An effective drug against hyperactivity has a significant social impact on the person’s journey. The number of incarcerations is reduced by 32% among boys who use it.
When treated with medication, people with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) are less likely to be incarcerated than others who are hyperactive. 32% less for boys and 41% for girls. These results are obtained from a amazing study carried out in Sweden where researchers were able to combine data from the health insurance of 25,000 people diagnosed with ADHD and prison files between 2006 and 2009. A study that could not have been carried out in France.
“Be careful, a drug is made to treat symptoms, a disease, not to reduce delinquency, recalls immediately Professor Bruno Falissard, child psychiatrist at the Maison des adolescents of the Cochin hospital in Paris, the Solenn’s house.
But for this ADHD specialist, it is an “important study: it confirms the effectiveness of the treatment against the symptoms of ADHD, and shows in a robust way that the treatment has an impact on the social course of the person” .
A rejection of society
The impulsiveness of ADHD children puts them at high risk for antisocial behavior. “It often leads them to act before thinking: they sometimes punch or kick their comrades,” explains the specialist. They then suffer from a significant rejection on the part of their comrades and adults who represent authority. Note that this impulsiveness is inherent in ADHD itself as recalled by patient associations. We therefore understand that people who suffer from this disorder are more likely to be imprisoned ”.
A risk supported by studies but difficult to estimate systematically. “It depends on the degree of the disorder, we also know that these people are more likely to consume illicit substances and they can go to jail because of that. In fact, there is an entanglement between health, social and legal, ”notes the child psychiatrist.
Listen to Professor Bruno Falissard, child psychiatrist at the Adolescent Center of Cochin Hospital: “CWhat this study has just shown is that these drugs also have an effect on the life trajectory, in the medium and long term, of individuals. “
Abuse in the United States, a prescription framed in France
The peak prevalence of this disorder is at the age of ten. “Basically, that’s one percent of 10-year-old boys, or one every three to four classes,” said the child psychiatrist. And among girls, the prevalence is significantly lower. “It is more attention deficit than hyperactivity that appears in the foreground.”
But do these results not risk encouraging misuse of this type of drug? “It is true that the temptation is great, observes Dr. Falissard, the drug is so effective, and the social demand is more and more important, that is to say that the parents for different and complex reasons: changes in the form of authority, educational requirements which are no longer the same… they are increasingly in demand for support. So there is a great temptation to prescribe larga manu. In some states in the USA, 10% of boys are on methylphenidate. “In France, it is much less,” barely one percent of boys “because the prescription of the molecule authorized to treat this disorder is very limited.
Listen to Prof. Buno Falissard, ” The first prescription must be made by a specialist doctor at the hospital and it must be renewed every month by a general practitioner.
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-1568625605.jpg "Pregnancy: taking paracetamol linked to hyperactivity and attention deficit in children")
