Posted on 01/09/2008 11:21:34 AM PST by bs9021
ADHD Breakthrough
by: Amanda Busse, January 09, 2008
A new study suggests that Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in children may be a matter of maturity.
According to the study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, ADHD in children is caused when portions of the brain mature at a slower pace than normal. For many, the condition eventually normalizes and nearly 80 percent of children grow out of the disorder, the researchers found.
Researchers used a new image-analysis technique to measure the thickening and thinning of thousands of cortex sites in 223 children with ADHD and 223 children without the disorder for the study. Scientists found that the cortex sites in children with the disorder reached peak thickness three years later, on average, than those in children without the disorder.
“There has been debate about whether ADHD is a delay or deviance from normal brain development,” the lead author of the study, Dr. Philip Shaw, told the Los Angeles Times, “This study comes down strongly in favor of delay.”
The cause for the delay in brain maturation which causes ADHD is unknown, but there is evidence that both genetic and environmental factors influence brain development.
At early ages, environmental factors that influence the inattention and lack of self control associated with ADHD may include certain parenting and teaching techniques, according to another study published in the same month in Developmental Psychology. The study found that self-control and maturity levels were affected by family life and filtered into the classroom setting.
(Excerpt) Read more at campusreportonline.net ...
Hey, I was diagnosed then (back when the studies really meant something), and was on one of the medications. It saved my school career (C and D before, A’s after). I don’t take the medication anymore, but even when I was, I still voted Republican.
Actually there are six kinds-—
1. Classic ADD - Inattentive, distractible, disorganized. Perhaps hyperactive— can be lethargic even, restless and impulsive.
2. Inattentive ADD - Inattentive, and disorganized.
3. Over-focused ADD - Trouble shifting attention, frequently stuck in loops of negative thoughts, obsessive, excessive worry, inflexible, oppositional and argumentative.
4. Temporal Lobe ADD - Inattentive and irritable, aggressive, dark thoughts, mood instability, very impulsive. May break rules, fight, be defiant, and very disobedient. Poor handwriting and trouble learning are common.
5. Limbic System ADD - Inattentive, chronic low-grade depression, negative, low energy, feelings of hopelessness and worthlessness.
6. Ring of Fire ADD - Inattentive, extremely distractible, angry, irritable, overly sensitive to the environment, hyperverbal, extremely oppositional, possible cyclic moodiness.
ADHD is not a disease or a diagnosis of one; it is simply a description.
All of religion and redemption is based on the unachievable notion of perfection that people inevitably seek out; now we see human health being treated in the same manner to the point where we have wellness clinics where we once had house calls.
A similiar article was posted on FR a few weeks back, only it had a bit more information.
What this article isn’t telling us is that late maturation equals more growth of neural networks in the brains of children with ADD/ADHD. Omega-3 oil helps, as does L-Tyrosine (which fosters the growth of neurons). When these children do mature and if they have learned to control impulsiveness (haven’t started using alchohol or drugs) they are very intelligent.
If you had a child with ADD or ADHD, if using your method of dealing with it, the child would be beaten to a bloody pulp by now.
Kids with ADD or ADHD do not respond to traditional methods of dealing with behavioral issues in kids. It is a brain wiring disorder.
Back in the eighties, when ADHD first started receiving so much press, it was said that ritalin wouldn’t help after the age of 12 or thirteen.
This study is the older version of the basis for treatment; the new here is a discovery that the whole protocol ought to be reconsidered if there is any chance at all that we may have been drugging our children for no “cure” but only to better satisfy those who deman immediate change.
If the kids will outgrow this, allow it.
What is the herbal supplement?
ADHD is a condition. It exists. It is NOT corrected by whipping, beating, degrading, denying food, or any other “punishment.”
You can choose to pretend that it is a phase and allow your child to be shunned, belittled, held back and generally taught that he or she is some kind of pariah. Or you can try to treat it and give him a chance to learn and to interact with other kids.
Everything OTHER than that is BS.
The same as people whose life is made better taking stuff like : Viagra, blood pressure medicine, insulin, celebrex. What’s your point?
You speak of what you do not know.
Bully for you. I hope the best for you.
I homeschooled my nephew who had ADD (I have custody). He is now 16 years old, an assistant instructor at a local Academey of Kung-fu, taking college level courses and working towards a GED. He is also a computer systems administrator in-training.
The truth about ADD/ADHD is that your child’s brain is growing more extensive neural networks in his brain than a normal child. This means that eventually he will be more intelligent than the norm. Only problem is he will have trouble controlling himself due to all that nerve growth. It could take from three to five years longer for his brain to mature. The male human brain doesn’t mature until about age 24, so for ADD/ADHD males that means he should not touch any alchohol until he is nearly 30-years old.
Your instincts a about drugs is spot on. I started giving my boy (about age 10) a half cup of coffee mixed in with his mornging cocoa and that greatly helped him to focus on his schoolwork in the morning and right through until about 1:30 pm. Then he took a break before going to Kung-fu lessons or out to play. (His counslor, a specialist in ADHD had wanted him on some kind of stimulant but I said no amphetimines, as both his parents are drug addicts, and she told me that in grade schools the teachers will use coca-cola as it contains caffeine. That is why he gets a half-cup of coffee in the am).
My dear, it is unimportant whether you are impressed by me but it ought be important that the previous diagnoses of ADHD have rested on the excerpt above and this new study implies that the current rush to treatment through psychotropic means may not be helping the “patient” at all but might even end up short-circuiting the natural development of the discovered region of the cortex affected.
That would be a great way to deal with it if it were not for the fact that the child’s future might be completely changed because they are failing in school and constantly getting in trouble for not paying attention and following directions. Waiting for the ‘cure’ may mean throwing away all the child’s opportunities at a decent life.
By the way, I also believe that ADD and ADHD is way over diagnosed. But I have a child who is autistic in every sense of the meaning and there are some similarities between autism and ADD/ADHD that some even put them in the autistic spectrum (again, I don’t agree that these with this grouping of ADD/ADHD with autism, but the similarities are there).
“Oh DUH”
It’s called GROWING UP. God these people are stupid.
I disagree. The studies I’ve read and the people I know with ADD/ADHD have had their lives improved by early intervention, as in actually being able to express themselves, organize their thoughts, reduction of anxiety and actually being fully functional as person. Again, it’s about brain wiring and the ADD’er is more internally trapped than it being a social behavior type thing.
I just put you in the “Burn the Witch” crowd.
Source?
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