Andrew
10-01-03, 08:19 PM
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Dateline: Australia
Anxious kids warning
By ANNE BARBELIUK
29sep03
ABUSE symptoms can resemble attention deficit disorder, say experts.
Child victims of domestic violence may show similar characteristics to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder sufferers, child experts warn.
A new Tasmanian report on abused children says there are fears the underlying causes of some children's anxiety are being missed.
"Anecdotally professionals express concern that the effects of domestic violence on children are either minimised or overlooked, and treatment for disorders such as ADHD is substituted," the report says.
The study goes on: "There is an overwhelming focus on behaviour and treatment at the expense of examining predictors or causes."
Report author Liz Love said some symptoms of ADHD were very similar to post-traumatic stress disorder -- such as nightmares and restlessness. While stressing that most cases of ADHD would not be related to abuse, Ms Love said it would be helpful to study whether a percentage might have been victims of domestic violence.
"The capacity is there to misdiagnose it (ADHD) because the symptoms are very similar," she said. Ms Love said children did not even have to be direct victims of abuse, but simply witnesses, to be traumatised. Such children could display behavioural effects such as nervousness, anxiety, withdrawn behaviour, restlessness, bedwetting and aggressive behaviour.
"Where is this anxiety coming from?" Ms Love said. "We tend to look at the child as the problem without looking behind the child to the family and the living situation." Ms Love said children living in a low-level state of fear showed hyper-vigilance. "They are always on the lookout for violence, or an indicator that violence may begin," she said. "That heightened vigilance can become a way of being and they find it difficult to relax."
Good Beginnings co-ordinator Lorraine Polglase said her group saw children as young as three and four diagnosed with ADHD. Ms Polglase agreed the symptoms of trauma were sometimes similar to ADHD. "Sometimes traumatised children have difficulty sleeping at night, so they stay up all night," she said. "They are awake all night because they are scared, but this may be seen as hyper." Ms Polglase said children who were the subject of verbal abuse or witnessed it could be traumatised, and put-downs were a form of domestic violence.
"I worry about the children who are getting negative messages -- that they are stupid, thick, too fat," she said.
Dateline: Australia
Anxious kids warning
By ANNE BARBELIUK
29sep03
ABUSE symptoms can resemble attention deficit disorder, say experts.
Child victims of domestic violence may show similar characteristics to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder sufferers, child experts warn.
A new Tasmanian report on abused children says there are fears the underlying causes of some children's anxiety are being missed.
"Anecdotally professionals express concern that the effects of domestic violence on children are either minimised or overlooked, and treatment for disorders such as ADHD is substituted," the report says.
The study goes on: "There is an overwhelming focus on behaviour and treatment at the expense of examining predictors or causes."
Report author Liz Love said some symptoms of ADHD were very similar to post-traumatic stress disorder -- such as nightmares and restlessness. While stressing that most cases of ADHD would not be related to abuse, Ms Love said it would be helpful to study whether a percentage might have been victims of domestic violence.
"The capacity is there to misdiagnose it (ADHD) because the symptoms are very similar," she said. Ms Love said children did not even have to be direct victims of abuse, but simply witnesses, to be traumatised. Such children could display behavioural effects such as nervousness, anxiety, withdrawn behaviour, restlessness, bedwetting and aggressive behaviour.
"Where is this anxiety coming from?" Ms Love said. "We tend to look at the child as the problem without looking behind the child to the family and the living situation." Ms Love said children living in a low-level state of fear showed hyper-vigilance. "They are always on the lookout for violence, or an indicator that violence may begin," she said. "That heightened vigilance can become a way of being and they find it difficult to relax."
Good Beginnings co-ordinator Lorraine Polglase said her group saw children as young as three and four diagnosed with ADHD. Ms Polglase agreed the symptoms of trauma were sometimes similar to ADHD. "Sometimes traumatised children have difficulty sleeping at night, so they stay up all night," she said. "They are awake all night because they are scared, but this may be seen as hyper." Ms Polglase said children who were the subject of verbal abuse or witnessed it could be traumatised, and put-downs were a form of domestic violence.
"I worry about the children who are getting negative messages -- that they are stupid, thick, too fat," she said.