Is Medication Safe for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in Children

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The use of drug therapy for children with ADHD has escalated to an alarming degree in this “pill popping” world. Most parents as well as educators became more demanding for a “quick fix” for children who have been diagnosed with academic and behavioral problems (O'Dell & Cook, 2004 ). There has been increasing concern about the potential adverse side effects of these medications. Prescriptions and drugs for ADHD come with discussion and directions for use, and the purpose of the drugs. The section for side effects often comes in technical language and small print, and many people do not read this section at all. People tend to stop reading this section when they encounter difficult chemical names and descriptions. Furthermore, some of these drugs have been prescribed “off label”, which implies that they are being prescribed for age groups and conditions for which they were not officially tested. Aside from these problems, the majority of parents who signed for the informed consent for the medication of their children, were not fully informed about the effects of the medication to their children (O'Dell & Cook, 2004 ).

This paper is deemed important since it would provide a comprehensive discussion of the adverse effects of ADHD medication for children. It has been found that the most common and frequently diagnosed disorder among children is AD/HD or attention deficit hyperactive disorder. According to the American Psychiatric Association’s (2000) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder Fourth Text Revised edition (DSM-IV TR), approximately 3-5% of school aged children have signs of ADHD. In other studies, the prevalence of ADHD was estimated to be 4-8% in USA, 10-20% in India, 9.5% in Korea and approximately 29.7%...

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