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US Federal laws designed to identify and treat learning disabled
children are serving as a powerful incentive for public schools
to over-diagnose and medicate children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity
disorder (ADHD), a panel has told an education subcommittee of Congress.
Some have attributed the rise to the federal Individuals with
Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which steers money to school
districts so that they can treat disabled children, since it can
give schools an incentive to label children with ADHD.
Others on the panel argued that a lack of mental health professionals
in public schools, not IDEA, was to blame for the push to identify
children with ADHD in schools.
They said that overcrowded classrooms and a paucity of training
among teachers in dealing with behavior problems force the teachers
to push for the calming effect of Ritalin and other drugs for hyperactive
students.
Often the subject of the hearings shifted to a debate about whether
ADHD is a true mental disorder, or whether the illness is simply
an excuse for psychiatrists and drug companies to label unusual
or rambunctious children to create a market for health services
and medications.
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