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ADHD Diagnoses Greatly Increased In Last Decade

Michael Juliani |
April 1, 2013 | 9:23 a.m. PDT

Executive Producer

Prescription pills (Wikimedia Commons)
Prescription pills (Wikimedia Commons)

Nearly 11 percent of school-age children have been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Monday, according to The New York Times.

This number has increased significantly in the last decade, causing speculation about the prevalence of diagnoses and their validity.

The CDC's numbers showed that 6.4 million kids ages four through 17 have been diagnosed at some point in their lives, 16 percent more than had been diagnosed by 2007 and 53 percent more than ten years ago.

Two-thirds of the children were prescribed pills like Ritalin and Adderall to help treat their diagnoses.

The New York Times said that more teenagers will likely be prescribed meds because the American Psychiatric Association is about to widen the definition of ADHD.

Read the whole story here.

 

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