A few days ago Mireia told us that the children's tantrums had been included in the new DSM Psychiatry Manual, being pathological that a child has more than three tantrums a week for a year, causing virtually all children to have a mental disorder .
Tantrums aside, in a report by the US government they wanted to quantify children's mental disorders and the results are quite surprising: one in five children has a mental health disorder, in what seems more profitable business for psychiatrists and pharmacists That a true sample of reality.
The report was published last Thursday and focuses on the diagnoses of six areas, for children aged 3 to 17 years: attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or ADHD, which is the star taking the first place in diagnosis, disorders of behavior, mood and anxiety disorders, autism spectrum disorders and Tourette's syndrome.
Putting them in numbers, the most common is ADHD, since 7% of children suffer from it or, rather, have been diagnosed, according to the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). They are followed by behavioral disorders, which affect 3.5% of children, anxiety disorders, which affect 3%, depression symptoms, which affect 2%, autism, which has 1% of children. children and Tourette's syndrome, which affects 2 out of every 1,000 children.
Regarding adolescents, who are also part of this group from 3 to 17 years old, 5% had abused or were dependent on illegal drugs the previous year, more than 4% abused alcohol and almost 3% smoked regular manner (apparently drinking and smoking is considered mental health disorder).
According to the researchers disorders know of gender differencesWell, boys are more likely to have ADHD, behavioral problems, autism spectrum disorders, suffer from anxiety and have Tourette's syndrome, in addition to smoking more and having a higher risk of suicide, and girls suffer more depression and have more risk of having a disorder with alcohol consumption.
Despite being the first report published in this regard, the CDC has been collecting data related to mental illness for some time and for this reason they are willing to make a comparison. According to Ruth Perou, team leader of the CDC's child development studies:
We see that there has been an increase in many mental disorders, especially ADHD and autism ... We do not know if it is due to increased awareness or if there is really an increase in these disorders.
It is clear, or there are more and more children with mental health disorders, to the point that one in five has something, scandalous figure to be more unable, or psychiatrists are increasingly aware of these diseases and are distributing right-handed diagnoses and sinister. Because in my class we were 40 children and according to this data eight we had something. And of those in the next class, another eight. And the one next to that class, eight more. That is, of 120 children in a course 24 children suffered from a mental disorder.
In addition, he adds that, fortunately, different disorders are diagnosed each time before:
The good news is that mental disorders can be diagnosed and treated. If we act soon, we can really change things in the lives of children and their families in general.
And he's right in cases where there really is a mental health disorder. The sooner you start working, the better. Now, considering that most likely most have nothing but some normal process that requires support or attention (anxiety, depression, behavior disorders, some ADHD that are not, etc.) and to which the label of "pathology" has been hung, it seems that that "diagnose and treat" sounds like business.
We are in crisis, yes, but being a child psychiatrist in the United States seems like a more profitable business, given that many normal childhood processes are being diagnosed and treated. Hopefully this fashion does not reach Spain, which is the only thing missing, that in addition to hypermedicating the sick let's end up medicating the healthy ones too ... Or maybe we are already doing it?
