Kathleen Rice

HLTH 1050
Lucy Smith
29 October 2021

Cross-Cultural Variations in Psychostimulant Use Among Individuals with Attention

Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

According to researchers at the National Center for Biotechnology Information, a

psychostimulant is “a psychotropic substance with the capacity to stimulate the central nervous
system. In most cases it causes excitation and elevated mood, as well as increased alertness and
arousal. The global effect is to speed up signals into the brain,” (Favrod-Coune).
Psychostimulants are a powerful medication most widely used for attention deficit hyperactivity
disorder (ADHD) treatment. ADHD is a commonly diagnosed chronic neurodevelopmental
disorder in children and adolescents. This condition includes attention difficulty, hyperactivity,
and impulsiveness. The use of psychostimulants has risen tremendously in many parts of the
world, especially in European and Western nations. Between 2000 and 2011 in Australia alone,
the prescribing rate for this stimulant rose over 70%. It has now become a world-wide concern
that this condition may be overdiagnosed which then leads to overtreatment, (Ghosh, 1).
The causes of overdiagnosis include changes in diagnostic threshold, invalid practices of
diagnosis, and even pharmaceutical advertising. Long-term use of stimulants can have adverse
effects. Children and teens with ADHD are more likely to drink alcohol, smoke, or use drugs
compared to those who are undiagnosed. They are also at greater risk for developing a substance
use disorder. However, this is not the case for all children and adolescents.
A group of researchers conducted a study of individuals in Western Australia to see if
there was any correlation between an individual's country of birth and disparities in stimulant use
for ADHD. Of the 679,000 individuals, approximately 14,000 had a record of using stimulants
for ADHD. Of these, roughly 200 were born in Africa, Asia, Middle-East or South America,
while about 13,600 were born in Australia, Europe or North America, (Ghosh, 3). They found
that individuals with non-English speaking backgrounds were half as likely to have stimulants
compared to those with an English speaking background. Those who had a background of
English speaking and socioeconomic disadvantage backgrounds were also shown to be given
stimulants at a much younger age than the individuals living in metropolitan areas with less
disadvantages. In addition, results showed that males were more likely to receive stimulants to
treat the disorder compared to females. This could be because males experience more
hyperactivity symptoms, whereas females experience more inattentiveness. Because this study
was conducted over a decade ago, they have recently begun to notice a rise in females being
medicated, leading to a decline in male to female ratio in Australia.
There are a variety of reasons individuals living in metropolitan areas of Australia are
more likely to have prescription stimulants. Reasons include different access to healthcare,
availability of physicians, differences in beliefs towards child behavior and medical treatment,
and the willingness to accept stimulant treatment. An individual’s country of birth plays a large
role in determining the use of psychostimulant use among those diagnosed with attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder as well as gender, religion, regional and socioeconomic disparities in
stimulant use to treat this disorder. Individuals that are born in places like Africa, Asia, the
Middle-East, or South America are less likely to have stimulant treatment than those born in
Australia, Europe, or North America.
Places like North America, Europe and Australia have more access to drug treatment
centers. These countries have more power to address the problem of drug misuse and abuse
throughout their populations. This doesn’t mean these countries don’t experience high numbers
of drug abuse, but they also have the highest numbers of recovery from drug addiction. On the
other hand, places like Africa, Asia, and South America experience very limited access to drug
treatment centers making it harder to receive the special treatment they need in order to recover
successfully.

Works Cited

Favrod-Coune, Thierry, and Barbara Broers. “The Health Effect of Psychostimulants: A

Literature Review.” Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) vol. 3,7 2333-2361. 22 Jul.
2010, doi:10.3390/ph3072333

Ghosh, Manonita, et al. “Identifying Cross-Cultural Variations in Psychostimulant Use for

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Using Linked Data.” Child & Adolescent
Psychiatry & Mental Health, vol. 11, Mar. 2017, pp. 1–7. Academic Search Ultimate,
doi:10.1186/s13034-017-0152-9.