Posted by HomelyCygnet on January 18, 2014, at 10:55:49
Questionable Quizzes
Adults searching for information on A.D.H.D. encounter websites with short quizzes that can encourage normal people to think they might have it. Many such tests are sponsored by drug companies in ways hidden or easily missed.
Could you have A.D.H.D.? beckons one quiz, sponsored by Shire, on the website everydayhealth.com. Six questions ask how often someone has trouble in matters like getting things in order, remembering appointments or getting started on projects.
A user who splits answers evenly between rarely and sometimes receives the result A.D.H.D. Possible. Five answers of sometimes and one often tell the user, A.D.H.D. May Be Likely.
In a nationwide telephone poll conducted by The Times in early December, 1,106 adults took the quiz. Almost half scored in the range that would have told them A.D.H.D. may be possible or likely.
About 570,000 people took the EverydayHealth test after a 2011 advertisement starring Mr. Levine of Maroon 5 sponsored by Shire, Chadd and another advocacy group, according to the website Medical Marketing & Media. A similar test on the website for Concerta prompted L2ThinkTank.com, which assesses pharmaceutical marketing, to award the campaign its top rating, Genius.
John Grohol, a Boston-area psychologist who licensed the test to EverydayHealth, said such screening tools do not make a diagnosis; they merely give you a little push into looking into whether you have A.D.H.D. Other doctors countered that, given many studies showing that doctors are strongly influenced by their patients image of what ails them, such tests invite too many patients and doctors to see the disorder where it is not.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/15/health/the-selling-of-attention-deficit-disorder.html?_r=0
O dear is that Psychcentral's John Grohol whose ethical standards so outshone mr hsuing's for so very long? O say it ain't so
So half the population possibly or likely "ill"? And a potential market for Big Pharma's wares? A veritable epidemic. Pass the amphetamines? Maybe they should just make them over the counter?
And of course sites like Babble and psychcentral keep drumming out the message for free
Duckling I listen and for many a time I have been half in love and many a time much more
poster:HomelyCygnet
thread:1058895
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20140104/msgs/1058895.html