11 Percent of US Children Diagnosed with ADHD: CDC Data Shows

About 11 percent of all children in the U.S. aged between 4 and 17 years, which is about 6.4 million children, have been diagnosed with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. Latest data on the condition provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that one in every five boys has received an ADHD diagnosis.

ADHD or Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder is characterized by the inability in paying attention, controlling behavior and being overtly active, according to CDC.

The condition is rapidly increasing in the U.S., with one out of every 10 children showing symptoms of ADHD. The condition can't be cured but can be successfully controlled.

According to the data, there has been an increase of 16 percent in the number of kids being diagnosed with ADHD since 2007, and a whopping 53 percent rise since the past decade.

"Those are astronomical numbers. I'm floored," said Dr. William Graf, a pediatric neurologist in New Haven and a professor at the Yale School of Medicine, reports The New York Times. "Mild symptoms are being diagnosed so readily, which goes well beyond the disorder and beyond the zone of ambiguity to pure enhancement of children who are otherwise healthy." The data in the present report was analyzed by The New York Times.

Some two-thirds of children diagnosed with the condition receive medication like Ritalin or Adderall. These drugs can help children cope with ADHD, but can be addictive.

A recent study published in the Medical Journal of Australia had found that boys taking medication for ADHD had delayed physical development when compared with boys of the same age group who weren't taking the drugs.

The number of children diagnosed with ADHD is expected to increase, as the American Psychiatric Association is planning to change the definition of the condition. This change in criteria will allow more people to be diagnosed and treated for the condition, The New York Times reported.

The data for the report came from CDC's study between February 2011 and June 2012 in which the agency had interviewed about 76,000 children.