Is ADHD Fakery On the Rise?

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Faking ADHD has become the latest strategy high school students use to gain the upper hand in the college admissions game, says a January 25th Daily Beast article. Parents (and in particular those whose children attend “elite Manhattan” private schools — I’ve known at least one) have become “amenable to lightweight diagnoses like ADHD that won’t brand kids with a scarlet letter while applying to schools” and seek out neuropsychological testing for children whose “ADHD” may be more perceived, if not pretend, than actual. The reason is the “accommodations” a student with ADHD can receive, such as more time to take standardized tests like the SAT, more time for assignments and even alternative assignments and access to medications including Ritalin and Adderall.

The Daily Beast cites a 2002 study by the College Board (which administers the SAT) that indeed shows that there has been an “increase in the number of applicants who take tests in nonstandard conditions.” Certainly, the number of students diagnosed with ADHD has increased in recent years, with nearly 1 out of 10 children in the US now diagnosed with the condition. More students may be diagnosed with ADHD because parents, pediatricians and teachers are better informed about it and aware of how accommodations can a help a child succeed. But as the Daily Beast suggests, greater awareness of ADHD can also mean that more parties will seek a diagnosis, whether a student really has had lifelong struggles with focusing, controlling impulsive behavior and hyperactivity.

Faking ADHD: Easier Than You May Think

A 2010 study in the journal Psychological Assessment found that it is not too difficult for college students, armed with some quick Google research, to feign ADHD. Professor David Berry of the University of Kentucky and his colleagues had a group of college students — some who had ADHD and were not taking their medication, and some who had been instructed to pretend to have ADHD — take two self-report tests, the ADHA Rating Scale (ARS) and the Conners Adult ADHD Rating Scale (CAARS). The researchers found that such self-report assessments had “no value” in detecting those who were only pretending to have ADHD.

Saying that you have “attention issues” or “problems focusing” has become commonplace, but there are plenty of children, teenagers and adults who have ADHD — whose brains are “differently wired” — and who have faced immense challenges not only in taking tests and completing homework, but in everything from social interactions to sports, with effects on their self-confidence and sense of self-worth.

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I Care F.

7:13PM PST on Feb 29, 2012

ADHD man feels better than ever without drugs

watch video
http://aca.ninemsn.com.au/investigations/8427561/adhd-man-feels-better-than-ever-without-drugs

A man who was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder as a four-year-old and spent most of his life on behaviour altering medication has now ditched the drugs and says he feels better than ever.

send a green star

Barbara S.

8:31AM PST on Feb 29, 2012

Perhaps some of the people truly do have a brain malfunction, and if so, could it be due to the polluted water, soil, air, and all the food we're eating that's grown in this polluted environment?

It's hard to say.

But I don't think drugging children from pre-school on, is the answer. It's been proven that placebos have almost the same rate of change in people as the real drugs. And the drugs we're being prescribed are THOUGHT to change certain functions in our brain, but no one has yet to prove that these drugs actually do... or how they do it.

Jay W.

2:33AM PST on Feb 29, 2012

gee thats disgusting while my daughter fights to get the help she needs these collage students are faking it. this makes me incredibly angry.

Michael C.

6:42PM PST on Feb 27, 2012

Given the fact that most Americans are susceptible to the many "fads," it is possible that overzealous doctors are prescribing w/o true need but in the name of greed.

I have also come to believe that many "teachers" who view a student as disruptive, have sought the support of the school nurse and the parents, to reign in the child.

Many times that child is merely bored with being held back with the truly mentally crippled mainstream students...read, drug users, Ipod users, so-called athletes and the like.

Christina C.

7:52AM PST on Feb 27, 2012

Thank you Rosemarie C. for your supportive comment. I agree also with your point regarding the responsibility placed on the teachers. It's staggering how many people are willing to point their fingers at teachers and call them lazy or merely shills for the pharmaceutical companies. I wonder how many of these people have spent time in the classrooms or had a conversation with a teacher regarding the expectations, curriculum and student-to-teacher ratio? It's easy to point fingers without doing any real research into those statements. Our teachers work for our communities and while I'd never claim all are perfect or that all are victims of the system, I'll gladly stand up and say too many parents expect the teachers to do the parenting as well as the teaching. If a child doesn't receive support at home in completing and understanding their schoolwork, it places a ridiculous burden on a teacher who has many students to care for. Consistency and enforcement are essential to a child's education, and without them, they are being denied tools for success.

Joey S.

8:53AM PST on Feb 26, 2012

The Big Pharmaceutical Companies are lovin' the ADHD scam! Kids can't pay attention or concentrate because they are being indoctrinated with boring, mundane, obsolete and some downright erroneous information. Most of these kids are extremely smart and creative. If these kids had people who could teach them to use their creativity and critical thinking skills these students would be able to do great things. But instead they are given invasive, highly addictive drugs to shut down their creative faculties, shut them up, and blindly memorize the shit the school system throws at them, so they can grow up and became another zombie like slave to the working class. Don't question the status quo, don't question authority don't think, just take this little blue pill and shut up!

Deborah D.

11:14PM PST on Feb 25, 2012

I can believe that those hyper status aware parents would support this kind of behavior.

Look at all those 'helicopter parents' who have intervened on their child's "behalf" as the college admissions office, residence placement, first employer's HR department.

Pathetic and it explains a whole lot about the ethical drought that seems to be spreading.

6:13PM PST on Feb 25, 2012

The truth is now ...every criminal can jump on the same ban wagon so that they are hospitalized instead of jailed a record or mental health problems and not a criminal one .!!

They (criminals) that is
are teaching children the same concept so they too get "a get out of jail free ticket"
As for the Dr's they dont give a damn they are going to make BIG MONEY of this and they buy into the lie's or should i say big act's of deception in order to cover up's these low life's lie's.!
THINK OUT SIDE THE BOX

Rosemarie C.

3:42PM PST on Feb 24, 2012

Christina C. made a keen observation in her comment below that I feel is worth contemplating. I paraphrase:

Perhaps its not that ADD is "not real", or "fake-able", but rather its growing prevalence is a biological response to a very real social problem.

We need to ask ourselves *why* are so many more children/young adults diagnosed with ADD and other related disorders? What is the common thread here...what has changed in our society that seems to ripen the potential for people to develop ADD?

And yes, I do feel strongly about rushing to medicate children for presenting with so-called difficult behaviors that may or may not be related to ADD. Part of the problem, I feel, is that our school systems are failing the children in general. Teachers don't always receive a lot of support in the classroom, are solely responsible for managing 30+ students at a time, and their hands are often tied. How can one person be expected to maintain the attention span of so many children at once? When a child does not "conform" to the protocol of the classroom, we should be a little more cautious about diagnosing or labeling and look at the environment of the classroom and other circumstances first.

1:38AM PST on Feb 23, 2012

Making a Killing: The Untold Story of Psychotropic Drugging - Full Movie (Documentary)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDlH9sV0lHU&list=PLB1C828275CC9A5EB&feature=view_all