Uncovering the Causes of ADHD in Children

When a child is diagnosed with ADHD, the biggest shock comes to the parents. Majority of them want to know how children get ADHD. The most common questions which pop up in the mind are - "Did we do something to create it?" or "Are we responsible?"

Well, there is no need for a parent to blame themselves, because though it is a behavioural problem parenting cannot be the reason why children get ADHD. Yes, bad parenting can aggravate the situation but not be the cause of it. Parents constantly blaming themselves will prove as a hindrance and hence it is important to explain how children get ADHD.

Most studies have linked ADHD with genetics. Parents should update themselves with their family history. If any relative has had ADHD, the chances of the child being affected with ADHD are much more. If a close family member has ADHD does the risk increase? Well yes. First degree relatives such as if any parent has ADHD makes the child 5 more times susceptible to ADHD. If a sibling has ADHD, then the chances just increase. Research is currently going on to identify the exact gene which is responsible for ADHD.

So do children get ADHD only from relatives? Well, not necessarily. Sometimes the brain forms an important source of ADHD. The brain has neurotransmitters which send messages from one area to another, telling the body how to act and react. These neurotransmitters are in the form of chemicals. The right amount of chemicals helps a child perform functions normally while excess or less can lead to problems. Dopamine and Norrephinephrine are the two chemicals which contribute to children getting ADHD. Excess of Norrephinephrine leads to agitation and irritation. While it may also make children fidgety. More of Dopamine leads to hyperactivity in children another symptom of ADHD. So it would be right to say that the functioning of the brain is responsible to a certain extent in getting ADHD.

Everyone knows would be mothers are not supposed to have cigarettes, alcohol or drugs as they are harmful for the offspring. Did you know it could also lead the offspring to having ADHD? It is advisable for pregnant women to stay of these toxic substances. Even excess of caffeine can be a cause in the child resulting to be hyperactive. Children can get ADHD as early as when in the mother's womb. Hence extra care should be taken so that the child does not become a receptor of ADHD.

These are the three main ways of children getting ADHD and once you know about them and feel any of them apply to the child it is important to get them checked by a doctor and treat it at the earliest stage.

Puneet writes a blog about ADHD and helps ADHD sufferers to find new treatments in naturopathy and alternative medicine. If you are looking for a well-researched herbal remedy for ADHD, you may read more.

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More American Children Seeking Treatment for ADHD

More than half of U.S. children and adolescents with mental disorders -- especially those with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) -- are receiving treatment from professionals, according to a new study from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). This confirms the trend that more children are seeking treatment for mental disorders, according to the NIMH.

The study, published online today in Pediatrics, was conducted to establish a baseline regarding the presence and treatment of mental health disorders in U.S. children. NIMH researchers used data from 3,042 youths, ages 8 to 15, from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from the years 2001 to 2004.

The study tracked six mental illnesses -- ADHD, generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), panic disorder, eating disorders (anorexia and bulimia), depression, and conduct disorder -- in the youths and found:

-8.6 percent had ADHD
-3.7 percent had mood disorders
-2.1 had conduct disorder
-0.7 percent had panic disorder or GAD
-0.1 percent had anorexia or bulimia

Approximately 1.8 percent of the children had multiple disorders, usually ADD and a conduct disorder.

Boys were approximately two times more likely than girls to have attention deficit disorder. Meanwhile, mood disorders were about two times greater in girls than boys.

Children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds were more likely to have mental disorders, particularly ADHD; children from higher socioeconomic backgrounds were more likely to have an anxiety disorder.

Approximately 55 percent of the children with mental disorders -- especially ADHD -- sought treatment.

Read the abstract at Pediatrics and learn more about the study here.

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Help! For Parents of Children with Behavioral and Emotional Problems

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Are Parents Overmedicating ADHD Children?

Are parents guilty of overmedicating their children? Are they the culprits responsible for mental health diagnoses such as attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and bipolar disorder in kids? These were the questions Judith Warner asked as she set about to write a follow-up to her 2005 New York Times best-selling book Perfect Madness: Motherhood in the Age of Anxiety, an examination-meets-condemnation of the culture of overachieving parents. She intended her next book to address perfectionist parenting in terms of childhood mental health disorders. Of course, she thought she knew the right answers: Yes and yes.

"It had to be these hypercompetitive, pushy parents trying to perfect their kids... None of this was real" to me, Warner explained at a recent event which was sponsored by the Parents League of New York and hosted by New York Times "Motherlode" blogger Lisa Belkin to launch her new book. "I saw ADHD and bipolar disorder as flavor-of-the-month diagnoses," the result of our "culture of overmedication." After interviewing real parents who were "just in despair" over their children's health, Warner came to the same conclusion that ADDitude readers -- parents of ADHD children and ADHD adults -- are all too familiar with: ADHD is real.

During her interviews with parents, she ran into the issues ADDitude readers face every day: Inadequate public schools, violent kids, and issues with working memory, impulsivity, hyperactivity, inattentiveness, which "cause real difficulties living life."

"It's not just a problem of fidgety boys who can't sit still," she said at the event. Explaining that after she first met with real parents, "I went home and cried. I had never experienced the personal pain" those parents felt. Warner realized, "Maybe I could be more compassionate." Her new book We've Got Issues: Children and Parents in the Age of Medication (February 2010), is an attempt to spread that message to the rest of the mainstream-media consuming culture.

Fear of Overmedicating: Is the Media to Blame?

Though initially she saw the rise of mental health problems in kids as a "manifestation of problems of society," Warner realized that her perceptions came "largely from the media," which, she said, "primes viewers to think parents are lazy and irresponsible and that they don't want to do the hard work of parenting." As far back as the 1940s mental health problems were attributed to bad mothering, she added.

The media, she said, "jumps to the conclusion that parents would go to this length -- diagnosis -- simply to 'perfect' their children... What does it say about us for believing it?"

In her candid conversation with host Belkin, Warner addressed this and the several myths that surround the topic of diagnosing and treating mental health disorders in kids.

Mainstream Myth #1: ADHD Doesn't Exist... Because it Didn't Used to Exist

The event's host Belkin raised the point that perhaps there is a mistrust of diagnoses because adults take the stance, "When I was a kid, this diagnosis didn't exist...because we didn't use the words."

Warner responded by saying that even if a diagnosis existed, it was applied narrowly. For instance, the second edition of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) -- or the American Psychiatric Association's guidelines for diagnosing and treating mental health problems -- introduced a form of childhood hyperactivity in 1968, but it wasn't until 1980 when attention deficit disorder (ADD) was introduced in DSM-III, and in 1994 DSM-IV updated the diagnosis to ADHD. (DSM-V may bring even more changes to the ADHD community.) The history is similar for other disorders, Warner explained. "Until the 1970s, people didn't think children could suffer from depression. There wasn't a category for Asperger's until 1994r... If you don't have the terminology, the concepts, you're not going to find the kids."

Mainstream Myth #2: ADHD Is a Rich Kids' Disease

"Public schools are supposed to provide individualized education programs (IEPs) and learning disability (LD) testing but they throw up roadblocks. It's expensive. Parents of means have all sorts of opportunities," to pay for diagnosing and treating ADHD, Warner said. "So it can appear like it's wealthy parents pushing their kids too hard. Because they can afford it."

Mainstream Myth #3: Psychiatrists Can't Be Trusted

In her research, Warner traced her personal mistrust of mental health diagnoses in children to the anti-psychiatry movement of the 1960s (the focal point of which was to point out, and limit, the power and abuses of psychiatrists over patients, which "was popularized in Kesey's 1962 novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," wrote Pyschiatric Services authors David J. Rissmiller, D.O. and Joshua H. Rissmiller). "We all carry around pieces of this. We all think the worst of parents and psychiatrists," Warner said at the Parents League of New York event.

Distrust of Drug and Insurance Companies: Not a Myth

In addition to admitting that conditions like ADHD are real, Warner believes the drugs used to treat them "are real -- and a part of the answer." But the pharmaceutical industry that produces them isn't without its flaws. Among them: The bulk of research related to mental health disorders, and treatment, is paid for by the industry, allowing them to hide poor results. Government regulation is faulty at best, Warner added.

Additionally, she said, "Insurance companies need to reimburse [patients] for longer visits, for follow-up calls" and the additional leg and paperwork that is necessary for getting proper ADHD treatment.

Are Mental Health Diagnoses on the Rise, or Are We Just Better Able to Detect Them?

"Some experts believe there are more mental health illnesses out there," yet undiscovered, while others say this isn't true, Warner said. Changing terminology is to blame, because it limits our ability to compare current diagnoses to the past rate, she explained. However, she added that today's diagnosed adults, "say they started to have symptoms as early as before their teens."

There Is Hope for Mental Health Awareness in the Future

"What I've seen anecdotally, is there is a generational component. Younger teachers are sensitized to it. They're familiar with it. It isn't strange to them."

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No More ADHD? New Changes to the Guidelines for Diagnosing Children and Adults

The American Psychiatric Association (APA)’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) -- or the rules for diagnosing and treating mental health problems -- is getting updated for the first time since the fourth edition, DSM-IV, was published in 1994. And as the experts go back to the drawing board, either the label ADHD or ADD may even go away, or at the very least, change meaning.

DSM-V -- which is currently in the planning stages and is slated to be published in 2013 -- will bring changes for the attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) community, perhaps by treating these as two separate disorders, rather than subtypes of the same condition.

Condition-specific proposed changes to DSM -- from eating disorders to autism -- are available for anyone to view, comment on, and contribute to on the APA’s new DSM-V website. There you’ll find criticisms of the current diagnosis of ADHD. Among them: concerns that DSM-IV’s diagnosis guidelines lists more criteria for inattention than hyperactivity, a component of the disorder that should be treated with more equal weight; claims that the DSM-IV age of onset for ADHD (7 years old) is arbitrary; and that the “large number of criteria is difficult to remember.”

1) Doing away with the three ADHD subtypes developed in DSM-IV : predominantly hyperactive/impulsive (HI), predominantly inattentive, and combined, both inattentive and hyperactive.

Over time the three subtypes of ADHD have “proven to be problematic because many children who met criteria for a given subtype at one point, met criteria for a different one a few months later,” explained , professor of child psychiatry, psychiatry, and pediatrics, and chief of Columbia University Medical Center’s Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. One proposed way of eliminating the three subtypes includes grouping all inattentive and hyperactive/impulsive diagnoses together.

Reverting back to a single diagnosis of ADHD is not without problems, explained Dr. Shaffer. “Many children are referred because of poor school progress and although clearly inattentive, they have never been hyperactive. They now receive a diagnosis of ADHD, which includes a behavior that they don’t have. This can become a problem for teachers and parents and ultimately for clinicians.”

Another option is to completely separate the two by creating a new diagnosis of attention deficit disorder (ADD) that has it’s own characteristics and symptoms -- including loses belongings, being easily distracted and forgetfulness -- separate from the current ADHD, which is inclusive of hyperactivity. A proposal on DMM-V’s website claimed this option presents a cons as well, including little empirical or experimental data to “define the pathology” -- or nature and conditions of this diagnosis.

2) Changing the age of onset. On the table for discussion is to alter the age of onset from "on or before age 7" to "on or before age 12." The rationale? “Retrospective studies show that age of onset can occur or be first noticed or recalled between the ages of 7 and 12,” according to a proposal on DSM-V’s website. The complexity of the condition – and its concurrence with other disorders – makes it difficult to recognize in earlier years.

3) Fewer symptoms required for a diagnosis of adult ADHD. Under DSM-IV’s current guidelines, a certain number of symptoms -- six -- must be met to be diagnosed with adult ADHD. The proposed change would account for recent findings that indicate a decline in symptoms as a patient ages. “Follow-up studies of children who had ADHD show that as they grow older they have fewer and fewer symptoms but they remain impaired,” explained Dr. Shaffer. “One can reach a point where an impaired individual no longer meets the criterion requirement of 6 symptoms from each category.”

To see the full list of proposed changes, along with the rationale and the pros and cons of each, and to suggest your own, visit the DSM-V website and register to leave a comment.

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Most Effective ADHD Treatments for Children? Medications and Switching Schools, Parents Say

July 2010: ADHD News

In a recent survey of parents of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADD/ADHD), a majority cited drug therapy as the most effective treatment, followed by nearly half who said transferring their child to a more ADHD-friendly school was a helpful intervention.

Tuesday July 20th - 6:30pm

by Mary Kearl

Parents of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADD/ADHD), take comfort: If you have turned to medication for treatment -- while longing for an alternative way to manage the condition -- and have found that not every school is equally up to the challenge of addressing your child's learning needs, you're not alone.

A recent Consumer Reports Health Survey of more than 900 parents of ADD/ADHD children, of whom 84 percent treated their child with medication at some point, attempts to give a snapshot of what life is like for you and your children, quantifying some of your daily challenges.

"We wanted to get a sense of what's happening in the real world," said Andrew Schwartz, Ph.D., a licensed clinical psychologist and Consumer Reports survey research associate. Schwartz explained that two limitations of typical ADD/ADHD studies -- the fact that they take place in clinically-controlled environments and are often funded by pharmaceutical companies -- prevent them from being truly representative of daily life. (The Consumer Reports Health Survey was funded solely through Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports.)

When asked to rate the most effective treatments for ADD/ADHD, 67 percent of families surveyed cited ADD/ADHD medication as the "most helpful." Forty-five percent reported that moving their children to a school better equipped to teach children with ADD/ADHD "helped a lot." If they had to do it over again, only 52 percent of parents strongly agreed that they would have their kids take medications and 44 percent said they would prefer to find another way to treat their child.

There are some bright findings regarding medication from the Consumer Reports Health Survey. Most children and teens (60 to 80 percent) who took ADD/ADHD medications usually became less hyperactive and impulsive and their behavior and focus improved. On the whole, medicated children had slightly better outcomes than those who weren't -- particularly with academic success and school behavior.

However, children who tried effective alternative treatments in addition to medication, "did a little bit better than children of parents who didn't find anything else helpful in addition to medication," noted Schwartz. Giving one instruction at a time, hiring a private tutor or learning specialist to work with the child, and providing structure by maintaining daily routines were other non-medical treatments reported as being helpful.

Parents of children on amphetamines (Adderall, Vyvanse) or methylphenidates (Concerta, Daytrana, Ritalin) noted positive changes within a few days of first starting the medication, whereas those on non-stimulant medications, like Strattera, reported experiencing improvements within a few weeks. There were no major differences to be found between amphetamines' effectiveness versus that of methylphenidates, but parents of children on the former were more likely to report "irritability and anger" and "high mood/energy." The survey did not have enough cases of children on non-stimulant medications, like Strattera, to report conclusive findings, but according to the analysis from Consumer Reports, the data indicate that these kinds of medications were less likely to be "very helpful" compared with stimulants.

To learn more about the survey and its findings, visit ConsumerReportsHealth.org. Below, find some additional highlights. • Eighty percent of children covered in the survey attended public school.
• Only 11 percent of parents whose children received an individualized education program (IEP) or other accommodations found them unhelpful.
• Fourteen percent of parents reported that their child had been denied accommodations.
• Three-fourths of parents indicated their child's accommodations were at least "somewhat helpful."
• Compared with pediatricians, child psychiatrists, and psychologists, school professionals (non-psychologists) were more likely to help "a lot" with academic performance. • Psychologists and pediatricians were most likely to help with behavior at home, with the former more so than the latter.
• Psychologists, school professionals, and school psychologists were more likely to help with social-skills building.
• Clinical psychologists were most helpful in boosting children's self-esteem. • The average age of ADD/ADHD diagnosis was seven and a half years old. Of the children who had tried medication, 92 percent started taking medication within one year of being diagnosed.
• Nearly 60 percent of children had seen two or more treatment providers in the last 12 months.
• Fifteen percent of children were not screened before starting medication.
• Among those who reported that their child was no longer taking medication, 35 percent blamed side effects (top complaints included decreased appetite, sleep problems, weight loss, irritability, and upset stomach).
• Of the 934 parents surveyed, 135 never treated their children with medication, with 39 percent wanting to try other options before doing so, and 34 percent reporting that their child's case of ADD/ADHD wasn't severe enough.
• Twenty-nine percent of parents said they wished their child's physician better appreciated their feedback about their child.

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Mary Kearl graduated from New York University with degrees in Journalism and History. She has worked for a variety of online and print publications. Prior to joining New Hope Media, where she serves as the Online Editor of ADDitudemag.com, AdoptiveFamiliesCircle.com, and AdoptiveFamilies.com, she was the Community Editor for AOL Health and Thatsfit.com.

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