Is Medication Safe for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity...

The use of drug therapy for children with ADHD has escalated to an alarming degree in this â€Å"pill popping† world. Most parents as well as educators became more demanding for a â€Å"quick fix† for children who have been diagnosed with academic and behavioral problems (ODell 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†¦show more content†¦It is important that if parents suspect that their children may be over-active even during the developmental stage of play especially in pre-school, they should start to make comparisons between the ch ild and his same aged peers. According to Fowler (2004), children may be suspected to have hyperactivity when they seem to be always on the go. The most common activity found in children about 2-3 years old is one who spend less time with a single toy, one who is squirmy compared to his peers and one who is always darting out of the house. At all ages, hyperactive children display excessive and loud talking. Listed in the DSM-IV TR (2000) are the symptoms of hyperactivity in both children and adults: (1) frequent fidgeting with the hands and feet or often found squirming in seats (2) often leaves his/her seat in the classroom or in other situations wherein he is expected to remain seated (3) often runs about or climbs exceptionally in appropriate situations wherein in adolescents, it may be limited to subjective feelings of restlessness (4) often finds it difficult to play or engage in leisure activities in a quite manner (5) always on the go or acts as if he is driven by a motor and (6) shows signs of loud or e xcessive talking. It is reported that in most settings, four to nine times as many boys as girls are diagnosed with hyperactivity and in the United States, the incidence rate isShow MoreRelatedAttention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder ( Adhd )1552 Words   |  7 PagesATTENTION DEFICIT HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER Seth was a second grader at West Elementary. 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