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The study examined 407,846 American children born between 2007 and 2009 to determine the number of ADHD diagnoses related to the child's birth month.
"We did not see anything during the months, except August to September, when we saw this big difference," said Layton, assistant professor of health policy at Harvard Medical School. "We saw that it was only in states that had a deadline of September 1. There was nothing in the states that did not have it."
Layton and her co-authors found that the rate of children with ADHD with a birthday in August was 34% higher than that born in September. Among children born in August, 85.1 out of 10,000 children were diagnosed with ADHD, compared to only 63.6 out of 10,000 born in September.
Children born in August also had a 32% higher disease treatment rate than their parents born in September.
Some symptoms are normal behavior in children, but those with ADHD may not overcome them. The symptoms can be severe and cause difficulties at school, at home or with friends, said the CDC.
Younger children in their peer group, such as those who have an August birthday in a school with a September 1 deadline, may be more likely to suffer from ADHD, said Layton, because some of the behaviors of child could be compatible with those observed. used for diagnosis.
"Basically, normal childhood behaviors are diagnosed as ADHD, and they are treated for them, even if they are only normal children, they happen to be younger than their peers and therefore behave a little differently, "he said.
But this could be a weakness, he said, since "we do not know how clinicians actually make the diagnosis, or how they follow the protocols", which could leave room for a "biases bias". age-related diagnosis ".
Although it is unlikely that the results will change significantly, Nigg and other researchers also noted that the study's authors had not determined whether the children were actually enrolled in the study. # 39; school.
Even with these limitations, Nigg believes the study is useful for examining ADHD diagnoses.
"It's really helpful to continue to look at what we can call the sociological diagnostic engines." It really helps to solve the real cases, where the child actually has a problem that needs to be addressed, as opposed to in circumstantial cases that could be a normal development it looks only bad because of the situation in which the child is, "he said.
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