In a Jan. 7 article on the Huffington Post website, ADHD expert Steven M.S. Kurtz, Ph. D., sounded the alarm about the potential damage to children and society if health care reform rollbacks impede or impair the ability of ADHD patients to get the medical treatment they need:

Teenagers and young adults with untreated ADHD are often plagued with impulsivity, failure to think through the consequences of their decisions, an inability to finish what they start and poor judgment.

The statistics show that they are more likely to abuse alcohol and drugs, more likely to get addicted, more likely to have early (and unprotected) sex, as well as being more likely to be expelled from school. And Dan's car accident? That was no exception either -- people with ADHD are also more likely to get into accidents, and more likely to be seriously injured. ...

What these people brooding over the cost of health care don't seem to realize is that not providing care is already costing us. By not offering adequate treatment to the nation's children, even if we don't know it, we are already paying -- in addition to the price the kids are paying.

Decades of research have shown us that kids with untreated ADHD -- not to speak of anxiety, depression and other very treatable conditions -- struggle just to become productive citizens. These kids have a harder time holding jobs, staying married, raising children and even keeping out of jail. As long as we continue to deprive our youth of the mental health care they need, we are sabotaging our own future as well as theirs.

We need their talents and ingenuity and intelligence; we need them to step up and become our nation's entrepreneurs, engineers and political leaders.

Labels: treatment

Posted By: Staff Writer