Parents of a child with ADHD should be tested for the condition themselves as soon as possible after their child's diagnosis, say University of Maryland researchers in a study published in the December issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
The scientists found that parents of children with ADHD are more than 20 times more likely to have ADHD than parents whose children do not. If the children also have other serious behavioral problems, the parents' risk for psychiatric disorders such as depression, anxiety, and substance abuse is five times greater. I guess that bumper sticker, "Insanity is contagious - you catch it from your kids" - is spot on.
Twenty times isn't bogus number crunching like most study results: that's a real difference. Whatever the cause, whether it's genetics, environment, or both, it's hard to understand how pathologizing the already troubled parents as soon as they find their kid has been given a life-long, ineradicable label, is going to make home life better.
I mean, should the whole family go on medication? What a nightmare.
Article comments
1 - Hal Pawluk
The study also doesn't mean that the parents have ADHD now, just that one of the parents (the mother) said (note: said) that one of the parents had had it as a child:
2 - charmayne
i have trackbacked to your post, i think other psych students could get a lot from what you have to say
3 - sally williams
hi , how can i know if my child has adhd.
4 - Cindy
ADHD is best understood as a diagnosis created when behavior does not conform to expectations of control by authority figures. Schools are institutions of social control. We are expected to conform ourselves to what some of us may experience as absurdity. In other words, when your child reacts by not accommodating and conforming s/he is labelled with a 'disorder'.
Even among 'experts', none agree about what ADHD actually is, what causes it, or what behaviors anyone is actually trying to control. This calls into question the existence of ADHD as being within the child as opposed to being within the mind of the assessor, as assessment is entirely subjective. The so-called genetic evidence based on twins research has been discredited due to very non-scientific assumptions about the social experience of twins being the same which runs counter to both reason and previous investigation.
You may notice that your child's attention span is non-problematic whenever s/he is engaged in activity s/he enjoys. Now wouldn't that be an amazing 'disorder' that caused children to react to what they consider obnoxious stimuli (say school) yet have full attention available for pleasant stimuli (say games).
Here is my opinion based on experiencing a nephew diagnosed with ADHD (non-medicated). There is nothing at all wrong with him except a healthy reaction to an absurd situation.
Further information:
From ABCs to ADHD… The role of schooling in the construction of ‘behaviour disorder’ and production of ‘disorderly objects’ (pdf document)
ADHD is best understood as a cultural construct
Psychiatric Disorders as Social Constructs: ADHD as a Case in Point
Constructing an "other" citizen--the case of ADHD
5 - roger nowosielski
Great post, Cindy. I'm glad to see that you're objecting to these new "disorders" as just another example of defining what's "normal" by the disciplines.
Very Foucauldian!