Three Reasons:

1. Most children with behavioral issues get sent to psychiatrists and psychologists.

Psychiatrists and psychologists are only allowed to diagnose conditions listed in the DSM. Ergo, if it ain’t there, they can’t diagnose it. As a result, most children with SPD never get properly identified. They get drugs instead of occupational therapy and neurofeedback therapy.

2. Since ADHD is the condition which most closely resembled SPD, that is the diagnosis most of these children get.

‘Cause that’s the one in the DSM. (You have to marvel at the psychology profession’s inability to see beyond the covers of the DSM to the greater world, but that’s the way it is.)

3. Kids with SPD who are told they have ADHD get put on stimulants, same as ADHD kids.

For SPD kids, ritalin has very disturbing side effects, including psychotic episodes and paranoia. Just FYI most kids with SPD also have anxiety issues, AND stimulants are contraindicated for kids with anxiety issues because they make the anxiety worse. These kids should never be given stimulant therapy.

Resistance to  Change

If you took the DSM for its word, you’d think the brain was completely separate from the body. The DSM scrupulously avoids cross-contamination with any body diseases and conditions.

But we know that the brain and body are all one long enchilada, and we can’t do something to one end without having an effect on the other.

SPD is a condition of this brain-body connection. Which means it is an affront to the whole idea of the DSM.

So time for a new DSM, one that glues the head back on the body and acknowledges that those little ripples of electricity that flit along the neurons and dendrites, up and down, left to right and back, may have more to do with the body than the brain ever wants to admit.