Researchers Estimate 25-50% of College-Age ADHD Diagnoses Are Bogus
In this video, Dr. Justin Baeder discusses research suggesting that a significant portion of college-age ADHD diagnoses may be fraudulent or inaccurate.
Key Takeaways
- The over-diagnosis problem is real - Researchers estimate that 25-50% of college-age ADHD diagnoses don't reflect genuine ADHD
- Incentives drive false diagnoses - Students seek diagnoses for accommodations like extra test time rather than for genuine medical need
- This harms students with real ADHD - Fraudulent claims dilute resources and credibility for students who genuinely struggle
Transcript
Why are so many people getting diagnosed with ADHD in college?
As a K-12 person, it's a little bit incredible to me that all of the symptoms of ADHD would go unrecognized in a student's K-12 experience and then suddenly appear in college.
And some people said, well, you know, especially among women, you know, some of the symptoms are different, may not be really on people's radar.
And I think there's a truth to that, right?
I think there is some legitimacy to diagnosis appearing accurately in college.
Symptoms appearing in college and then those being recognized.
I think that is a real thing.
But I think there is also an epidemic of fakery when it comes to these college age ADHD diagnoses.
And there's actually research on this.
This 2017 paper estimates the prevalence of faking in ADHD.
And this paper gives some interesting detail on how faking can be detected, as well as what the incentives are, like why people would fake an ADHD diagnosis.
One of the things people have said in my comments over the last couple of days is, who would ever go through the trouble?
And the answer to that is a lot of people.
About 25 to 50% of people who pursue and receive an ADHD diagnosis in college are probably not legitimate.
They are probably faking for one reason or another.
And if you look at the reasons why people might fake, then you can kind of understand.
One of the main reasons is to get extra time on tests.
And a lot of people have said, oh, well, that doesn't help you.
Extra time on tests doesn't help you.
There's a lot of research on this too.
Yes, it does.
Extra time on tests helps you.
Another reason that this 2017 article points out that people pursue a phony ADHD diagnosis is drugs.
They get stimulant medications prescribed to them if they get a diagnosis.
And if you need those medications, good, okay, like if you get medication that you need to function normally, then I'm in favor of you getting that.
But if you are getting that to use as a party drug, if you are getting that to sell to your classmates or share with your classmates, as apparently a lot of people do, there are numbers in this paper, a lot of people do that.
And to me, this is not something that should hide under the mantle of disability, right?
Like we should not be facilitating illegal drug sales by calling this disability.
Because again, we're not talking about people who actually have a disability here.
We're talking about people who are faking having a disability so they can get drugs to use illegally and sell illegally to their friends.
So let's not defend this behavior any more than we ought to.
Let me know what you think.