Medication not the solution for an ADHD diagnosis • Minister: “Selling diagnoses for payment”
Johan Malmqvist is a professor of pedagogy at Linnaeus University and has, among other things, focused on ADHD among Swedish school students.
According to him, “far too many” ADHD diagnoses are written today, and he believes that Sweden stands out in international measurements.
– Other countries in Europe do not have this development at all. Then you can ask the question: do we really do right here in Sweden, with this high prescription of medicines?, He says.
Johan Malmqvist.
Johan Malmqvist.
Photo: Linnaeus University
Minister: “Selling diagnoses for payment”
On Tuesday, Social Minister Jakob Forssmed (KD) held a press conference, announcing that the government wants to review ADHD and autism investigations made by private healthcare operators. According to the Minister of Social Affairs, the proportion of boys between the ages of 10 and 17, who gets ADHD drugs, has increased by 800 percent over the past twenty years.
“There is a structure that in practice means selling diagnoses for payment,” he said during the press conference.
According to Johan Malmqvist, a reason for the increases may be that in some schools a diagnosis is required for students with learning or concentration difficulties to receive support.
– It’s something I as a school researcher encounter. Then it is clear that there is something that drives this development that there will be more investigations and more diagnoses, he says.
“Need a better school”
Malmqvist warns to rely too much on an ADHD diagnosis and medication to be the solution, and believes that many students instead have new problems from the medicines, linked to, for example, sleep and appetite.
Instead, more focus on the school environment and supportive efforts as psychologists and curators are required, he says.
– I have come across far too many cases where you only have medication. You put in medication and if it does not work it, you try someone else, and if it does not work it, you continue with a third, he says and thinks he feels anxious about the trend.
– We need a better school with good teachers and good support resources in school for students, and work preventively so that they must not get in the situation that they give up the hope of learning in school, he says.