Behaviour problem labels stigmatise youths who are just ‘behind’

‘There is a tendency to call sadness ‘depression’ ... to say difficulty functioning means you have autism or ADHD’

CHILDREN are being wrongly diagnosed with ADHD when they are just falling behind, according to a leading neurologist, who said the medical profession is too quick to label people.

Suzanne O’sullivan, a consultant at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, said adults are also mistakenly being told they have depression, autism or ADHD.

“Western medicine is drawing people into the category of ‘sick people’ and I really worry about that. I particularly worry about that for children,” Ms O’sullivan told an audience at the Hay Festival.

“A child who is falling behind should be recognised and helped. Do we need to give them a label that they will carry with them for the next 70 years in order to do that?

“Or can we simply say that child is struggling and they need help, without labelling them, so they can go into their adult life without the burden of having an indication that they have a chronic illness?”

Ms O’sullivan described “an increasing tendency” in Western societies “to call sadness ‘depression’, to say that difficulty functioning in certain situations means you have a learning or a behavioural problem such as autism or ADHD [attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder].

“I want to be clear that there are people with disorders like ADHD, autism and depression, who are on the severe spectrum and who absolutely nobody could argue do not have a very serious problem and are seriously disabled. But, increasingly, medicine is widening the definition of these conditions.

“It used to be that when I was a junior doctor there were only a very small number of people who had problems like ADHD or autism, or very severe learning problems. Medicine is gradually drawing new people into these groups by softening the definitions of them.”

Ms O’sullivan said the medical profession was “in collusion” with patients to hand out a diagnosis of depression.

She claimed: “People are coming to us all the time saying ‘I’m feeling terrible, I need to understand why’.

“We feel pressured into giving them labels.

“If you come to me and say you are suffering, and I try to give the best explanation, a lot of people will just say, ‘No, what is the name of the thing I have?’

“So it is much easier for both you and me if I give you a specific name and a treatment.

“These lengthy explanations are much harder to get your head around.”

Ms O’sullivan added that the declining importance of religion in modern life and the tendency to move away from family means that doctors are one of the few people who we can approach for help with emotional problems.