A national telephone survey of parents between April, 2007 and June, 2008 revealed that 9.5% of children aged 4-17 years had been diagnosed with ADHD.  According to the parents, 66% of these children were taking medication to treat their symptoms.  In 2003, a similar survey found that 7.8% of these children had ever been diagnosed with ADHD.

 

I became aware of the article describing the survey through a physician discussion forum, where one of the more vocal doctors (an orthopedic surgeon) derided the findings.  He argued that the diagnosis was vague since it didn't rely on objective findings like laboratory tests.  Then he said that ADHD was being diagnosed more often because drug companies were interested in selling more drugs to parents who weren't properly disciplining their children.  I obviously disagree with these arguments, but I thought it would be interesting to post them here for reactions.