulant treatment for ADHD.