Search Here

Over the last decade in California, there has been an increase of children being diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) compared to a decade earlier, according to new research from a California health plan.

Rates rose most among minority kids during the study period, climbing nearly 70 percent overall in black children, and 60 percent among Hispanic youngsters, according the study published in JAMA Pediatrics. Among black girls, ADHD rates jumped 90 percent.

"That is a very significant increase," said Darios Getahun, a research scientist with the Kaiser Permanente Southern California Medical Group, who conducted the study.

The study looked at health records of more than 840,000 children, ages 5-11, who met a strict definition for ADHD, as diagnosed by a trained expert. It found that 2.5% of children were diagnosed with ADHD at the start of the study in 2001, vs. 3.1% in 2010 - a 24% increase.

The study found that  over the previous decade, the prevalence of ADHD reached epidemic proportions in the U.S.

"It is one of the most common chronic childhood psychiatric disorders, affecting 4% to 12% of all school-age children and persisting into adolescence and adulthood in approximately 66% to 85% of children," they wrote. "This large cohort study with children from diverse racial/ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds provides assurance on the generalizability of our findings."

ADHD is one of the most common childhood neurobehavioral disorders, according to the CDC.

Children with ADHD have trouble paying attention or act impulsively, or both.

While the American Psychiatric Association estimates that 3% to 7% of school-aged children have ADHD, other studies have found higher rates.

The biggest factor driving this increase may be the heightened awareness of ADHD among parents, teachers, and pediatricians, says the study's lead author Dr. Darios Getahun, a scientist with Kaiser Permanente. For kids who need help, that's a good thing, Getahun says.

Boys still outnumber girls 3 to 1 in ADHD diagnoses, but the gap appears to be closing among black girls.

"The findings of this study suggest increasing trends in the clinical diagnosis of ADHD among children in the health plan," they concluded, adding that they "observed disproportionately high ADHD diagnosis rates among white children and notable increases in rates among black girls over time."