Taking a Peek at ADHD

May 8th, 2009 at 02:25pm Mitchell F. Davenport

I was visiting with a couple of friends over a drink and one of them started talking about her child that has ADHD.  When she paused a moment, my other friend said , “ADHD is over-diagnosed.   It is a plot of the drug companies to sell drugs, and besides, for those that really have it, it can be controlled by diet.”  To which I quietly spoke up and said, “Really, research indicates that diet has very little to do with controlling ADHD.”  To which my dubious friend replied, “Well if its not the diet, it’s the parenting then.   Parents just don’t parent like they used to!”

What do you think about ADHD?   Is a myth or truly a disorder?   Is it over-diagnosed?  Under-diagnosed?    Is it due to parenting problems?

I don’t know what it is about this disorder that creates such controversy.  There is a lot of quality research out there that indicates : 1)  ADHD does exist, 2) it is a brain based disorder, 3) diet has little impact on its symptoms, 4) parents impact but do not cause ADHD.

1.        ADHD does exist.   Before I was a mental health professional, I had some friends who had a 4 year old boy who climbed anything possible.  He could often be found on top of the refrigerator.  He could not sit still for longer than a few seconds and was constantly on the go.  He had a very difficult time during routines and needed frequent proddings or threats of consequences to do things like put his toys away.  His parents were very passive and he seemed to run the home.  I wondered if he really had ADHD or that if the parents were more strict and had a better routine would this kid be “normal.”    Then I met Mikey (case study from first blog)!  There are some children that are simply wired differently and cannot function in the world the same way we do.2.       It is a brain based disorder.   A brain imaging study has pinpointed exactly where the brains of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder differ from those of other children.  It has been found that children with ADHD have smaller brains than children who do not have ADHD and researchers have long suspected that the disorder itself is the result of a dysfunction in the frontal lobes of the brain where we control our emotions and impulses.  Using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) researchers have learned that the part of the brain associated with attention and impulses (bottom frontal lobes) was indeed smaller than in children who did not have ADHD.

Researchers have also learned that the outer layers of the brain of children diagnosed with ADHD are thicker.

3.       Diet has little impact on its symptoms.  There are many websites claiming to have special diets that will help children with ADHD.  While I don’t want to discount diet totally.  To this date, there is no compelling evidence that diet has a substantial impact on ADHD behaviors.  Most of those who say it does are like my friend above.  They know someone that changing their kids’s diet seemed to help his ADHD.  Anecdotal stories are not a good subsititute for scientific research and there is little support for the diet theory from studies that were conducted properly.

4.       Parents impact but do not cause ADHD.  There is no doubt that some parents are better equipped to be parents whether the child has ADHD or not.  Parents of children with ADHD have a big challenge ahead….phone calls from school about misbehaviors, neighbors who won’t let their kids play with your’s, and the list goes on.  While it is not the parenting that causes the ADHD, “good” parenting can go a long way in helping a child who has ADHD.  Children with ADHD need firm limits, routines, and lots and lots of patience.

Well, hopefully I’ve given you something to think about.   The next time we will go into the characteristics of ADHD.

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