ADHD Diagnosis, Treatment Differ Across the Globe.
In Israel, highly active children are well tolerated in the classroom, making it difficult to distinguish high activity from attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) manifestation. In Brazil, light physical punishment is considered by a large number of teachers to be “therapeutic,” and physical exercise is considered a viable alternative to medication for children with ADHD. In Canada, health professionals view ADHD as an impairing, often lifelong disorder that requires careful assessment and multimodal intervention.
These are just a few of the insights that came out of a meeting of 18 international leaders in developmental psychopathology research who met in Berkeley, Calif., in March 2010. The members represented nine countries—Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, Israel, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States—all specifically selected because they were known to have either low or high rates of diagnosis and treatment of youth with ADHD. The group published a report in the May Psychiatric Services.
