The U.S. National Institute of Health today published a summary of a study conducted by Maya Lodish, M.D. at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
Dr. Lodish is an pediatric endocrinologist in the Division of Intramural Research and the research was conducted from January 2006 till mid-2014 evaluating 43 Children who were diagnosed with one of two types of rare cancer - pheochromocytomas and paragangliomas tumors.
It turned out that 21 percent of those 43 children had earlier been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or ADHD.
Danger of misdiagnosis
That is a very large number when you consider that it means they weren’t immediately treated for cancer and should be of great concern to pediatricians and parents when ADHD appears to be the diagnosis.
Not only would the children not be treated for their cancer but they would given powerful medications (amphetamine (A.K.A. Speed) , dextroamphetamine or methylphenidate) to treat the non-existent ADHD problem. Those drugs are powerful nervous system stimulants potentially having some serious side effects including hypertension (high blood pressure).
ADHD
This is a psychiatric disorder involving neurodevelopment and is mainly demonstrated by a lack of attention, over activity, inability of the child or adult to control their inappropriate behavior and difficulty in social situations.
This is a condition which gets a great deal of attention both in public and in medical circles, being one of the most studied and often diagnosed disorder in children.
Unfortunately no definitive cause for ADHD has been found and many of the "treatments" proposed have proven ineffective.
The WHO (World Health Organization) has estimated that more than 40 million people around the world.
The proof that the real underlying problem was the cancerous tumors was confirmed when the tumors were removed and the ADHD symptoms disappeared.
Over medication especially of children can have catastrophic results in their future health, or even current emotional status as shown when it was discovered recently that Tylenol can reduce empathy.
