Posted on 07/11/2006 3:24:49 PM PDT by blam
Feminine Side of ADHD: Attention disorder has lasting impact on girls
Bruce Bower
Although hyperactive behavior often abates during the teen years for girls with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, many struggle with serious academic, emotional, and social problems related to that condition, a 5-year study finds.
Compared with teenage girls who had no psychiatric disorder, those with ADHD had difficulties that included delinquency, depression, substance abuse, eating disorders, poor mathematics and reading achievement, rejection by peers, and lack of planning skills, reports a team led by psychologist Stephen P. Hinshaw of the University of California, Berkeley.
"ADHD in girls is likely to yield continuing problems in adolescence, even though hyperactive symptoms may recede," Hinshaw says.
The new findings appear in the June Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology.
In 1997, Hinshaw's team organized the first of three yearly summer camps for 6- to 12-year-old girls, including individuals already diagnosed with ADHD. The project focused on 140 girls with ADHD and 88 girls with no psychiatric disorder, all of whom completed one of the 5-week programs. Staff monitored each girl's daily behavior and administered a battery of tests without knowing who had an ADHD diagnosis.
Girls with ADHD showed marked problems in academic subjects, in peer relationships, and in planning and time management. Girls' ADHD symptoms involved disorganized and unfocused behavior more than the disruptive, impulsive acts often observed in boys with this condition.
The latest findings, collected from those same girls 5 years later, come from interviews and questionnaires administered at home to 126 girls with ADHD and 81 girls with no disorder. The researchers also obtained reports on each girl's behavior from her parents and teachers.
Of girls diagnosed with ADHD as 6-to-12-year-olds, 39, or nearly a third, no longer displayed the condition as teens. The 87 adolescent girls who continued to deal with ADHD grappled with learning problems, psychiatric symptoms, and social difficulties far beyond any observed in teen girls never diagnosed with ADHD, the researchers say. Only about half of the girls who originally displayed symptoms of hyperactivity and impulsiveness did so as teenagers.
The new data mirror earlier reports that hyperactivity in boys with ADHD often recedes during adolescence as problems with inattention grow worse, remarks psychiatrist Benedetto Vitiello of the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Md. "ADHD is a developmental condition that changes over time in similar ways in boys and girls," Vitiello says.
In the new study, no specific form of treatment was associated with shedding ADHD between childhood and adolescence.
Treatment effects are difficult to tease out in samples such as this, Hinshaw says. Girls with severe, hard-to-treat ADHD symptoms tend to seek treatment, as do those with mild symptoms who are highly motivated to get help or whose parents are treatment savvy.
As many as 7 million children and teenagers in the United States have been diagnosed at some time in their lives with ADHD. The condition occurs about three times as often in boys as in girls.
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When she turned 18, we began treating her as an adult in regards to her meds. She takes her meds when she knows she will be working (and biking) to work for safety, but she doesn't chose to take them on days when she doesn't work and has plans to draw or paint.
I can tell when she hasn't taken her meds, but just like I wouldn't walk up to another adult and question him/her, I don't question her.
Reading engages her mind and for some reason, reading has always been her safety net. I know she reads fast--upwards to 200 wpm.
I notice that you used a lot of breaks, does the excessive white space help you cognitively? It may be a symptom (or result) of your brain injury.
Good luck in the future-- I wish you well.
What medication works on cognition?
My daughter has a brain injury that she got when she was an infant.
None of her doctors have ever mentioned that she should be on meds.
She has speech problems, auditory memory problems, motor control problems, sensory problems, and impulse control problems.
If medication could help any of those things, I'd be willing to try it.
Thanks!
If I read his post correctly one of the medications would be lithium and whoa, that's hard core stuff.
My mom is a manic-depressive and is on lithium. I don't think it would help my daughter.
hope your daughter is doing well btw :)
I'm glad your daughter is doing well.
I hope mine makes it to college. She's great at math, and I think she would make an excellent accountant. We're just going to have to do a lot of work to get there.
Yes, I take lithium, and the mandatory reduction of lithium has caused a total interuption of my life, esp cognitive. I thought it was primarily mood stabilizing and after almost twenty years on it, a was totally caught off guard about it's usefulness to cognitive function.
Lithium is a salt and the second element in the periodic table. It is not a heavy hitter as most believe. It is a salt and as such, effects the electrolyte system. Simple.
I also currently take lamictal and serouquel, both indicated for bipolar and help restore some of these difficulties.
My ailment is a chemical imbalance (not a catch phrase).
"She has speech problems, auditory memory problems, motor control problems, sensory problems, and impulse control problems"
Me too, it is all left brain related (cognitive) not right brain stuff (emotion). In trying to make the adjustments to ceasing the lithium, I have all theses problems and she probably has problems with sequencing things, organization, all things communicative, all kinds of memory problems, loss of direction...
http://www.funderstanding.com/right_left_brain.cfm
Right Brain vs. Left Brain
Definition
This theory of the structure and functions of the mind suggests that the two different sides of the brain control two different "modes" of thinking. It also suggests that each of us prefers one mode over the other.
Discussion
Experimentation has shown that the two different sides, or hemispheres, of the brain are responsible for different manners of thinking. The following table illustrates the differences between left-brain and right-brain thinking:
Left Brain
Logical
Sequential
Rational
Analytical
Objective
Looks at parts
Right Brain
Random
Intuitive
Holistic
Synthesizing
Subjective
Looks at wholes
This tells the story for me. again. simple.
Your daughter has a permanent brain injury (?). If so, her situation is much different than mine. My situation has room for manipulation.
If she is left brain impaired, it would be to her advantage to focus on things right brained and she will do well, I'm sure you are way ahead of me on this.
Like soccer mom's daughter, I have recently begun painting, and I love it. Very right brained.
Thanks to you both for the interest. Brain disorders of any kind are totally misunderstood. Can't see it, doesn't exist. Kinda like one year olds!!
ps, I have been assessed to have severe brain desease (not disorder) but I have bipolar disorder. go figure.
Best to both of you and yours...
Maryann
Very interesting. In your description, I would say my daughter is very left brain.
She is very good at math and very organized. When she writes, it is very organized (beginning, middle, end). She's not very flowery in her descriptions. Very straight forward, matter of fact.
She is not artistic. She doesn't get emotions well. She's either very on or very off. There is no in between.
I already have her pegged to be an accountant. She can handle tedious work. It's math oriented, and she doesn't have to talk a lot.
I'm no expert on this matter. I believe that some folks have problems learning different things or lots of things. I'm also quite sure that too many boys acting like boys are labeled with ADHD and drugged. In the past, some kids took the academic track, and others learned a trade as an apprentice. Now, all are forced into the same crucible of schooling for 12 years.
Interesting. At what age group are these descriptions meaningful. The inattention list sounds like every kid I've ever been around until they hit about 25.
Very very interesting.
"She is very good at math and very organized. When she writes, it is very organized (beginning, middle, end). She's not very flowery in her descriptions. Very straight forward, matter of fact.
She is me on lithium... get outta here... I was a computer programmer for years on lithium, very left brained. Without lithium my left brain flunked!
Medications work for properly diagnosed and compliant patients. It is worth the trip for many affected.
as you may know, ADD has almost the exact same symptoms as bipolar.
Those who are open minded may read our posts and have a little understanding of these maladies. Some on this forum are too busy being better than thou about what a proper parent "should" do without any real education about these matters. They are way too left brained to understand what they cannot see.... funny...
Thank God Bush isn't ADD, altho I've heard Clinton was...
best to ya.
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