Health Highlights: July 24, 2008

-----

More Older Children Being Diagnosed with ADHD

The percentage of American children ages 12 to 17 diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has been rising by about 4 percent each year, while the rate for children under age 12 has been holding steady, a new federal government report finds.

The study looked at the years 1997 through 2006 and found that the percentage of children ages 6 to 11 diagnosed with ADHD remained at about 7 percent during those years, but rose from just under 7 percent to nearly 10 percent for children ages 12 to 17, theAssociated Pressreported.

The researchers didn't investigate the reasons for the difference. Some experts believe it may be because doctors are increasingly considering the possibility of ADHD in older children with concentration problems, a trend that may be linked to increased marketing of ADHD medications to teens and adults.

"There are people out there being treated for ADHD that probably don't meet the diagnostic criteria," Scott Kollins, director of Duke University Medical Center's ADHD Program, told theAP.

-----

World's Largest Online Medical Encyclopedia Announced

The world's largest online medical encyclopedia is being created by the U.S. government and a number of medical schools, hospitals and health organizations. Medpedia will be free and available to the public when it launches later this year.

The resource will include easy-to-understand information about 30,000 diseases, thousands of medical procedures, and more than 10,000 prescription drugs, theContra Costa Timesreported.

Qualified doctors, biomedical researchers and clinicians are being urged to apply to become content editors for Medpedia.

The U.S. National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, Harvard Medical School, and Stanford School of Medicine are among the participating organizations, theTimesreported.