epidemiology
Research Papers
A National Description of Treatment among United States Children and Adolescents with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
OBJECTIVE: To characterize lifetime and current rates of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) treatments among US children and adolescents with current ADHD and describe the association of these treatments with demographic and clinical factors. STUDY DESIGN: Data are from the 2014 National Survey of the Diagnosis and Treatment of ADHD and Tourette Syndrome, a follow-back survey of parents from the 2011-2012 National Survey of Children's Health. Weighted analyses focused on receipt of ADHD treatment among children aged 4-17 years with current ADHD (n = 2495) by 4 treatment types: medication, school supports, psychosocial interventions, and alternative treatments. RESULTS: Medication and school supports were the most common treatments received, with two-thirds of children and adolescents with ADHD currently receiving each treatment. Social skills training was the most common psychosocial treatment ever received (39%), followed by parent training (31%), peer intervention (30%), and cognitive behavioral therapy (20%). Among alternative treatments, 9% were currently taking dietary supplements, and 11% had ever received neurofeedback. Most children (67%) had received at least 2 of the following: current medication treatment, current school supports, or lifetime psychosocial treatment; 7% had received none of these 3 treatment types. CONCLUSIONS: A majority of school-aged children and adolescents with ADHD received medication treatment and school supports, whereas fewer received recommended psychosocial interventions. Efforts to increase access to psychosocial treatments may help close gaps in service use by groups currently less likely to receive treatment, which is important to ensure that the millions of school-aged US children diagnosed with ADHD receive quality treatment.
View Full Paper →Aging and the Epidemiology of Epilepsy
BACKGROUND: Epilepsy is a chronic disorder affecting all ages but with a peak in the elderly. The association of epilepsy with age can be explained by the predominance of brain diseases with epileptogenic potential (mostly stroke and dementia) and by the effects of the aging process through a number of molecular mechanisms involving networks of neurons with focal or diffuse distribution. SUMMARY: The prevalence of active epilepsy is 6.4 per 1,000 and the lifetime prevalence is 7.6 per 1,000. The prevalence tends to increase with age, with peaks in the oldest age groups and in socially deprived individuals. The incidence of epilepsy is 61.4 per 100,000 person-years. Epilepsy has a bimodal distribution according to age with peaks in the youngest individuals and in the elderly. The increased incidence of seizures and epilepsy in the elderly can be attributed to the increase of age-related and aging-related epileptogenic conditions. Key Messages: As the world population is steadily growing with parallel increase in the number of aged subjects, in the future, epilepsy will represent a huge burden for the society. Measures must thus be taken to prevent seizures and epilepsy through the reduction of preventable epileptogenic factors.
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