Diagnosis Of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

EDM number 951 in 2013-14, proposed by Jim Dobbin on 15/01/2014.
Categorised under the topics of Children and families and Health services.

That this House notes the 10 fold increase over 10 years of labelling children with diagnoses of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD); further notes the pharmaceutical drugs prescribed for this condition are similar to cocaine, have numerous side effects including suicide, depression and anxiety and costs the health service tens of millions of pounds; affirms that there is no objective test to demonstrate the existence of this condition and that the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child has expressed deep concern about children being misdiagnosed with ADHD; strenuously opposes the unnecessary drugging of children; calls for rigorous control of the prescribing of psychoactive drugs to children; and further calls for NHS money currently spent on pharmaceutical drugs to be diverted into research into the dietary and environmental causes of the symptoms currently labelled as ADHD.

This motion has been signed by a total of 25 MPs.