Changes in authenticity

Author(s):  
Erez C. Miller ◽  
Amos Fleischmann

The use of medications for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has been strongly debated because medications may alter the individual’s sense of authenticity. This chapter examines online forums that include young people’s experiences with ADHD medications, their sense of control over medication use, and the drugs’ effects on their sense of authenticity. It discusses the analysis of four Internet forums dedicated to ADHD issues using an ethnographic-discursive approach, and demonstrates that the results suggest there are two types of competing narratives—those of the young people, who express doubts about taking medications due to their effect on various psychological characteristics and especially on their sense of authenticity, and those of professionals, who uphold the medical perspective that regardless of the medications’ effects they are still the best option for treating ADHD. It covers how the clash between these two competing narratives resonates a more general struggle of people with disabilities for their rights. Finally, it discusses how social media echoes the struggle between individuals with disabilities and the establishment’s view of ADHD as a medical condition which should be treated accordingly, even at the cost of losing the individual’s authenticity.

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 87-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jose Martinez-Raga ◽  
Amparo Ferreros ◽  
Carlos Knecht ◽  
Raquel de Alvaro ◽  
Eloisa Carabal

While treatment of patients with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is based on a multimodal approach that combines medication with specific psychological interventions, pharmacotherapy alone is generally considered an essential and cost-effective element. This paper aims to comprehensively and critically review factors involved in prescribing and medication use in individuals diagnosed with ADHD, focusing on the difficulties facing patients with ADHD seeking treatment, as well as the safety and tolerability aspects of ADHD pharmacotherapies, with particular attention on the cardiovascular adverse events and the potential risk of misuse or diversion of ADHD medications. A comprehensive and systematic literature search of PubMed/MEDLINE database was conducted to identify studies published in peer-reviewed journals until 1 August 2016. Children, adolescents and adults often encounter significant difficulties in the process of accessing specialist assessment and treatment for ADHD as a consequence of disparities in service organization and available treatment provision. Despite the well-established efficacy and overall safety profile, ADHD medications are not exempt from adverse events. The cardiovascular safety of pharmacotherapies used for treating individuals with ADHD has raised particular concerns; however there is little evidence of serious cardiovascular adverse events, including no serious corrected QT (QTc) abnormalities associated with stimulants, atomoxetine or α2-adrenergic receptor agonists. Although the abuse of prescription stimulant drugs, particularly, short-acting stimulants is a prevalent and growing problem, nonmedical use of prescription stimulants within the clinical context is very limited. In addition, nonstimulant ADHD medications lack any reinforcing effects and consequently any abuse potential.


Author(s):  
Stephen P. Hinshaw ◽  
Katherine Ellison

Rates of diagnosis of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are skyrocketing, throughout America and the rest of the world. U.S. rates of youth diagnosis have increased 40% from just a decade ago. Adults with ADHD are now the fastest-growing segment of the population receiving diagnosis and medication. The disorder is painful and sometimes disabling for individuals and tremendously costly for society; yet, widespread misinformation, skepticism, and unanswered questions have jeopardized effective diagnosis and treatment. Researched and written by Stephen Hinshaw, an international expert on ADHD, and Katherine Ellison, a Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist and author, ADHD: What Everyone Needs to Know is the go-to book for authoritative, current, accurate, and compelling information about the global ADHD epidemic. This book addresses questions such as: • Is ADHD a genuine medical condition or a means of pathologizing active and exploratory behavior? • Do medications for ADHD serve as needed treatments, or are they attempts at social control, designed to bolster profits of pharmaceutical firms? • Has the ADHD label become a ruse by which parents can game the educational system for accommodations? • How do symptoms and impairments related to ADHD differ between girls and women and boys and men? • Why are ADHD medications often used as performance enhancers by college and high-school students? ADHD: What Everyone Needs to Know® clears the air of the most polarizing and misleading information that abounds, providing straight talk and sound guidelines for educators, policymakers, health professionals, parents, and the general public. It shows the reality of ADHD but does not ignore the forces that have pushed up rates of diagnosis to alarmingly high levels.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jungu Kim ◽  
Su Cheol Kim ◽  
Jaegwon Jeong ◽  
Myeong Gyu Kim

BACKGROUND Methylphenidate, a stimulant used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), has the potential for nonmedical uses such as study and recreation. In the era of active use of social networking services (SNSs), experience with the nonmedical use or side effects of methylphenidate might be shared on Twitter. OBJECTIVE To analyze monthly tweets about methylphenidate, its nonmedical use and side effects, and user sentiments about methylphenidate. METHODS Tweets mentioning methylphenidate from August 2018 to July 2019 were collected using search terms for methylphenidate and its brand names. Only tweets written in English were included. The monthly number of tweets about methylphenidate and the number of tweets containing keywords related to the nonmedical use and side effects of methylphenidate were analyzed. Precision was calculated as the number of true nonmedical use or side effects divided by the number of tweets containing each keywords. Sentiment analysis was conducted using the text and emoji in tweets, and tweets were categorized as very negative (less than -3), negative (-3 to -1), neutral (0), positive (1 to 3), or very positive (more than 3), depending on the sentiment score. RESULTS A total of 4,169 tweets were ultimately selected for analysis. The number of tweets per month was lowest in August (n=264) and highest in May (n=435). There were 292 (7.0%) tweets about nonmedical uses of methylphenidate. Among those, 200 (4.8%) described use for studying, and 15 (0.4%) described use for recreation. In 91 (2.2%) tweets, snorting methylphenidate was mentioned. Side effects of methylphenidate, mainly poor appetite (n=74, 1.8%) and insomnia (n=54, 1.3%), were reported in 316 (7.6%) tweets. The average sentiment score was 0.027 ± 1.475, and neutral tweets were the most abundant (n=1,593, 38.2%). CONCLUSIONS Tweets about methylphenidate were most abundant in May, mentioned nonmedical use for study or recreation, and contained information about side effects. Analysis of Twitter has the advantage of saving the cost and time needed to conduct a survey, and could help identify nonmedical uses and side effects of drugs.


Author(s):  
Piotr Michoń

AbstractThe need for qualitative research of deservingness perception is strongly emphasised in the literature. This article studies the perception of deservingness for a "Family 500 +"—cash benefit in Poland. For the first time, data from online forums was used in the studies of deservingness and welfare attitudes. It allowed to avoid numerous limitations associated with social surveys. The qualitative analysis showed how participants of Internet debates perceive the criteria of deservingness: control, attitude, reciprocity, identity, need, and what are the relations between the criteria. The impurity of all deservingness criteria was indicated and a new criterion “adequacy” was proposed. Moreover due to the fact that the study concerned a concrete, non-abstract family cash benefit addressed the relationship between the perceived deservingness of children and their parents was pointed out. The vast majority of posts on Internet forums referred to deservingness of parents, not children. This is particularly evident in relation to the criteria of control and reciprocity. Presenting the hypothesis of jealousy and scapegoat strategy, the article also shows the direction of future research on deservingness.


2014 ◽  
Vol 205 (4) ◽  
pp. 291-297 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cédric Galéra ◽  
Jean-Baptiste Pingault ◽  
Grégory Michel ◽  
Manuel-Pierre Bouvard ◽  
Maria Melchior ◽  
...  

BackgroundThe impact of longitudinal psychiatric comorbidity, parenting and social characteristics on attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) medication use is still poorly understood.AimsTo assess the baseline and longitudinal influences of behavioural and environmental factors on ADHD medication use.MethodSurvival regressions with time-dependent covariates were used to model data from a population-based longitudinal birth cohort. The sample (n = 1920) was assessed from age 5 months to 10 years. Measures of children's psychiatric symptoms, parenting practices and social characteristics available at baseline and during follow-up were used to identify individual and family-level features associated with subsequent use of ADHD medication.ResultsUse of ADHD medication ranged from 0.2 to 8.6% between ages 3.5 to 10 years. Hyperactivity–inattention was the strongest predictor of medication use (hazard ratio (HR) = 2.75, 95% CI 2.35–3.22). Among all social variables examined, low maternal education increased the likelihood of medication use (HR = 2.09, 95% CI 1.38–3.18) whereas immigrant status lowered this likelihood (HR = 0.40, 95% CI 0.17–0.92).ConclusionsBeyond ADHD symptoms, the likelihood of receiving ADHD medication is predicted by social variables and not by psychiatric comorbidity or by parenting. This emphasises the need to improve global interventions by offering the same therapeutic opportunities (including medication) as those received by the rest of the population to some subgroups (i.e. immigrants) and by diminishing possible unnecessary prescriptions.


CNS Spectrums ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 13 (S13) ◽  
pp. 5-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas J. Spencer

AbstractTreatment of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may positively impact the neurobiology of adult patients with ADHD. Treatment may also minimize impairment from core symptoms and may alter the course of co-morbid disorders such as depression and substance use disorder. However, much of the information on stimulant use in adult ADHD comes from studies conducted in children, and it remains unclear whether there is a difference between children and adults when it comes to the side effects and tolerability of ADHD treatments. It is known that clinical presentation differs between adults and children, with adults demonstrating a higher percentage of mood disorders. Current treatments for adult ADHD include psychosocial therapies and pharmacologic therapies, the latter of which include the stimulants d-methylphenidate extended release (XR), OROS methylphenidate, lisdexamfetamine, and mixed amphetamine salts XR; and the nonstimulant atomoxetine, a selective norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor. There is need for additional study of treatment strategies for adult ADHD. Although all classes of ADHD medications are approved in adults, there are fewer approved formulations for adults than for children. Efficacy in adults is more subjective than in children, which may affect how efficacy rates for adult treatments are calculated. Adults also present a greater diversion risk than children. In addition, there are several new and emerging medication treatments worth considering.This Expert Roundtable Supplement represents part 2 of a 3-part supplement series on adult ADHD led by Lenard A. Adler, MD. In this activity, Thomas J. Spencer, MD, discusses the neurobiology and genetics of adult ADHD; Mark A. Stein, PhD, discusses stimulant therapy; and Jeffrey H. Newcorn, MD, reviews nonstimulants and psychosocial treatments.


PEDIATRICS ◽  
1990 ◽  
Vol 86 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-101
Author(s):  
Mark L. Wolraich ◽  
Scott Lindgren ◽  
Ann Stromquist ◽  
Richard Milich ◽  
Charles Davis ◽  
...  

Treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), one of the most common behavioral disorders in children in the United States, remains controversial because of concern about stimulant medication use. Extending a previous study of pediatricians, the present study surveyed a random national sample of family practitioners and then directly screened 457 patients of 10 pediatricians and family practitioners in two small midwestern cities. Responses to the national survey indicated that stimulant medication remains the main treatment prescribed by primary care physicians for children with ADHD. In the direct patient screening, the prevalence of ADHD diagnoses was 5.3% (pediatricians) and 4.2% (family practitioners) of all elementary-schoolaged children screened. Eighty-eight percent of these children were treated with methyiphenidate. Although medication was considered an effective treatment by the parents of 85% of the children given the medication, efficacy was unrelated to the accuracy of diagnosis. When explicit DSM-III-R criteria were used, only 72% of those assigned a diagnosis of ADHD by the physicians would have received that diagnosis based on a structured psychiatric interview with the parents and only 53% received that diagnosis based on teacher report of symptoms, even when the child was not receiving medication. Although the majority of physicians (in both the surveys and the direct screenings) reported using at least some behavioral treatments with their patients, parents reported infrequent use of nonpharmacologic forms of therapy, such as behavior modification. These data thus indicate a relatively modest rate of stimulant medication use for ADHD, but a serious underuse of systematic behavioral treatments in primary care.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-88
Author(s):  
Alan Munshower ◽  
Greg Johnson

Before online forums and social media groups allowed spaces for blues fans to share their love of the music, newsletters and periodicals created by blues societies and fans provided outlets for blues aficionados to connect with other fans, discographers, musicians and scholars through performance and album reviews, pilgrimage storytelling, descriptions of recent discoveries of rare sound recordings and much more. The University of Mississippi Blues Archive holds a large collection of blues periodicals, covering over 1000 unique titles, from over 25 countries, with a bulk date of 1963 to the present. Historically of interest to researchers of blues performance history, the collection also contains a wealth of insight to blues fandom and communities of music appreciation worldwide. This article explores pathways for examining blues fandom studies through the newsletter collection and highlights unique issues and perspectives found in the collection.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather J. Parker ◽  
Stephen Flowerday

Purpose Social media has created a new level of interconnected communication. However, the use of online platforms brings about various ways in which a user’s personal data can be put at risk. This study aims to investigate what drives the disclosure of personal information online and whether an increase in awareness of the value of personal information motivates users to safeguard their information. Design/methodology/approach Fourteen university students participated in a mixed-methods experiment, where responses to Likert-type scale items were combined with responses to interview questions to provide insight into the cost–benefit analysis users conduct when disclosing information online. Findings Overall, the findings indicate that users are able to disregard their concerns due to a resigned and apathetic attitude towards privacy. Furthermore, subjective norms enhanced by fear of missing out (FOMO) further allows users to overlook potential risks to their information in order to avoid social isolation and sanction. Alternatively, an increased awareness of the personal value of information and having experienced a previous privacy violation encourage the protection of information and limited disclosure. Originality/value This study provides insight into privacy and information disclosure on social media in South Africa. To the knowledge of the researchers, this is the first study to include a combination of the theory of planned behaviour and the privacy calculus model, together with the antecedent factors of personal valuation of information, trust in the social media provider, FOMO.


2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Pratikshya Thapa ◽  
Ashish Thapa ◽  
Nabina Khadka ◽  
Ruchi Bhattarai ◽  
Samir Jha ◽  
...  

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document