1) That "ADHD is overdiagnosed" metastudy is frequently referenced, but always for the wrong reasons:
"Overdiagnosis is defined here as occurring when a person is clinically diagnosed with a condition, but the net effect of the diagnosis is unfavorable. Misdiagnosis (when a child is incorrectly labeled with an ADHD diagnosis instead of an alternative condition) and false-positive diagnosis (when a subsequent clinical encounter reveals a wrong initial diagnosis) are not the focus of this article."
Unfavorable here is:
- medication can have side effects
- it might be used as an excuse to stop trying/caring
- there's a social stigma
2) Your second link provides no evidence of drug-seeking behaviour. It only claims that it's possibly to get a high score on an ADHD checklist with fake answers. It makes no claim that people without ADHD actually seek an ADHD diagnosis to get prescription stimulants.
Note that I'm not claiming they aren't, just that this article doesn't support that claim.
3) The third link is just an article on time with the headline that 1 in 4 adults who seek treatment are faking it. I can't find any reference to this number in the article body, nor a link to the paper.
Color me surprised: this one does actually support the claim that 22% are exaggerating symptoms.
There are of course some limitations to this study. And it makes no claim that those that are exaggerating symptoms are doing so to seek medication (again, I'm not claiming otherwise).
The good news is that there are methods to identify these patients. And given that this study is from 2010, I hope that those are in use to aid with (mis)diagnosis today.
Mitchdoogle, do you have any other evidence to support your claim of overdiagnosing and drug-seeking?
In the future, please take the time to read through the articles you link.
And please take the time to read the last paper before you reply.
> Overdiagnosis is defined here as occurring when a person is clinically diagnosed with a condition, but the net effect of the diagnosis is unfavorable.
... So if, let's say, the existing treatments for some disease are bad and often make the problem worse, then the people designing this terminology consider the problem to be "the disease is diagnosed too often" rather than "doctors treat this disease badly"? And the solution to be "avoid diagnosing this" instead of "change the way doctors treat or don't treat it once it's diagnosed"? I mean, that's what the term seems to imply.
Wiki agrees with you... and with me:
> Overdiagnosis occurs when a disease is diagnosed correctly, but the diagnosis is irrelevant. A correct diagnosis may be irrelevant because treatment for the disease is not available, not needed, or not wanted. Some people contend that the term "overdiagnosis" is inappropriate, and that "overtreatment" is more representative of the phenomenon.
"Overdiagnosis is defined here as occurring when a person is clinically diagnosed with a condition, but the net effect of the diagnosis is unfavorable. Misdiagnosis (when a child is incorrectly labeled with an ADHD diagnosis instead of an alternative condition) and false-positive diagnosis (when a subsequent clinical encounter reveals a wrong initial diagnosis) are not the focus of this article."
Unfavorable here is:
- medication can have side effects
- it might be used as an excuse to stop trying/caring
- there's a social stigma
2) Your second link provides no evidence of drug-seeking behaviour. It only claims that it's possibly to get a high score on an ADHD checklist with fake answers. It makes no claim that people without ADHD actually seek an ADHD diagnosis to get prescription stimulants.
Note that I'm not claiming they aren't, just that this article doesn't support that claim.
3) The third link is just an article on time with the headline that 1 in 4 adults who seek treatment are faking it. I can't find any reference to this number in the article body, nor a link to the paper.
I think this is the paper: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/46282569_Effectiven...
Color me surprised: this one does actually support the claim that 22% are exaggerating symptoms. There are of course some limitations to this study. And it makes no claim that those that are exaggerating symptoms are doing so to seek medication (again, I'm not claiming otherwise).
The good news is that there are methods to identify these patients. And given that this study is from 2010, I hope that those are in use to aid with (mis)diagnosis today.
Mitchdoogle, do you have any other evidence to support your claim of overdiagnosing and drug-seeking? In the future, please take the time to read through the articles you link. And please take the time to read the last paper before you reply.