Can you guess how much the number of children diagnosed with ADHD has increased?
The answer is that it's doubled in the past 20 years according to a recently published study. While it's possible the increase may be correlated with the increase in better access to health insurance, it was also found that the rate of diagnosis doubled in girls. The researchers who studied these stats also stated that they found no evidence of over diagnosis or misdiagnosis.
The US has significantly more instances of ADHD than any other developed country. While some researchers have claimed that over diagnosis is the leading cause for this, lead researcher in this study Wei Bao, MD, PhD says he does not support that.
The argument among researchers lies in whether there is an epidemic of ADHD or or over diagnosing. It may be the shift of society to become more aware and accepting of mental illness and the broader view of who can be affected by the disorder with this new study noting that there was a significant increase in minority communities.
