7 ms·

Evidence That ADHD Is a Genetic Disorder

63 points by wmat 15y ago

tomlin 15y ago
This is welcome news. I recently got diagnosed and after taking the medication, I've found a great increase in the quality of life. There are a few who are very anti-drug when it comes to this condition and their children. Let me tell you from personal experience, these people are doing more harm to their children than good. Education is important. Depending on the severity, each year a parent doesn't take action is a year lost for their child.
- Shenglong 15y ago
  I think more, parents don't want to admit that their child has a problem. How do you know your child has ADHD, or if he/she is just being lazy, or not concentrating hard enough? A lot of Asian parents find the two synonymous.
  - SoftwareMaven 15y ago
    I've seen the opposite more often: people who set no boundaries for their children have out-of-control kids. Instead of it being bad parenting, it must be ADHD. Quick, medicate him so I don't have to put up with him. At least in the pediatrics office my wife works in, they are trying to stop that. Btw, I don't mean to imply ADHD doesn't exist or is only a result of bad parenting. It does and it isn't.
- jriddycuz 15y ago
  I'm glad to hear this as well, and even more glad to hear it today. Despite being medicated, I still struggle to focus on activities which are not intrinsically interesting to me. Even though I want to focus, paying attention to work that is not intrinsically interesting to me requires extreme levels of self-control and leaves me feeling mentally and emotionally drained. And just yesterday, when I was unable to access my medication for 24 hours, I had what can really only be described as a nervous breakdown at work from trying to make myself focus. I don't want to use this as an excuse for not achieving, but having scientific evidence that this is a "real" thing--and not just a set of bad habits and lack of concer--helps reduce the stigma that only compounds my problems. I don't want to be held to a lower standard, but I do want to be afforded the grace given to people with other mental health issues.
  - _delirium 15y ago
    I also have that problem, inability to concentrate on non-intrinsically-interesting mental activities combined with huge emotional/energy drain when I force myself to. I'm curious how normal it is for humans to be able to concentrate on non-intrinsically-interesting mental work, though. I can believe that there's a range of skill in it, but can't seem to find data on the range. From what I can tell in academia, very few people actually have the level of concentration considered "normal" or "expected" without either taking some variety of medication, or mustering exceptionally draining bouts of force-yourself-to-concentrate. There are a few exceptionally-good-at-concentrating people, but I suspect they're actually the abnormal cases, representing the top 10% of some bell curve. It'd be interesting to see data, anyway. For example, I'd be interested to know what the average +/- 1 or 2 stddevs is among the population on a test of ability to concentrate on non-intrinsically-interesting mental work (if that can somehow be measured). Similarly, for diagnosis myself, I'd be more interested in a percentile number than anything; rather than just saying that I suffer from poor concentration on non-intrinsically-interesting tasks, I'd like to know how poor my concentration is relative to the median. Does "poor" just mean that I can't match what the top 10% of the population does? Or does it mean I'm in the bottom 10%?
    - JimboOmega 15y ago
      The standard workplace expects you to concentrate on work for 8 hours a day. Barring the occasional firedrill (which provides enough stimulation) I struggle with it too. Does nobody else surf the internet when they should be working? Do people actually work for a solid 8 hours (not just be at work, but actually working?) I think the idea of it as a bell curve is a good one - ADHD is supposed to be the poor bottom end. But I do wonder what average really looks like.
- Alex3917 15y ago
  "Let me tell you from personal experience, these people are doing more harm to their children than good." The problem is that the science clearly says the opposite: "At the end of 14 months, core ADHD symptoms were reduced more in the children treated with stimulants than with behavioral therapy. However, at the end of three years, 'medication use was a significant marker not of beneficial outcome, but of deterioration. That is, participants using medication in the 24-to-36 month period actually showed increased symptomatology during that interval relative to those not taking medication.'" http://www.madinamerica.com/madinamerica.com/Children_files/3-year%20followup%20of%20the%20NIMH%20MTA%20Study.PDF http://www.madinamerica.com/madinamerica.com/Children_files/... "At the end of six years, medication use was 'associated with worse hyperactivity-impulsivity and oppositional defiant disorder symptoms,' and with greater 'overall functional impairment.'" http://www.madinamerica.com/madinamerica.com/Children_files/Mta%20at%208%20years.PDF http://www.madinamerica.com/madinamerica.com/Children_files/... "Within 21 months, 11 percent of children treated with a stimulant for ADHD developed 'psychotic symptoms.'" http://www.madinamerica.com/madinamerica.com/Children_files/Psychotic%20side%20effects%20of%20stimulants.pdf http://www.madinamerica.com/madinamerica.com/Children_files/... "Two-thirds of the adolescent patients hospitalized for mania at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center had been on stimulants 'prior to the onset of an affective episode.' Stimulants, the researchers concluded, may 'precipitate depression and/or mania in children who would not have otherwise developed bipolar disorder.'" http://www.madinamerica.com/madinamerica.com/Children_files/Prior%20stimulant%20treatment%20in%20adolescents%20with%20bipolar%20disorder_%20association%20with%20age%20at%20onset.pdf http://www.madinamerica.com/madinamerica.com/Children_files/... via http://www.madinamerica.com/madinamerica.com/Children.html http://www.madinamerica.com/madinamerica.com/Children.html
  - tomlin 15y ago
    If we're getting into a debate of whether medications can have other effects than intended, I cannot argue that. ADHD and ADD should be treated in completely different ways. People diagnosed with ADHD have a much higher chance of psychotic symptoms than those who are only of the inattentive type. Then there is the old saying, "if you've seen one child with ADHD, you've seen one child with ADHD." In my experience, and for many others, it has provided a world untold, halted depression, increased motivation and enjoyment in life. Stimulants aren't perfect, but we're throwing the baby out with the bath water when we ignore their usefulness.
rdtsc 15y ago
Another popular (anecdotal) explanation why this disorder is more prevalent in America is that somehow the same genetic trait that motivated inviduals to pack up and move to another continent, when amplified (after hundreds of years) is somehow responsible for hyperactivity. Basically "the settlers were a restless folk" they all come to America and breed with each other, after hundreds of years you end up with a good number of people who are "too restless to function". Anway that is one popular theory, not sure if I personally endorse it but it would seem to be somewhat supported by this find. Of course the counter-point could be that doctors + parents + pharma companies are just more eager to diagnose it in America, and I can see that happening too somewhow.
- felipemnoa 15y ago
  Nahhh. I think it has more to do with people being dead poor in their own countries and is why they immigrated to America (Occam's Razor), better opportunities. It is still the reason why people come to America today. Also, too many people want to use disorders as an excuse for their lack of success. "See, is not me, I'm actually pretty smart, is this damn disorder that is holding me back. Not my fault."
  - HeyLaughingBoy 15y ago
    The overwhelming majority of "dead poor" people still wouldn't leave their home country. Most people have very, very strong ties to friends, family and familiarity and have great difficulty with the concept of uprooting thier life, no matter how bad, in such a manner.
    - deleted 15y ago
      [deleted]
Rexatron 15y ago
As a child of 8 years old, I was given 120MG of Ritalin per day. I rarely slept the first 2 years. If I did it was around 6am for an hour or so. Then I had to take my morning dose for school. They also wanted me to take a pill to sleep, which felt so horrible I cannot even explain it. I was a zombie in the morning if I took it, then onto the morning ritalin dose. I would just do pushups in my room until 3am some nights just to get the energy out. Yes, I did well in school while I was on it. Yes, I stayed out of trouble when I was on it. But I was not myself. I felt as if I were on drugs. I did not learn "how to learn" or "how to get things done" without being on drugs. When I finally kicked the habit in college, I was a mess. I couldn't do anything that took more than 30 seconds of concentration. I had to learn how to live life without drugs. For a condition I may or may not have had. It took me to more years to finish my last semester of college because I could not function. Years later I’ve relearned what I should have learned as a child – how to discipline myself and get things done. The DSM IV/V has a very loose definition of this "DISORDER". The genetic basis I don't doubt, because at one time in our evolution it was a selective adaptation that made us better at hunting, preventing accidents, and trying new things. Now, because our society resides in cubicles, desks, and institutions, it's a "DISORDER" that needs to be medicated. Just be good parents and give your child an environment where his or her differences can thrive. Find some open space and let them loose for several hours a day. Homeschool them with creative and intriguing lessons tailored just to them. Do whatever you can to allow their abilities become advantages rather than brand it a disorder and ruin their self-esteem by sending them to the nurse twice a day to be force-fed a pill they don’t need. Don't just give them a pill. That's lazy and detrimental to them in the long run. The over-prescription of these drugs is epidemic and I can't stand by and watch comments say : "Each year a parent doesn't take actions is a year lost for a child" to convince people to medicate children for what used to be a genetic advantage (and still is given the right environment). Each year a parent doesn't take actions to provide the right environment for their child's natural ability to thrive (rather than be told to have a disorder) is a year lost for that child.
- vidar 15y ago
  120mg as a kid, damn thats a lot. I took 90 mg as an adult and that was the absolute maximum allowed (in Iceland). It did me a lot of good but thankfully I am off them now and doing pretty well, meditation is a great substitute.
spydum 15y ago
ADHD is a real problem, but the rate at which it's diagnosed, and the rate that kids are just thrown Ritalin and other drugs is alarming. A child's brain is a very plastic environment that is still developing. The impact it can have on the brain is not as predictable as a developed adult. It would be foolish not to try more sensible approaches like diet/exercise/parenting FIRST, and if those have no impact, then consider alternatives. However, this is not how parents of today approach problems. They want the quick fix: give my child a pill/shot/instant gratification, so I can get back to my job. Also, this article is from Sept 2010.. not exactly news is it?
rauljara 15y ago
One thing to note about ADHD research: The bar for getting diagnosed with ADHD in a clinical trial is much higher than getting diagnosed with it by your family doctor. All of the symptoms involve a great deal of leeway and personal interpretation, and in a clinical trial, they are really, really strict about that stuff. A doctor, who has a financial incentive to prescribe ADHD medication is much more likely to bend the diagnosis towards positive. There is no shortage of writings by smart people arguing ADHD is over diagnosed. I am also of the opinion that it is. But I also think ADHD is a real disorder. I have no doubt that the findings of this study apply to people who really have ADHD. I also have very little doubt that this study doesn't apply to the vast majority of kids who have been diagnosed with it.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
mcantor 15y ago
I'm 26, and I was diagnosed with ADD last year, at the suggestion of my dad, who was not diagnosed until his 40's. It took me almost a year to start actively researching ADD, because I grew up in an upper-middle-class community where it was primarily over-diagnosed in unmotivated kids whose parents were convinced that brain dysfunction was the only thing that could possibly keep their children from being A students. To say the very least, I was skeptical. When I finally began learning about ADD, I was startled by how standard my story was. Reading Driven To Distraction was a watershed experience for me; at times I was convinced that they had simply copy-and-pasted my academic transcript: "Dreamer," "Has a creative mind that would produce incredible results if he applied himself once in a while," "Inconsistent. What happened to the A student sitting in my classroom last year?" In perspective, so much suddenly made sense; not just my experiences in high school, but beyond that as well. I failed only one class in my entire academic career, a programming course in my second year of college. How ironic and confusing that my only failure would be in the subject for which I had the most passion. Now it made sense. Only two or three years ago from today, I almost lost my job because my output was so inconsistent. I barely scraped by and recovered, but the experience shook me. Now, I understood. There are many forms of treatment, all of which I have experimented with. When it comes to medication, it took me a long time to settle on Adderall, which lets me focus like a normal person without any appreciable side-effects. The drug was a game-changer for me, like the first time I put on glasses. I think I'm glad that I wasn't medicated as a kid, if only because of a deep uncertainty about medicating something as malleable as a child's brain. Conversely, going 25 years without diagnosis has also drastically affected every part of my life. (I have no idea how my dad dealt with it for almost 50 years.) This was also something that I grew to understand as I learned more about ADD; undiagnosed, it can lead to perennial struggles with depression, self-esteem, poor impulse control and a host of others. I think the most important thing about ADD isn't necessarily medication or even "treatment" but simply awareness. "Laziness" is a symptom, not a root cause. If we can be mindful about the signs of ADD in childhood, we have already taken a huge step towards improving the quality of life for people with the disorder, and everyone they interact with. I'm sure there will be debates about how to treat it for many years to come, but simple awareness can only help.
- mattdeboard 15y ago
RandalMolek 15y ago
I think this article understates one point. ADHD is already known to be highly heritable, which already tells you genes are involved. http://i.imgur.com/G7jDX.png http://i.imgur.com/G7jDX.png Also, the first association between ADHD and polymorphisms affecting the dopamine transporter was found in 1995. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1801209/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1801209/
juiceandjuice 15y ago
I'm one of those people who wishes they were diagnosed as a kid. I've been diagnosed by two different psychiatrists with ADHD. I've been on Adderall (XR) at dosages up to 80mg, Strattera, Wellbutrin XL + 10mg Adderall (actually my favorite, but not so effective), and now I'm on Concerta (Ritalin) 27mg/54mg. The 27mg dose of Concerta is minimally effective without affecting my sleep, so sometimes I need to boost it. I hate stimulants though, and I wish I could get along fine without them but it's just not possible. Strattera worked good but the "sexual side effects" were too weird for me to continue on. Wellbutrin + Adderall worked okay (with the benefit of me generally being a bit happier) but my psychiatrist after moving didn't want me on two medicines that can raise your blood pressure. I ended up going to 6 different schools between 8th grade and graduating across 4 different cities. Despite that, I graduated high school with a 3.5 and started college as a Sophomore. My first semester in college I got a 1.8 and thrown in academic suspension. The next three years would be really rough. After that, I went to my family doctor and got adderall, and that helped out a lot at first, but it wasn't a miracle drug and I still had to really force myself to concentrate in weird ways to get through school, and that's really where the adderall helped. Towards the end, school got easier and I enjoyed it more, but I could also sit down and do homework. I've gone off meds completely for a few months at a time almost once a year, and I just can't do it. I wish I would have been diagnosed with it as a kid and had the behavioral therapy along with it instead of having to wing it for the past 6 years, but that's in the past. I also wish there was a non-stimulant that worked really well without side effects too, but for now, I'm happy with the Concerta.
antihero 15y ago
Interesting. Is there any way I can volunteer my DNA for them to have a play with? I was on Ritalin all through school.
lightblade 15y ago
First, I do not believe ADHD is an disorder. It's a certainly a condition, but it's not an disorder. And so I say this: ADHD is a genetic advantage and not a generic disorder.
sparrish 15y ago
Genetic? I highly doubt th... Squirrel!
bugsy 15y ago
> Children with ADHD have a significantly higher rate of missing or duplicated DNA segments compared to other children The problem with this study is they looked at kids who had been diagnosed and were on long term drug therapy. This is similar to studies that show that ADHD diagnosees on long term drug therapy have "brain damage", which matches the brain damage of long term stimulant users. The findings are not an indicator of ADHD, they are indicators of brain and genetic damage from long term drug use. Much more effective than Ritalin, and safer, for treating ADHD is the prescription drug Desoxyn. It's not used as much because of the stigma of taking methamphetamine hydrochloride. I mention this because everyone agrees that methamphetamine is not an innocuous drug to take long term, the same goes for Ritalin, they both have very similar effects on brain chemistry.
- JunkDNA 15y ago
  This is not at all similar. It would be highly surprising to me to find that long-term exposure to ritalin leads to deletions and copy number variations in someone's DNA. Furthermore, it is improbable that a drug causing DNA changes would cause the same changes across a population in a statistically significant way. Can you point me to any research that shows this to be the case?
jason23 15y ago
"ADHD" is not a medical condition. It is the level of activity deemed excessive by whichever "expert" is making the diagnosis. It was voted into existence by a show of hands.
jason23 15y ago
"ADHD" is not a medical condition. It is the level of activity deemed excessive by whichever "expert" is making the diagnosis. It was voted into existence by a show of hands.
jason23 15y ago
The term ADHD is meaningless. It is simply the level of activity deemed excessive by the "expert" making the diagnosis.
jason23 15y ago
The term ADHD is meaningless. It is simply the level of activity deemed excessive by the "expert" making the diagnosis.
JunkDNA 15y ago
This study is nearly a year old. Even at that, it is not an example of the first eidence that ADHD is a genetic disorder. There's at least one other study from 2009 (http://www.research.chop.edu/publications/press/?ID=475 http://www.research.chop.edu/publications/press/?ID=475) that had similar evidence.
randall 15y ago
For me, ADHD isn't a disorder as much as a collection of personality traits. I have a bunch of traits I constantly have to look out for to ensure I complete work, and I've built a system so that I can cope really effectively, w/o medicine. To argue that it's any other case is sorta weird.
- mcantor 15y ago
  I don't think "disorder" and "collection of personality traits" are mutually exclusive terms.
  - randall 15y ago
    I guess to be more specific: I don't think this should be treated as a medical condition. I'm in the Temple Grandin camp of neurodiversity. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurodiversity http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurodiversity
    - antimora 15y ago
      I agree with you. I don't think just because one's trait isn't optimal to the modern environment it should be as a mental disorder and try fixing by medication.
jason25 15y ago
This is a debate about a pseudoscientific norm set by a bunch of "experts" who evidently dislike children and have convinced millions of parents their children are sick because they fidget in class.

63 points by wmat 15y ago

This is welcome news. I recently got diagnosed and after taking the medication, I've found a great increase in the quality of life. There are a few who are very anti-drug when it comes to this condition and their children. Let me tell you from personal experience, these people are doing more harm to their children than good. Education is important. Depending on the severity, each year a parent doesn't take action is a year lost for their child.

Shenglong 15y ago
I think more, parents don't want to admit that their child has a problem. How do you know your child has ADHD, or if he/she is just being lazy, or not concentrating hard enough? A lot of Asian parents find the two synonymous.
- SoftwareMaven 15y ago
  I've seen the opposite more often: people who set no boundaries for their children have out-of-control kids. Instead of it being bad parenting, it must be ADHD. Quick, medicate him so I don't have to put up with him. At least in the pediatrics office my wife works in, they are trying to stop that. Btw, I don't mean to imply ADHD doesn't exist or is only a result of bad parenting. It does and it isn't.
jriddycuz 15y ago
I'm glad to hear this as well, and even more glad to hear it today. Despite being medicated, I still struggle to focus on activities which are not intrinsically interesting to me. Even though I want to focus, paying attention to work that is not intrinsically interesting to me requires extreme levels of self-control and leaves me feeling mentally and emotionally drained. And just yesterday, when I was unable to access my medication for 24 hours, I had what can really only be described as a nervous breakdown at work from trying to make myself focus. I don't want to use this as an excuse for not achieving, but having scientific evidence that this is a "real" thing--and not just a set of bad habits and lack of concer--helps reduce the stigma that only compounds my problems. I don't want to be held to a lower standard, but I do want to be afforded the grace given to people with other mental health issues.
- _delirium 15y ago
  I also have that problem, inability to concentrate on non-intrinsically-interesting mental activities combined with huge emotional/energy drain when I force myself to. I'm curious how normal it is for humans to be able to concentrate on non-intrinsically-interesting mental work, though. I can believe that there's a range of skill in it, but can't seem to find data on the range. From what I can tell in academia, very few people actually have the level of concentration considered "normal" or "expected" without either taking some variety of medication, or mustering exceptionally draining bouts of force-yourself-to-concentrate. There are a few exceptionally-good-at-concentrating people, but I suspect they're actually the abnormal cases, representing the top 10% of some bell curve. It'd be interesting to see data, anyway. For example, I'd be interested to know what the average +/- 1 or 2 stddevs is among the population on a test of ability to concentrate on non-intrinsically-interesting mental work (if that can somehow be measured). Similarly, for diagnosis myself, I'd be more interested in a percentile number than anything; rather than just saying that I suffer from poor concentration on non-intrinsically-interesting tasks, I'd like to know how poor my concentration is relative to the median. Does "poor" just mean that I can't match what the top 10% of the population does? Or does it mean I'm in the bottom 10%?
  - JimboOmega 15y ago
    The standard workplace expects you to concentrate on work for 8 hours a day. Barring the occasional firedrill (which provides enough stimulation) I struggle with it too. Does nobody else surf the internet when they should be working? Do people actually work for a solid 8 hours (not just be at work, but actually working?) I think the idea of it as a bell curve is a good one - ADHD is supposed to be the poor bottom end. But I do wonder what average really looks like.
Alex3917 15y ago
"Let me tell you from personal experience, these people are doing more harm to their children than good." The problem is that the science clearly says the opposite: "At the end of 14 months, core ADHD symptoms were reduced more in the children treated with stimulants than with behavioral therapy. However, at the end of three years, 'medication use was a significant marker not of beneficial outcome, but of deterioration. That is, participants using medication in the 24-to-36 month period actually showed increased symptomatology during that interval relative to those not taking medication.'" http://www.madinamerica.com/madinamerica.com/Children_files/3-year%20followup%20of%20the%20NIMH%20MTA%20Study.PDF http://www.madinamerica.com/madinamerica.com/Children_files/... "At the end of six years, medication use was 'associated with worse hyperactivity-impulsivity and oppositional defiant disorder symptoms,' and with greater 'overall functional impairment.'" http://www.madinamerica.com/madinamerica.com/Children_files/Mta%20at%208%20years.PDF http://www.madinamerica.com/madinamerica.com/Children_files/... "Within 21 months, 11 percent of children treated with a stimulant for ADHD developed 'psychotic symptoms.'" http://www.madinamerica.com/madinamerica.com/Children_files/Psychotic%20side%20effects%20of%20stimulants.pdf http://www.madinamerica.com/madinamerica.com/Children_files/... "Two-thirds of the adolescent patients hospitalized for mania at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center had been on stimulants 'prior to the onset of an affective episode.' Stimulants, the researchers concluded, may 'precipitate depression and/or mania in children who would not have otherwise developed bipolar disorder.'" http://www.madinamerica.com/madinamerica.com/Children_files/Prior%20stimulant%20treatment%20in%20adolescents%20with%20bipolar%20disorder_%20association%20with%20age%20at%20onset.pdf http://www.madinamerica.com/madinamerica.com/Children_files/... via http://www.madinamerica.com/madinamerica.com/Children.html http://www.madinamerica.com/madinamerica.com/Children.html
- tomlin 15y ago
  If we're getting into a debate of whether medications can have other effects than intended, I cannot argue that. ADHD and ADD should be treated in completely different ways. People diagnosed with ADHD have a much higher chance of psychotic symptoms than those who are only of the inattentive type. Then there is the old saying, "if you've seen one child with ADHD, you've seen one child with ADHD." In my experience, and for many others, it has provided a world untold, halted depression, increased motivation and enjoyment in life. Stimulants aren't perfect, but we're throwing the baby out with the bath water when we ignore their usefulness.

rdtsc 15y ago

Another popular (anecdotal) explanation why this disorder is more prevalent in America is that somehow the same genetic trait that motivated inviduals to pack up and move to another continent, when amplified (after hundreds of years) is somehow responsible for hyperactivity. Basically "the settlers were a restless folk" they all come to America and breed with each other, after hundreds of years you end up with a good number of people who are "too restless to function". Anway that is one popular theory, not sure if I personally endorse it but it would seem to be somewhat supported by this find. Of course the counter-point could be that doctors + parents + pharma companies are just more eager to diagnose it in America, and I can see that happening too somewhow.

felipemnoa 15y ago
Nahhh. I think it has more to do with people being dead poor in their own countries and is why they immigrated to America (Occam's Razor), better opportunities. It is still the reason why people come to America today. Also, too many people want to use disorders as an excuse for their lack of success. "See, is not me, I'm actually pretty smart, is this damn disorder that is holding me back. Not my fault."
- HeyLaughingBoy 15y ago
  The overwhelming majority of "dead poor" people still wouldn't leave their home country. Most people have very, very strong ties to friends, family and familiarity and have great difficulty with the concept of uprooting thier life, no matter how bad, in such a manner.
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]

Rexatron 15y ago

As a child of 8 years old, I was given 120MG of Ritalin per day. I rarely slept the first 2 years. If I did it was around 6am for an hour or so. Then I had to take my morning dose for school. They also wanted me to take a pill to sleep, which felt so horrible I cannot even explain it. I was a zombie in the morning if I took it, then onto the morning ritalin dose. I would just do pushups in my room until 3am some nights just to get the energy out. Yes, I did well in school while I was on it. Yes, I stayed out of trouble when I was on it. But I was not myself. I felt as if I were on drugs. I did not learn "how to learn" or "how to get things done" without being on drugs. When I finally kicked the habit in college, I was a mess. I couldn't do anything that took more than 30 seconds of concentration. I had to learn how to live life without drugs. For a condition I may or may not have had. It took me to more years to finish my last semester of college because I could not function. Years later I’ve relearned what I should have learned as a child – how to discipline myself and get things done. The DSM IV/V has a very loose definition of this "DISORDER". The genetic basis I don't doubt, because at one time in our evolution it was a selective adaptation that made us better at hunting, preventing accidents, and trying new things. Now, because our society resides in cubicles, desks, and institutions, it's a "DISORDER" that needs to be medicated. Just be good parents and give your child an environment where his or her differences can thrive. Find some open space and let them loose for several hours a day. Homeschool them with creative and intriguing lessons tailored just to them. Do whatever you can to allow their abilities become advantages rather than brand it a disorder and ruin their self-esteem by sending them to the nurse twice a day to be force-fed a pill they don’t need. Don't just give them a pill. That's lazy and detrimental to them in the long run. The over-prescription of these drugs is epidemic and I can't stand by and watch comments say : "Each year a parent doesn't take actions is a year lost for a child" to convince people to medicate children for what used to be a genetic advantage (and still is given the right environment). Each year a parent doesn't take actions to provide the right environment for their child's natural ability to thrive (rather than be told to have a disorder) is a year lost for that child.

vidar 15y ago
120mg as a kid, damn thats a lot. I took 90 mg as an adult and that was the absolute maximum allowed (in Iceland). It did me a lot of good but thankfully I am off them now and doing pretty well, meditation is a great substitute.

spydum 15y ago

ADHD is a real problem, but the rate at which it's diagnosed, and the rate that kids are just thrown Ritalin and other drugs is alarming. A child's brain is a very plastic environment that is still developing. The impact it can have on the brain is not as predictable as a developed adult. It would be foolish not to try more sensible approaches like diet/exercise/parenting FIRST, and if those have no impact, then consider alternatives. However, this is not how parents of today approach problems. They want the quick fix: give my child a pill/shot/instant gratification, so I can get back to my job. Also, this article is from Sept 2010.. not exactly news is it?

rauljara 15y ago

One thing to note about ADHD research: The bar for getting diagnosed with ADHD in a clinical trial is much higher than getting diagnosed with it by your family doctor. All of the symptoms involve a great deal of leeway and personal interpretation, and in a clinical trial, they are really, really strict about that stuff. A doctor, who has a financial incentive to prescribe ADHD medication is much more likely to bend the diagnosis towards positive. There is no shortage of writings by smart people arguing ADHD is over diagnosed. I am also of the opinion that it is. But I also think ADHD is a real disorder. I have no doubt that the findings of this study apply to people who really have ADHD. I also have very little doubt that this study doesn't apply to the vast majority of kids who have been diagnosed with it.

deleted 15y ago
[deleted]

mcantor 15y ago

I'm 26, and I was diagnosed with ADD last year, at the suggestion of my dad, who was not diagnosed until his 40's. It took me almost a year to start actively researching ADD, because I grew up in an upper-middle-class community where it was primarily over-diagnosed in unmotivated kids whose parents were convinced that brain dysfunction was the only thing that could possibly keep their children from being A students. To say the very least, I was skeptical. When I finally began learning about ADD, I was startled by how standard my story was. Reading Driven To Distraction was a watershed experience for me; at times I was convinced that they had simply copy-and-pasted my academic transcript: "Dreamer," "Has a creative mind that would produce incredible results if he applied himself once in a while," "Inconsistent. What happened to the A student sitting in my classroom last year?" In perspective, so much suddenly made sense; not just my experiences in high school, but beyond that as well. I failed only one class in my entire academic career, a programming course in my second year of college. How ironic and confusing that my only failure would be in the subject for which I had the most passion. Now it made sense. Only two or three years ago from today, I almost lost my job because my output was so inconsistent. I barely scraped by and recovered, but the experience shook me. Now, I understood. There are many forms of treatment, all of which I have experimented with. When it comes to medication, it took me a long time to settle on Adderall, which lets me focus like a normal person without any appreciable side-effects. The drug was a game-changer for me, like the first time I put on glasses. I think I'm glad that I wasn't medicated as a kid, if only because of a deep uncertainty about medicating something as malleable as a child's brain. Conversely, going 25 years without diagnosis has also drastically affected every part of my life. (I have no idea how my dad dealt with it for almost 50 years.) This was also something that I grew to understand as I learned more about ADD; undiagnosed, it can lead to perennial struggles with depression, self-esteem, poor impulse control and a host of others. I think the most important thing about ADD isn't necessarily medication or even "treatment" but simply awareness. "Laziness" is a symptom, not a root cause. If we can be mindful about the signs of ADD in childhood, we have already taken a huge step towards improving the quality of life for people with the disorder, and everyone they interact with. I'm sure there will be debates about how to treat it for many years to come, but simple awareness can only help.

mattdeboard 15y ago

RandalMolek 15y ago

I think this article understates one point. ADHD is already known to be highly heritable, which already tells you genes are involved. http://i.imgur.com/G7jDX.png http://i.imgur.com/G7jDX.png Also, the first association between ADHD and polymorphisms affecting the dopamine transporter was found in 1995. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1801209/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1801209/

juiceandjuice 15y ago

I'm one of those people who wishes they were diagnosed as a kid. I've been diagnosed by two different psychiatrists with ADHD. I've been on Adderall (XR) at dosages up to 80mg, Strattera, Wellbutrin XL + 10mg Adderall (actually my favorite, but not so effective), and now I'm on Concerta (Ritalin) 27mg/54mg. The 27mg dose of Concerta is minimally effective without affecting my sleep, so sometimes I need to boost it. I hate stimulants though, and I wish I could get along fine without them but it's just not possible. Strattera worked good but the "sexual side effects" were too weird for me to continue on. Wellbutrin + Adderall worked okay (with the benefit of me generally being a bit happier) but my psychiatrist after moving didn't want me on two medicines that can raise your blood pressure. I ended up going to 6 different schools between 8th grade and graduating across 4 different cities. Despite that, I graduated high school with a 3.5 and started college as a Sophomore. My first semester in college I got a 1.8 and thrown in academic suspension. The next three years would be really rough. After that, I went to my family doctor and got adderall, and that helped out a lot at first, but it wasn't a miracle drug and I still had to really force myself to concentrate in weird ways to get through school, and that's really where the adderall helped. Towards the end, school got easier and I enjoyed it more, but I could also sit down and do homework. I've gone off meds completely for a few months at a time almost once a year, and I just can't do it. I wish I would have been diagnosed with it as a kid and had the behavioral therapy along with it instead of having to wing it for the past 6 years, but that's in the past. I also wish there was a non-stimulant that worked really well without side effects too, but for now, I'm happy with the Concerta.

antihero 15y ago

Interesting. Is there any way I can volunteer my DNA for them to have a play with? I was on Ritalin all through school.

lightblade 15y ago

First, I do not believe ADHD is an disorder. It's a certainly a condition, but it's not an disorder. And so I say this: ADHD is a genetic advantage and not a generic disorder.

sparrish 15y ago

Genetic? I highly doubt th... Squirrel!

bugsy 15y ago

> Children with ADHD have a significantly higher rate of missing or duplicated DNA segments compared to other children The problem with this study is they looked at kids who had been diagnosed and were on long term drug therapy. This is similar to studies that show that ADHD diagnosees on long term drug therapy have "brain damage", which matches the brain damage of long term stimulant users. The findings are not an indicator of ADHD, they are indicators of brain and genetic damage from long term drug use. Much more effective than Ritalin, and safer, for treating ADHD is the prescription drug Desoxyn. It's not used as much because of the stigma of taking methamphetamine hydrochloride. I mention this because everyone agrees that methamphetamine is not an innocuous drug to take long term, the same goes for Ritalin, they both have very similar effects on brain chemistry.

JunkDNA 15y ago
This is not at all similar. It would be highly surprising to me to find that long-term exposure to ritalin leads to deletions and copy number variations in someone's DNA. Furthermore, it is improbable that a drug causing DNA changes would cause the same changes across a population in a statistically significant way. Can you point me to any research that shows this to be the case?

jason23 15y ago

"ADHD" is not a medical condition. It is the level of activity deemed excessive by whichever "expert" is making the diagnosis. It was voted into existence by a show of hands.

jason23 15y ago

"ADHD" is not a medical condition. It is the level of activity deemed excessive by whichever "expert" is making the diagnosis. It was voted into existence by a show of hands.

jason23 15y ago

The term ADHD is meaningless. It is simply the level of activity deemed excessive by the "expert" making the diagnosis.

jason23 15y ago

The term ADHD is meaningless. It is simply the level of activity deemed excessive by the "expert" making the diagnosis.

JunkDNA 15y ago

This study is nearly a year old. Even at that, it is not an example of the first eidence that ADHD is a genetic disorder. There's at least one other study from 2009 (http://www.research.chop.edu/publications/press/?ID=475 http://www.research.chop.edu/publications/press/?ID=475) that had similar evidence.

randall 15y ago

For me, ADHD isn't a disorder as much as a collection of personality traits. I have a bunch of traits I constantly have to look out for to ensure I complete work, and I've built a system so that I can cope really effectively, w/o medicine. To argue that it's any other case is sorta weird.

mcantor 15y ago
I don't think "disorder" and "collection of personality traits" are mutually exclusive terms.
- randall 15y ago
  I guess to be more specific: I don't think this should be treated as a medical condition. I'm in the Temple Grandin camp of neurodiversity. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurodiversity http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurodiversity
  - antimora 15y ago
    I agree with you. I don't think just because one's trait isn't optimal to the modern environment it should be as a mental disorder and try fixing by medication.

jason25 15y ago

This is a debate about a pseudoscientific norm set by a bunch of "experts" who evidently dislike children and have convinced millions of parents their children are sick because they fidget in class.