Posted on 09/30/2010 4:22:14 AM PDT by JoeProBono
British scientists have found the first direct evidence attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a genetic disorder and say their research could eventually lead to better treatments for the condition.
Researchers who scanned the gene maps of more than 1,400 children found that those with ADHD were more likely than others to have small chunks of their DNA duplicated or missing....
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
ADHD... The “cure” used to be a couple o’ whacks on the backside. ADHD magically appeared when parents and teachers could no longer spank bratty kids. If my siblings and I had displayed evidence of “ADHD” once, the horrible disease would have disappeared in a New York minute.
We put him on one of the main drugs, cant recall the name, and it did calm him down, but also made him much more emotional and i didn't like that at all. So we found another drug called Intuniv, which isnt a typical ADD drug, it doesn't affect the brain like an amphetamine based drug does. I think its a Blood pressure med, but it takes enough of the edge off so he can actually focus a bit in school. Doesn't calm him down completely, but i didn't want that, but does enough to allow him to lead a normal life.
Too anyone reading this, I was a doubter for a LONG time, but just because most kids are labeled something and in fact ant does NOT mean that none are. Get them to a good doctor and have him do some testing, we did and we are so much better off then before. But i had to put aside my pride and “know it all” attitude for that to happen. :)
I should be very angry with a post like your- but I at one time felt the same way. I don’t anymore. ADHD IS REAL.
Yes, it may be over-diagnosed, I’m not disputing that, and in homes all across American the lack of discipline affects a child’s maturity and growth, I’m not disputing that either. But until I seen ADHD for my self with my own child, I hadn’t a clue what parents were going through.
We first were warned by the teacher and principle of his Christian school when he was 4 years old. He was not grasping directions like the other kids. The teacher would say grab a crayon, and a piece of paper, and sit in a circle. He would only remember the “sit in a circle” part, so he would be the only kid in the circle without the crayon and paper. That is what happened day after day, after day. And your diagnoses, is we should have been spanking him more?
When he was 6 we first tried him on the medication Adderall, and the difference was night and day.
The day before the medication I asked him to write from 1 to 100 in boxes I made on a paper, an exercise any kid at that age should have no problem with. He got to 33, and many of the number were skipped, backwards, or unreadable, or partially out of the box.
24 hours after being on Adderall during the same part of the day I tested him again. He got all the way too 99. No numbers were skipped, they all were legible and in the boxes, and only a couple of numbers were backwards, the usual ones, like a 3 here and 6 there.
The teachers noticed a huge difference too.
He is now 9, we have changed medications a few times because he was not gaining weight fast enough, but he is now doing fine. And he is now on a new non-narcotic medication. There are several new medications on the market now, without the same side-affects that the old Ritalin.
And yes, as if it were any of your business, we do spank him when he needs it.
You may also want to consider Vitamin B12 supplementation. Deficiency in B12 can produce many of the symptoms commonly misdiagnosed as ADD.
Insulting post like yours makes me grit my teeth. Our children our not “brats”.
If he has a hard time with pills, I can highly recommend this stuff:
My 6 and 9 year old kids like it so much, they remind me when I forget to give it to them!
...and really, really high shorts.
I have no doubt that my 2 year old would be labeled that if we used daycare. I have no doubt that he would be labeled that if we decided to send him to school (which we won’t, we’re going to homeschool). He is a boy; therefore, he is supposed to be very active and sometimes a little aggressive.
What type of testing? MRI? CT-scan?
Would anything show up in blood testing?
If you’re interested in more natural information, check out Dr. Winer at: http://painreleaseclinic.com/
He’s not just about pain relief, and he has helped me and my family a lot. If you’re not in the Pittsburgh area you can listen online.
Thanks for telling your story and Yes ADHD is REAL!
Be angry all you want.
I said “most” and “just about all” not all and I never said the condition didn’t exist.
It’s grossly misdiagnosed.
No it was some performance type tests, testing general knowledge, attention IQ, etc... been awhile so i cant recall exactly what was done but looking at the results it was pretty clear even to me, that he was way outside the norms for attention. I guess when its your kid you dont tend to notice it as much. this was a special doc we went to recommend by our reg doc. He was very thorough and went over pretty much everything. Had to pay out of pocket but it was worth it. I just wanted to rule out some other disorders before we tried medicine.
What about the parents who go around diagnosing everybody else’s kids with ADHD? Is that genetic, too?
Read an article a couple of years ago so I can’t remember the author or title. Mom took son to doc, doc told mom son had ADHD, mom took son to specialist, specialist gave son book on what to expect with ADHD. A few weeks later, mom noticed that son was acting out and not listening to her simple instructions. She received disturbing phone calls from teacher. Mom read book that specialist gave to son. The book was about how those with ADHD act. Mom took book away from son and had to council him that just because the book says that he will act out in class doesn’t mean he can act out in class.
No doubt many children are misdiagnosed, but when you see how ADHD impacts a child in school, in social settings and at home, you realize that this is not a discipline issue. We are not talking deviant behavior here. We are talking about an almost complete inability to stay on task.
The worst part is the child wants to do well and does not want to get into trouble - the desire is there, however, if you do not treat the illness, the child never meets their potential. They are ostracized at school and be their peers. They are labeled a problem student. They potentially become depressed and who knows then.
Schools and society are setup to accommodate all square pegs. When a round peg gets into the system, we attempt to hammer them into a hole in which they do not fit. Reading the BS some people spew about beating it out of the kid sets me off.
ADHD is not treated simply with medication, but also with behavior training. This training, however, is not just for the child, but also for parents and teachers. I agree that many children are over medicated, because that is an easy route to take. But, education for parents is so lacking, that if the parent does not self study and ask questions with skepticism, they are easily led down the medication only path.
Why do kids get ADHD? Maybe it is genetic. It could be passed down from a parent. It may be what we have been eating the past 40 years. Maybe immunization shots have something to do with it. Difficult deliveries at birth seem to lead to more cases of ADHD. It could be a number of factors, but for anyone who has lived with it and seen it up close day in day out, you know that it can be a very difficult condition to manage. Beating the kid does not fix it.
My ADHD only got worse after spankings were ceased
Researchers who scanned the gene maps of more than 1,400 children found that those with ADHD were more likely than others to have small chunks of their DNA duplicated or missing......of course, the researchers may have merely overlooked the missing strands when an ad with a musical score came on the radio and they started dancing.
*snort* More likely indeed.
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