A piece on the BBC website, the usual BBC propaganda. Their headline “ADHD and autism at risk of over-diagnosis, says government review” suggests that over-diagnosis has not yet happened, but there’s a risk that it might. And there’s no mention of the fact that boys are far more often diagnosed than girls.
Compare the BBC article with one published today by the Telegraph (£), ADHD surge fuelled by benefits, report warns. An extract:
“Prof Sir Simon Wessely, professor at King’s College London and the review’s vice-chairman, warned that Britain was reaching a “tipping point”.
“If these present trends continue, the risk of overdiagnosis and over-medicalisation is very, very likely,” he said.
Among boys aged six to 11, recorded autism prevalence rose almost 16-fold, from 0.4 to 6.3 per cent between 2000 and 2025. [J4MB emphasis]
Asked whether the figures suggested overdiagnosis among younger boys, Sir Simon said: “It’s looking that way.”
Diagnoses can have unintended consequences, with the risk that “it becomes a person’s identity” and reduces their expectations of themselves.
“Sometimes it can actually, rather than open doors for you, it can also close certain doors,” he said.
The review calls for a crackdown on the rapidly expanding private assessment industry, raising “strong concerns” about quality and financial incentives.”
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Conversation overheard in my local supermarket’s Cafe. One mother congratulating another that her daughter has her diagnosis recognised in a special education plan. The successful mother wishing the other success with her application for her son. As evidenced by the number of local councils with ballooning spends, the point is that the diagnosis is the key that opens the doors to a number of freebies and benefits. It also benefits the teachers in supplying an ever increasing army of “assistants” in the classroom. Of course this then transitions into dependence on welfare once the child becomes an adult. A host of perverse incentives.
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