Common Danish standards in prescribing medication for children and adolescents with ADHD

• DOI: 10.1007/s00787-013-0508-5
• Publication Date: 2013-12-28T05:51:26Z
• Authors: Søren Dalsgaard; Maria Knoth Humlum; Helena Skyt Nielsen; Marianne Simonsen
• Keywords: Danish

Assessing whether symptoms of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children are age-inappropriate is essential. Hence, comparing children within one school grade is problematic and the risk of applying relative standards is inherent. Being young-for-grade increases the likelihood of receiving medication in countries with high prevalence of ADHD medication. We test the same hypothesis in a cohort of 418,396 children and find no difference between children who are young-for-grade and old-for-grade. The Danish system, with its restrictive approach to medication and clear diagnostic guidelines seems to have avoided a systematic bias of ADHD medication in young children reported in other countries.