Childhood ADHD diagnosis on rise, US health officials say

The diagnosis of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is on the rise in American children, with an estimated 2 million more kids receiving a diagnosis of ADHD and 1 million more taking medication for ADHD in 2011 than there were in 2003, according to new data released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.

In a 2011 national survey of more than 95,000 U.S. households, the CDC found that 11 percent of children between the ages of 4 and 17 — or 6.4 million children nationwide — had received a diagnosis of ADHD, a disorder characterized by hyperactivity, trouble controlling impulsive behaviors and difficulty paying attention.

Among those children who had been diagnosed with ADHD, 83 percent were considered to currently have the disorder, or 8.8 percent of all kids nationwide. And among the children who currently have the disorder, 69 percent are taking medication to treat it — which comes out to 6.1 percent, or 3.5 million kids nationwide, the researchers said in the CDC report released Friday.

The authors of the study say children could benefit from non-medication treatments such as behavioral therapy, if it is initiated early on, but such options "may not  be broadly available across the U.S."

"There are a large number of young children who could benefit from the early initiation of behavioral therapy, which is recommended as the first-line treatment for preschool children with ADHD," said Susanna Visser, a CDC epidemiologist and the lead author of the study, which was published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (PDF).

Overall, the prevalence of childhood ADHD increased by 42 percent between the years 2003 and 2011, and the frequency of children taking medication for ADHD increased by 28 percent between 2007 and 2011.

"This suggests an increasing burden of ADHD on the U.S. health care system," the authors of the study wrote. "Efforts to further understand ADHD diagnostic and treatment plans are warranted."

The researchers did not indicate why ADHD among children has increased, but offered a few potential reasons: significantly, an increase in parental reports of their kids' ADHD, or "better detection of underlying ADHD, due to increased health education and awareness efforts," the authors wrote.

The researchers noted that the "prevalence of ADHD medication use also increased despite an overall downward trend in pediatric medication prescriptions," and that the study's data suggest that "the impact of ADHD may be increasing."

The demographic groups most affected by ADA included boys — 15.1 percent of them had ADHD, versus just 6.7 percent of girls. Nearly one in five high school boys and one in 11 high school girls were diagnosed with the disorder. 

In addition, children who were white, who lived in the Midwest, and kids whose families lived above 100 percent of the poverty line were more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD.

In terms of regional trends, children living in the West were least likely to receive a diagnosis of ADHD; state-based estimates of ADHD frequency ranged from 4.2 percent of kids in Nevada and 5.9 percent in California to 14.6 percent of children in Arkansas and 14.8 percent in Kentucky.