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ADHD Breakthrough
Campus Report ^ | January 9, 2008 | Amanda Busse

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 ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: adhd; brain; braindevelopment; disorders; maturity; medication
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To: Hayzo

see = don’t see


181 posted on 01/09/2008 2:07:19 PM PST by Hayzo
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To: NavyCanDo

I resisted putting my son on medication for years. His problems made our home life hell, and my daughters were not getting the attention and peace that they deserved.

When we finally started him on medication during the summer, he went from a child who had to be forced to read to the top reader in the entire school.

We have since found out he is also bi-polar.


182 posted on 01/09/2008 2:07:49 PM PST by Politicalmom (Huckabee’s foreign policy experience consists of eating at the International House of Pancakes.)
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To: najida

My son says trying to concentrate is like trying to hear a soft radio in a crowd of yelling people.


183 posted on 01/09/2008 2:09:30 PM PST by Politicalmom (Huckabee’s foreign policy experience consists of eating at the International House of Pancakes.)
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To: Politicalmom

Yep, that’s it.


184 posted on 01/09/2008 2:10:45 PM PST by najida (Every tried to explain to Alltel that the cockatoo ate your cell phone?)
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To: Betis70

I’m not a doctor but an educated guess is this: alchohol goes straight from the tongue into the brain and kills millions of brain cells. That has to be devastating for a young developing brain.

Just to be on the safe side, I’ve told my nephew not to smoke, drink adult beverages or use drugs such as marijuana until he is over 25 years of age. By that time, hopefully, he will not be tempted to do stupid things and it won’t be an issue.


185 posted on 01/09/2008 2:30:45 PM PST by SatinDoll
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To: Old Professer

Then yes. She is a much happier child. Her grades are better along with her self-esteem and she does not have issues with being called out in class for working/acting different because the teachers are either too lazy, overwhelmed, under-educated, or just choose to be as_es ( maybe all ) when dealing with her and being teased by other kids for being different. Kids would accuse her of stuff that she would not do knowing the teachers have already formed an opinion of her before she was treated and call her out just so they could tease her later or avert attention from themselves. These days kids cannot correct bullying by a necessary tune-up they have to take it less they go to jail and parents get sued and we all know kids are merciless.

So again yes, her quality of life increased 100 fold.


186 posted on 01/09/2008 2:33:23 PM PST by Resolute Conservative
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To: Scotswife

It might be real, but every child a teacher cannot teach is not suffering from it. Perhaps the old ways were better.


187 posted on 01/09/2008 3:04:43 PM PST by tioga
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To: Old Professer

You’re really way over your head here. I’ll stay on the side of civility and simply suggest that you need to do a lot more research before offering any more opinions.

Thanks.


188 posted on 01/09/2008 3:33:12 PM PST by Lee'sGhost (Crom! Non-Sequitur = Pee Wee Herman.)
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To: Hardcorps

“I agree 100%. My youngest son was diagnosed with all this crap in the early 70s. He was hyperactive and liked to fight. In the first grade he was forbidden metal lunch pails because they were his favorite weapon. Doctors insisted he be placed on drugs. We denied this treatment. at about age 8 one of his fighting episodes cost him $40.00. He has not had a violent moment since and is now a priest with a chemical engineering degree plus MBA in finance. SF”

Congratulations! What a wonderful story with such a happy resolution. I don’t know if your son had contact with any Irish Christian Brothers during his schooling, but it sounds like he was well equipped to defend himself if needs be!


189 posted on 01/09/2008 4:01:30 PM PST by Ozone34
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To: najida

We’re not talking about replacing brain wiring or switches here, we are discussing the merit in putting a great resistance in the wiring that hasn’t yet been finished; the medicines currently in use act more like turning on as many appliances as possible without overloading the total circuit, just loading it down to where all the lights go dim.

12/2 bare ground is a good choice and it doesn’t matter how many properly wired outlets you run as long as the voltage drop is minimal; what matters is how many you try to use.


190 posted on 01/09/2008 4:46:58 PM PST by Old Professer (The critic writes with rapier pen, dips it twice, and writes again.)
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To: Lee'sGhost

How do you figure that I am over my head?

We have a new study that says the problem we assume we have is only a temporary maturation delay in what will become a normal development if left alone and my position is that, for those who have come to depend on the security of having a massive and growing group of codependents, they have rationalized the obvious error of the wholesale drugging of children who are just not ready to be pushed, that will now last a lifetime.

Those who won’t accept that may have made the wrong decision are on here protesting that they know what they did was right because they are happier now and do not want to admit that they obliged the assumed authorities mostly for own convenience than for the true sake of the child.

A non-correcting brain condition is one that will require a regimen that will indeed last for their lives, but this course of “treatment” was too fast, too easy, too self-establishing to let go of.

At what point should a daily course of treatment be abandoned?

For this, those currently on the medications will have to turn to their doctors, so who loses if we find we were wrong?

Only the children.


191 posted on 01/09/2008 5:00:31 PM PST by Old Professer (The critic writes with rapier pen, dips it twice, and writes again.)
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To: Old Professer

My son, now 18, is pretty well adjusted. If anything we’ve had to fight the notion that he thinks he’s above average. Although, truth is, he is in many ways. Just not academically.

He never felt singled out. Never felt bad because he was “different.” The most he ever had to do at school was (for a couple of years only) go to the school nurse after lunch for his medicine. As I said up thread, we stopped that when he hit puberty because it was no longer working.

We then did back flips working with him and the school to stay on top of his school work. Sometimes we were successful. Sometimes not.

But school was never traumatic for him.

He can’t fit into your study, because he can’t fit into your box. Which, at the end of the day, is the whole point here.


192 posted on 01/09/2008 5:21:39 PM PST by Corin Stormhands (Only 351 shopping days 'til Christmas...)
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To: Antoninus
My own kids act that way sometimes--my wife and I often laugh and say that if a teacher ever saw our 5-year old son acting the way he sometimes does, he'd be on ritilin in a second.

FWIW, five is too young to diagnose ADD.

193 posted on 01/09/2008 5:25:43 PM PST by Corin Stormhands (Only 351 shopping days 'til Christmas...)
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To: tioga

“It might be real, but every child a teacher cannot teach is not suffering from it. Perhaps the old ways were better.”

Absolutely right - and teachers ARE NOT supposed to approach parents and tell them their child has it.

But many of them do it anyway.


194 posted on 01/09/2008 5:51:22 PM PST by Scotswife
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To: Ozone34
I don’t agree. I’m an ADD type, and I’ve never been sucked in by video games. Others will do well with it because the speed of the game. You ask the same kid to sit still and absorb an English class he or her will have problems.

I basically think ADHD persons have two mental speeds, one constant speed, whether it be fast or slow and dead still.

Other kids are better equip to vary their mental speed. Yes, ADHD is over diagnosed. If a set of parents having problems with their child look hard enough they will find a doctor that will declare him/her ADHD. That's not fair to the rest.

195 posted on 01/09/2008 7:42:16 PM PST by oyez (Justa' another high minded lowlife.)
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To: Old Professer

Hmmmm.... There are adults who have ADD. They do not know it. Because it is un-diagnosed? It is waiting to be diagnosed? Help me out here, where was being non-clear?


196 posted on 01/10/2008 5:57:28 AM PST by tupac (The Crux of the Biscuit - is the Apostrophe....)
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To: tupac

I don’t know, name me one and I’ll look him up.


197 posted on 01/10/2008 7:52:59 AM PST by Old Professer (The critic writes with rapier pen, dips it twice, and writes again.)
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To: Old Professer

I see that you are joking, sorry I didn’t get it.


198 posted on 01/10/2008 8:26:27 AM PST by tupac (The Crux of the Biscuit - is the Apostrophe....)
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To: bs9021

No $hit Sherlock Award nominee.


199 posted on 01/10/2008 8:28:52 AM PST by RGSpincich
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To: Danae

On behalf of those who managed to avoid being drugged:

I accept your award!


200 posted on 01/10/2008 1:00:24 PM PST by bpjam (Harry Reid doesn't even have 32% of my approval)
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