Author's Keywords: ADHD, stimulants, Ritalin, mental health, public policy, children, Adderall, education policy, health care	Convention All Academic Convention is the premier solution for your association's abstract management solutions needs. Submission - Custom fields, multiple submission types, tracks, audio visual, multiple upload formats, automatic conversion to pdf. Review - Peer Review, Bulk reviewer assignment, bulk emails, ranking, z-score statistics, and multiple worksheets! Reports - Many standard and custom reports generated while you wait. Print programs with participant indexes, event grids, and more! Scheduling - Flexible and convenient grid scheduling within rooms and buildings. Conflict checking and advanced filtering. Communication - Bulk email tools to help your administrators send reminders and responses. Use form letters, a message center, and much more! Management - Search tools, duplicate people management, editing tools, submission transfers, many tools to manage a variety of conference management headaches! Click here for more information.
Association: Name: American Political Science Association URL: http://www.apsanet.org
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Mayes, Rick. "Suffer the Restless Children: ADHD, Psychostimulants, and the Politics of Pediatric Mental Health" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Hyatt Regency Chicago and the Sheraton Chicago Hotel and Towers, Chicago, IL, Aug 30, 2007 <Not Available>. 2008-10-08 <http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p209292_index.html>

Mayes, R. , 2007-08-30 "Suffer the Restless Children: ADHD, Psychostimulants, and the Politics of Pediatric Mental Health" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Hyatt Regency Chicago and the Sheraton Chicago Hotel and Towers, Chicago, IL Online <APPLICATION/PDF>. 2008-10-08 from http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p209292_index.html

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript Abstract: BACKGROUND: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) holds the distinction of being both the most extensively studied pediatric mental disorder and one of the most controversial. This is partly due to the fact that it is also the most commonly diagnosed mental disorder among minors. On average, 1 in every 15 to 20 children in the U.S. has been diagnosed with the disorder and 1 in every 20 to 25 uses a stimulant medication�often Ritalin, Adderall, or Concerta�as treatment. The biggest increase in youth diagnosed with ADHD and prescribed a stimulant drug occurred during the 1990s, when the prevalence of physician visits for stimulant pharmacotherapy increased five-fold. This unprecedented increase in U.S. children using psychotropic medication triggered an intense public debate. When the 1990s began, most schools across the country had only a handful of (if any) children diagnosed with ADHD and using stimulants. By 2000, every classroom in the United States had, on average, at least 1 to 2 such students treated for the disorder. Currently, almost 8 percent of youth aged 4 to 17 years have a diagnosis of ADHD, and approximately 4 percent both have the diagnosis and are taking medication for the disorder. RESEARCH QUESTIONS: ADHD has been present under different diagnostic labels in the U.S. for at least seventy years, so what accounts for the rapid growth in diagnoses, stimulant treatment and the disorder�s popular acceptance within the past twenty years? To what extent have the evolution of ADHD and stimulants been unique compared to other mental disorders and forms of pharmacotherapy? And why did stimulant use by children become so controversial yet commonplace? FINDINGS: As this book attempts to explain, the massive increase in the number of U.S. children diagnosed with ADHD and using stimulants stemmed from: a confluence of trends (clinical, economic, educational, political), an alignment of incentives (among clinicians, educators, policy makers, health insurers, the pharmaceutical industry), and the sizeable growth in scientific knowledge about ADHD and stimulants that converged in the first half of the 1990s. Growing political movements advocating for children�s welfare and mental health consumers, along with the decreasing stigma associated with mental disorders, led to three seemingly minor changes�to disability, special education, and Medicaid policies�in the early 1990s that helped trigger the surge in ADHD diagnoses and related stimulant use. DISCUSSION: The use of stimulant medication for the management and treatment of ADHD has vocal supporters and critics alike, and as our book describes, the history of the diagnosis and treatment of the disorder reveal numerous controversies. Today, however, the controversy is not focused as much on whether or not ADHD is a �real� disorder. It is widely recognized as such. If controversies about ADHD continue, then, they are less focused on the existence of the disorder than on some of the consequences of the disorder. For example, what are the policy implications? What are the implications of the increase in the use of stimulant medication in recent years? How do ADHD and the use of stimulants fit with concerns about �cosmetic psychopharmacology�? The enduring controversy about ADHD in the public arena reflects the discomfort about what happens when the science is translated into policies and rules that govern how children will be treated. A diagnosis of ADHD is not simply a private medical finding; it carries with it a host of public ramifications. Will the child receive medication, or will more effective discipline strategies work? Will parents retain exclusive control over what prescription drugs their child ingests, or will school officials, judges, and child protection workers also have a say? Will an impoverished child and his family receive extra government assistance, or will they have to get by on what the rest of the poor families live on, which could amount to no government assistance at all? Will a child struggling socially and academically in school receive special assistance and accommodations, or will she have to plod along with everyone else? Futhermore, while scientists might agree that there is a set of core conditions that can be characterized as a medical dysfunction called ADHD, there is little consensus among policymakers about how many children have this dysfunction. The conundrum is not the small number of children with symptoms so debilitating that practically everyone would agree they need some sort of help�most likely a combination of drug and behavioral therapy. The real problem is the much larger number of children who have a �shadow� of the disorder, symptoms that are clearly severe enough that the child�s behavior irritates his teachers, wears down his parents, alienates peers, and leads to his own unhappiness. Estimates of how prevalent ADHD is range from 3% to 5% of all school-aged children to as high as 10%. In the public debate, we are not talking about the same children. Because the diagnostic criteria are not always applied rigorously, the diagnosis encompasses both children who all would agree have a clinical disorder as well as children where the decision is a judgment call, children who are extremely taxing to those around them but whose actions may not be the result of a neurological impairment. As a matter of policy, Americans are more willing to provide social assistance and accommodations to people who �can�t� meet their social obligations, however willing they are, than to give the benefit of the doubt to those who �won�t.� Thus, the conflict over the existence and prevalence of ADHD endures, despite all of the scientific evidence, because �behavior is never 100 percent either �can�t� or �won�t.��

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