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10 Percent of Kids Have ADHD, Government Report Says

By Kamal Nayan | Update Date: Nov 23, 2013 11:55 AM EST

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) continues to affect more and more U.S. children, a new study finds.

According to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) report, out of the total of 95,000 parents surveyed in 2011, 1 child in every 10 was diagnosed with ADHD. The CDC data show that there has been a gradual increment in the number of ADHD affected children since 1997.

Experts believe that since more and more doctors are looking for ADHD symptoms and more parents are becoming aware of the disorder, these factors have resulted into such an increment.

Children having ADHD find it hard to pay attention and control the impulsive behaviors. For treating ADHD, doctors use mainly drugs, behavioral therapy or even a combination of both.

The survey has found that 11 percent of children aged four to 17 had been diagnosed with ADHD. This is nearly six and half million kids. Of all the ADHD cases diagnosed, more than 50 percent were diagnosed by the age of six.

ADHD diagnoses witnessed an increment at a rate of about six percent a year in the mid–2000s. In subsequent years it slowed to four percent a year from 2007 to 2011.

“That may reflect that doctors are closer to diagnosing most of the kids with the condition,” said the CDC’s Susanna Visser, the study’s lead author, according to USA Today.

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