ADHD is not a real disease: Neuroscientist
Dr Bruce Perry, a senior fellow of the Child Trauma Academy in Houston, Texas, is visiting UK health ministers and said ADHD is not a "real disease" because it relates to a broad range of symptoms.
"It is best thought of as a description. If you look at how you end up with that label, it is remarkable because any one of us at any given time would fit at least a couple of those criteria," he told The Observer.
Children diagnosed with ADHD display signs of ongoing hyperactivity, impulsiveness and inattentiveness.
Dr Perry said doctors are too quick to prescribe psychostimulants and said there is evidence they don't offer long-term benefits.
"We are very immature in our current evolution in giving diagnoses," he said.
"A hundred years ago, someone would come to the doctor and they would have chest pain and would be sweating. And they would say, 'Oh, you have fever.' They would label it, just like we label it ADHD now. It's a description rather than a real disease."
Dr Perry said we still don't understand exactly how ADHD medication works.
"Taking a medication influences systems in ways we don't always understand," he said.
"I tend to be pretty cautious about this stuff, particularly when the research shows you that other interventions are equally effective and over time more effective and have none of the adverse effects. For me it's a no-brainer."
Dr Perry said he would prefer to see doctors look at the way parents behave with their children.
"There are a number of non-pharmacological therapies which have been pretty effective. A lot of them involve helping the adults that are around children," he said.
"Part of what happens is if you have an anxious, overwhelmed parent, that is contagious. When a child is struggling, the adults around them are easily disregulated too. This negative feedback process between the frustrated teacher or parent and disregulated child can escalate out of control."
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