One in 20 children suffers attention disorder

Five per cent of children in England and Wales have been officially diagnosed with the hyperactivity disorder ADHD ministers said this week, as new figures showed a dramatic increase in the prescription of the controversial drug Ritalin.

Five per cent of children in England and Wales have been officially diagnosed with the hyperactivity disorder ADHD ministers said this week, as new figures showed a dramatic increase in the prescription of the controversial drug Ritalin.

Health ministers said "it was becoming increasingly common for paediatricians" to diagnose attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), which some have warned is simply a symptom of bad behaviour.

Figures released by health ministers showed that at least 345,000 children aged between six and 16 officially suffer from the behavioural disorder, while the number of prescriptions of Ritalin and other drugs to treat it has rocketed over the past two years. Last year, 329,000 prescriptions were written for drugs combating childhood hyperactivity, compared with 271,000 the year before.

Opposition MPs cautioned that many children who had been diagnosed with ADHD were hyperactive because of poor parenting or because they ate junk foods full of chemicals.

The Liberal Democrat MP Sandra Gidley, a former pharmacist, warned against parents regarding Ritalin as "a wonder drug" that could cure disruptive behaviour in all youngsters.

"Ritalin is regarded as a magic bullet by some parents. It is becoming so widespread that I have had parents in my surgery who regard it as a wonder drug, complaining that doctors are refusing to prescribe it to their children," she said. "In some kids it is because they are eating so many additives in junk food and often what is needed is some low-level intervention from social services to help with parenting skills. In many cases, Ritalin is a cop-out solution to a wider problem."

Although many parents say that Ritalin has helped treat serious behavioural problems in children who had previously destroyed family life, others fear that the drug is being too generally prescribed and given to many children unnecessarily.

Studies by psychiatrists have shown that children with attention deficit disorder are four times more likely than average to suffer mental problems later in life. Researchers at Harvard Medical School have also warned that the misdiagnosis of ADHD in children, followed by the prescription of Ritalin, could lead to a greater likelihood of depression in adulthood.

Dr Stephen Ladyman, the health minister, who released the figures this week to Tory health spokesman Tim Loughton, said that "a treatment programme" for ADHD should not "rely on medication alone".

"It is recommended that interventions that focus on the behaviour of the child, family interactions, classroom problems and learning difficulties should be offered," he said.

The Department of Health added that guidelines from the National Institute for Clinical Excellence said that children on Ritalin should "receive regular monitoring and be taken off the drug if there was no improvement of symptoms".

The bill for hyperactivity drugs is believed to exceed £10m a year.

In North America, where Ritalin prescriptions have also gone up, the drug has been sold illegally to children.