Trends in the Parent-Report of Health Care Provider-Diagnosed and Medicated Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: United States, 2003–2011

Abstract

Objective Data from the 2003 and 2007 National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH) reflect the increasing prevalence of parent-reported ADHD diagnosis and treatment by health care providers. This report updates these prevalence estimates for 2011 and describes temporal trends. Method Weighted analyses were conducted with 2011 NSCH data to estimate prevalence of a parent-reported ADHD diagnosis, current ADHD, current medication treatment, ADHD severity, and mean age of diagnosis for US children aged 4–17 years and among demographic subgroups. A history of ADHD diagnosis (2003—2011) as well as current ADHD and medication treatment prevalence (2007–2011) were compared using prevalence ratios and 95% confidence intervals. Results In 2011, 11% of children aged 4–17 years had ever received an ADHD diagnosis (6.4 million children). Among those with a history of ADHD diagnosis, 83% were reported as currently having ADHD (8.8%); 69% of children with current ADHD were taking medication for ADHD (6.1%, 3.5 million children). A parent-reported history of ADHD increased by 42% from 2003—2011. Prevalence of a history of ADHD, current ADHD, medicated ADHD and moderate/severe ADHD increased significantly from 2007 estimates. Prevalence of medicated ADHD increased by 28% from 2007—2011. Conclusions An estimated two million more US children aged 4–17 years had been diagnosed with ADHD in 2011, compared to 2003. More than two-thirds of those with current ADHD were taking medication for treatment in 2011. This suggests an increasing burden of ADHD in the US. Efforts to further understand ADHD diagnostic and treatment patterns are warranted.

ADHD: a critical update for educational professionals

“…ADHD is currently the most prevalent parent-reported diagnosis among children in the USA (Visser et al, 2014). When DSM-IV was published in 1994 (American Psychiatric Association, 1994) the prevalence of ADHD was an estimated 3% (Goldman, Genel, Bezman, & Slanetz, 1998).…”

“…Since then, the percentage of children with a parent-reported ADHD diagnosis increased substantially, from 7.8% in 2003 to 9.5% in 2007 to 11.0% in 2011. In 2011, nearly one in five high school boys had been diagnosed with ADHD and about 13.3% of all 11-year-old boys were medicated for ADHD (Visser et al, 2014). …”

“…In the USA, the total number of children on ADHD medication skyrocketed from 1.5 million in 1995 (Safer & Zito, 1996) to 3.5 million in 2011 (Visser et al, 2014). Sales of prescription stimulants have quintupled in the last decade (Schwarz, 2013), to well over 11 billion in 2015 (www.jsonline.com, accessed 23 September 2016).…”

Media use and ADHD-related behaviors in children and adolescents: A meta-analysis.

“…It has become more fast-paced, violent, and arousing (Allen, Livingstone, & Reiner, 1998;Bushman, Jamieson, Weitz, & Romer, 2013;Koolstra, van Zanten, Lucassen, & Ishaak, 2004), and it has become abundantly accessible to ever younger children. These same four decades have also witnessed a significant increase in the diagnosis rate of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD; Akinbami, Liu, Pastor, & Reuben, 2011;Kelleher, McInerny, Gardner, Childs, & Wasserman, 2000;Visser et al, 2014). ADHD is a behavioral disorder characterized by a cluster of three symptoms: attention problems, hyperactivity, and impulsivity (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders,5th ed. [DSM-V] American Psychiatric Association, 2013).…”

Identifying the gaps between science, policies, services, and the needs of youths affected by mental disorders

“…Children aged 2-5 years have also been Mental disorders are estimated to affect 10-20 % of children and adolescents around the world and are major causes of morbidity among youth [10]. Evidence from different countries suggests that the number of youths with reported diagnoses of mental disorders in the community has increased substantially during the past decades [1,17], although there is no evidence to indicate that the actual prevalence of disorders has increased [12]. Surprisingly, despite the fact that mental disorders have been increasingly recognized by professionals and the community, associated morbidity and mortality have remained stable [3].…”