Nearly half of preschool-age children who are diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in primary care settings are prescribed drugs as treatment before changes in managing their behavior are attempted, a new study finds. This is at odds with the American Academy of Pediatrics guideline that nondrug behavioral interventions, such as parent training in behavior management, should be tried first when children 4-5 years old are diagnosed with ADHD because of their overactive or impulsive behavior.
An examination of the medical records of over 700,000 U.S. children 4-5 years old revealed that 1.4% of the young children received a diagnosis of ADHD. Notably, African American children accounted for 31% of the preschoolers diagnosed with ADHD, roughly twice their proportion in the general population
