ADHD Diagnosis and Drug Use Estimates in France: A Case for Using Health Care Insurance Data.

Objective: Prevalence estimates for ADHD have been debated for decades. In France, the only available study states the prevalence rate in France ranges from 3.5% to 5.6% of children aged 6 to 12. It also evaluates that 3.48% of children aged 6 to 12 are treated with psychostimulants. The article uses a different method to determine whether these estimates hold true. Method: Estimating ADHD diagnosis and methylphenidate prescription rates can be done by analyzing national health care insurance system's data. We used data from the French Healthcare Insurance as reported by the National Agency for Medicines and Health Products Safety. Results: We claim that an adequate estimate of the ADHD prevalence rate in France fluctuates around 0.3% of children aged 6 to 11. Discussion: Methodological biases in ADHD prevalence studies and factors contributing to the low level of prescription in France need to be assessed. Conclusion: We call for supplementary investigations in health care insurance databases to conduct contradictory studies.

Where to find accurate information on attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder? A study of scientific distortions among French websites, newspapers, and television programs.

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder is the most frequent mental disorder among school-age children. This condition has given rise to a large mediatic coverage, which contributed to the shaping of the lay public's perceptions. We therefore conducted two studies on the way attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder was portrayed in the TV programs and the lay-public press in France between 1995 and 2015, but the growing part played by the Internet required an additional study to analyze and compare the scientific material which is available to the French lay public depending on the source of information used. We studied the 50 first French websites dedicated to attention-deficit/hyperactivity as indexed by Google® search engine using a structured quantitative content analysis for the web. We illustrate our results with excerpts derived from the websites. The conceptions of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder available on the Internet are essentially biomedical and comprise an important level of scientific distortion. Findings concerning other mass media such as television programs and the press also demonstrate massive and systematic distortions caused by the role of experts and the pharmaceutical industry. Furthermore, the most consulted media present the highest level of scientific distortions.