Medical Dangers Articles

Antibiotics – the Disadvantages Undoubtedly, antibiotics have revolutionised modern medicine and countless lives have been saved, thanks to their use

The fierce debate raging about the benefits or otherwise of vaccinations is getting stronger and parents need to be part of it.

So high is the degree of concern about the rate of increase in diagnoses of ADHD and prescribing, that enquiries have been initiated in the United Kingdom and abroad to try to determine why this is happening.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

The problem in brief

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a diagnostic term that has been used since 1987 to describe a cluster of behaviours associated with inattention, impulsivity and hyperactivity. Although the term is used increasingly often, there is widespread disagreement about whether it exists at all and whether it is, in fact, a valid diagnostic category. Although its advocates are prone to describing it in terms of certainty, there has rarely been so much uncertainty and controversy about a diagnosis that is being used extensively to describe children's behaviour, and which is leading to increases in the prescribing of stimulant medication for children at an unprecedented rate.

So high is the degree of concern about the rate of increase in diagnoses and prescribing that enquiries have been initiated in the United Kingdom and abroad to try to determine why this is happening.

Those experts who adhere to the biological explanation of ADHD, assume it to have a neurobiological or neurochemical basis. However, despite extensive research over almost 30 years, there is still no unequivocal evidence to this effect. It remains only a hypothesis -- a theory. In fact, in 1998 the American National Institute of Health, took the step of announcing that there was no evidence that ADHD was a biological brain disorder. This position remains unchanged.

Statements about ADHD as a biological disorder are often followed by claims of genetic relationships. In establishing the credibility of ADHD's supposedly biological status, it is important to be able to prove that it is 'inherited'. However, although there continue to be many claims that ADHD has a genetic link, this also remains unproven.