| > The actual reason why America is an outlier is widespread over-diagnosis. > A typical ADHD diagnosis in America is done by a paediatrician or a family doctor in an office visit as brief as 15 minutes. The norm in Europe is an hours-long assessment by a psychiatrist. Anecdotal evidence, but our experience is — and most people/teachers/doctors we talk to say — that most diagnosis are done via similar long tests. I’ve not heard of doctors/teachers trying to address ADHD without a formal test being done. Are others able to confirm that they know of diagnosis from a “15 minute doctor visit”? EDIT: In fact, our insurance won’t even cover medication for our son without a formal checkup — every 3 months. Sure, some may “unofficially” think or claim to have ADHD from talking to their doctor that may say something like “it’s possible you/your child has ADHD”, but I find it hard to believe that actual treatment/IEP (individual education plan) happens without a formal diagnosis. |
The formal test was a short survey about our childs behavior in various situations. It was highly subjective with questions similar to "My child has difficulty sitting still" (Never, Sometimes, Often).
There was not example of what is considered sometimes or often and what is age appropriate for a 6 year old.
The survey was required to be answered by the parents and kindergarten teacher. That was all that was necessary to have the option of medication.
Even more surprising is that with only slight more effort we now have the option to put our child on an IEP (indivdualized education plan) where there will now be a full additional teacher in the classroom assisting her.
Overall it has been an eye opening experience. Compared to our first child, our 6 year old is more spirited, but is not violent or defiant. She is mostly concerned with her own interests and will admittedly have difficulty focusing for long periods of time. I would be very curious if her behavior is above the threshold for ADHD in other countries.
This was just our experience and it is very possible that our child was an obvious case so further analysis was not necessary. For now we have opted not to use medication. Interestingly our diagnosing pediatrician has two children with ADHD and said that they put both children on medication at 6 years old.