Thank heaven for benign neglect. Scottish children who suffer from ADHD can give thanks to our chaotic mental health services. It should be a scandal that there is no coherent system to diagnose and treat children with the disorder. Fortunately for all concerned, it seems to be a blessing in disguise.

ADHD, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, is one of those conditions that causes some to roll their eyes. It's a fancy name for spoiled brats, they say. It's a catch-all for badly-behaved children and allows parents who can't control their youngsters to get off the hook. Instead of a societal requirement to keep their kids in order, they get a diagnosis and sometimes a state benefit to boot.

But look a bit further into ADHD and a different picture emerges. The symptoms identified by reputable medical sources describe an unhappy condition, with sufferers who can't concentrate, are always on the go, are reckless, impulsive and disruptive. They are constantly in trouble, can't wait their turn and can't focus on important tasks such as homework. Others can't follow a teacher's instructions and are excessively quiet, withdrawn or dreamy.

They are behavioural characteristics that could describe anyone's child on any given day. But for a diagnosis to be reached, a child has to have displayed symptoms that started before the age of seven, have lasted for more than six months, have created a handicap in two areas of life and are excessive, long-term and pervasive.

In 2002, the child psychiatry branch of the National Institute of Mental Health in America did a comparative study of the brains of 152 boys and girls with a diagnosis of ADHD and 139 children of matched age and gender who didn't suffer from the condition. Those with ADHD showed 3% to 4% smaller brain volume in the frontal lobes. It also noted that the children being treated with drugs such as Ritalin had "white matter" the same as the control group, whereas those with ADHD who were not on medication had "abnormally small amounts of white matter". The study describes this white matter as "the long-distance connections between brain regions".

There is no defined cause of the condition but there seems to be a consensus that it has neurobiological and genetic components. As always, in the absence of proof, theories abound. They include mothers smoking or drinking during pregnancy, lead poisoning, brain injury and allergic reactions to food additives. Whatever the causes, institutions such as the NHS accept that the condition is likely to affect at least 5% of children.

These children and their families really need help. Are they getting it? The answer is mostly not. If the expert estimates are correct, the numbers receiving even a diagnosis are scandalously low. Quite how low is hard to determine since there is no standardised and universal means of collecting the data. In fact, each health authority seems to have its own ad-hoc arrangements. The NHS has done its level best to retrieve figures from the murk. It has undertaken a study that should make some health authorities blush.

Take Ayrshire and Arran, for example. Given that 5% of the population within the age range can be expected to have ADHD and a further 1.5% to have the more extreme version, Hyperkinetic Disorder (HKD), there should be 4367 children with ADHD and 1292 with HKD under treatment. The region, however, has only 340 diagnosed cases. Just 0.4% of the age group. Borders had 305, which is a slightly better 1%; Dumfries, 153 (0.5%); Fife 576 (0.7%) and Grampian 670 (0.5%) cases.

Once diagnosed, the methods of treatment offered are equally patchy. ADHD is estimated by experts to affect 39,000 Scottish children and HKD 11,700. As anyone who watched Panorama last night will know, it plays havoc with the lives of entire families, causes disruption in schools and, as the children grow older, increases social disorder. If it were a wholly physical complaint, along the lines of measles, who doubts there would be a concerted, streamlined, heavily-resourced treatment? But because it has a mental health tag, it's a Cinderella.

In this instance, however, the cloud has a silver lining. While the parents of the 55,000 children across the UK who were prescribed Ritalin last year must be worried, those whose children weren't treated can be relieved. Ritalin and Concerta are the two most common drugs used to control ADHD. While many of us have intuitively recoiled from the idea of medicating a child's developing brain with amphetamine-like drugs, until now medical authorities pointed to studies which showed their effectiveness. Now a highly-regarded American study says the drugs do absolutely no long-term good and in some cases they stunt growth. The findings are a shock, but to many they won't be a surprise.

Last month I talked to a behavioural scientist from the US, Dr Karyn Purvis, who works intensively with children who have been adopted. Some come from Romanian orphanages and have severe problems. She works holistically with them and with their adoptive parents. She says she has yet to fail to turn a child around. Dr Purvis is also called the "Child Whisperer". She spoke to me about a commonplace pattern in the US of diagnosing children aged two with behavioural deregulation. Between four and six years old, they would have an ADHD diagnosis added, and be on Ritalin. Between eight and 10, symptoms of depression and anxiety would cause an antidepressant to be prescribed and, at 12, quite often a bipolar diagnosis would follow. By the age of 15, their developing brain has been bombarded by three to five major drugs. In her opinion, drugs such as Ritalin should be used only as short-term measures, like antidepressants after a bereavement, to stabilise a situation until therapy can start to address the underlying problem.

No doubt we have cause to be grateful that the NHS is less gung-ho than America about treating children with drugs that come into the category of mental cosh.

By default, the neglect of ADHD sufferers and their families comes under the heading of benign. But ignoring the problem is not an intelligent way forward. There are therapies of proven value and there are other avenues to be explored.

There is valuable research conducted by NHS Quality Services Scotland. It highlights the differences in approach to ADHD, and the disparity of treatment area by area. It identifies best practice and by so doing can act as a blueprint for improvement.

It is important because behind the strategies and statistics are thousands of Scottish children starting off in life on the wrong foot; destined for a future blighted by difficulty, disruption, failure and possibly prison. They need help; their families need help. All it requires is a comprehensive national treatment plan - benign focus in place of neglect.