Maybe I am just a bit cynical here but it seems to me the raise in ADHD cases has been directly proportional to the number of professionals dealing with the problem. If say a school district has a program for ADHD kids and that program�s budget is determined by the number of kids that are enrolled in it then the administrators of it are likely to find ADHD kids running all over the place.
What about 50 or 60 years ago when 4 out of 5 doctors smoked Camels and lead base paint was the norm, should there not have been a pandemic of ADHD cases back then?
I am not saying there isn�t a problem but just I wonder how big it really is.
[When your only tool is a hammer, all problems look like a nail.]
I was a Psychiatric Social Worker, before becoming disabled, and IME, the problem is actually much larger than we think, not smaller. I do think far too many kids with discipline problems are being lumped in with ADHD kids by mistake, but I also think there is a large undiagnosed populaton of adults out there.
I have yet to see a kid diagnosed with ADHD or ADD who does not have at least one undiagnosed, untreated parent. Why these kid's doctors don't insist on evaluating the parents is beyond me. When this occurs, all the drugs and special tutoring, etc. in the world don't really seem to help much, since the chaos, procrastination, lateness, high debt living, impulsivity, lack of follow through, etc. are being modeled and imprinted on the child daily by his/her parents, and this over rules the countermeasures that are taken.
The illness is obvious to me in many adults I know. When you know what you are looking for, it's quite distinctive and explains some of those otherwise nice people whose behavior may infuriate you. I know many people say it does not exist, but I disagree. The current idiocy of not allowing teachers to adequately discipline kids in school definitely makes it harder to teach these kids, or any kids, for that matter, but is not the underlying base cause of the problem, IMO.
I had not read of the causes you mention in any of my Psych journals, so thanks for posting this.
I do know that a woman who has untreated anemia during pregnancy has a 30% chance of having a baby with an attention deficit problem. I also see a lot of atrocious eating habits in these kids, but their parents often have it too, as I've said, and the home life is so chaotic as a result, that fast foods are often overly relied upon. I've heard it suggested more than once by alternative practitioners that fast foods cause ADHD, but I think it's the other way around.
IMO, the most likely culprit is some kind of brain damage resulting from the highly abnormal Omega 6 to Omega 3 ratio in our modern diets. There is probably a genetic susceptibility to this effect as well, since I have noted a lot of dyslexia, which is definitely genetic, in the same families as the ADD/ADHD. The gender differences seem to be genetic as well, with more boys having the problem, and having ADHD, and girls having ADD and it's various subtypes.
The drug treatment for this is a disaster, IMO. The kids I've seen who are on it are like zombies from a bad B movie who have had their personalities removed. I don't know what the answer is, and admit I have not devoted much time to it. I do find it strange that almost every home I know of with kids in it has at least one child with some kind of permanent, life-limiting disability like this. Yet, nobody seems to talk about the HUGE growth of this problem. The parents I know are acting like this is normal and are in complete denial of the fact that they may need to support these kids for the rest of their lives. When the parents are gone, then what?
I've only read up on it at all because our neice has ADD and dyslexia, our nephew has severe ADHD, and we have two friends with kids who have ADD. Of these four kids, all of whom are at least 17 years old, only one seems to be pulling himself out of it enough to have any kind of a normal adult life. Two of the four will probably never be able to hold down a job for long. I'd say this is going to be a really big problem for our society in the future.
Mad Scientest,
50 years ago, in the early to mid 50's my mother's doctor smoked cigars at his desk while talking to his patients. He's probably the same doctor who, about that same time, convinced my mother to start smoking because he thought it would be good for her severe and chronic sinus trouble. I was raised in a big two story house with white chipping paint on all the window frames, that chipped easily due to the damp rainy weather in S.W. Washington state. I'm sure I and my 5 sisters and brothers were exposed to lots of lead paint.
I think what changed at that time was the popularity of processed foods and all the preservatives that the government required before they could be shipped from one state to another. Drinking water quality was poluted with flouride, chlorine and ran through leaded pipes.
Roxie,
I mentioned that my two grandsons have ADHD. My two daughters, who each have one of the two boys, both have problems with depression and take anti-depressants. I tend to over-look that in conversation because they manage their condition pretty well, but I'm sure they suffer emotionally at times. I was never told to stop smoking when I carried them, and also went out to dinner with friends a couple of times and had a few drinks with alcohol. I might add that my favorite drink was beer, and I only drank on special occasions, which wasn't often. So maybe the theory that those chemicals are factors in the developement of ADHD or ADD is true, but....maybe not. They really don't know for sure.
The older grandson is now 17 years old. He dropped out of school this year and it really was too much for him. He worked for a few days getting a church member's home ready for painting, and he was excited when he brought home his first pay check. He's looking for work now, but will be limited in what he can do mentally, but is big and strong physically. My youngest grandson will be 8 years old next month. At 2 years old I didn't think he could ever lead a normal life, but when he started school and was put on medication he improved tremendously!! We found that a good share of his problems was that his hearing was very bad from constant ear infections as a baby, and the ears didn't drain. He got hearing aids in both ears about four years ago and he's a different child, but still needs a lot of love and understanding. His 10 year old sister has a different father and she's smart as a whip and excells in every sport she plays in at school. My older grandson has a sister and brother that's normal.
I think there are a lot of children who are being drugged just to keep them quiet in school. I think the pharmaceutical companies probably set the guide-lines for the symptoms the teachers should look for, and I wouldn't be at all surprised that they might get perks for themselves or the schools......most everybody else does that encourages the sale and use of drugs.
My own point of view is that ADHD is just a name for a condition which "they" would want to treat with drugs, when it shouldn't.
Attention Deficit (AD)? Isn't that something we train and discipline ourselves and our kids out of? Regular play of touch ball or tag, or even tinker-toy or Lego assembly might serve as treatment. Or how about memorization of the multiplication table? Or chess? Or checkers? Or learning to play a musical instrument? Staring at a blinking monitor most of their waking hours is definitely affecting our kids' brains and bodies.
Hyperactivity disorder (HD)? Isn't that a manifestation of lack of physical acitivity? probably brought about by electronic age entertainment replacing good old physical fun? Hunting dogs (like Labradors) "suffer" hyperactivity disorder in apartment living because they were bred to be active hunters. Solution? Simply let them have their needed physical activity. I strongly suspect that those "diagnosed" with hyperactivity actually have no other physical activity otherwise. I doubt we would find this in kids (or ourselves) who get a good hour or so of physical play during recess and after school hours. And who later come home to physically challenging house chores. But no, our lawyers are so much on the lookout that play is now virtually banned in schools. And work at home hardly exists with all the automation around. Even PE class is hardly physical.
For sure there are bad effects of toxins like lead, smoke, other heavy metals, chemicals, etc. But ADHD? I think it's another one of those invented diseases. Proof? Look at what treatment is being pushed, if not outrightly forced.
I agree that many are misdiagnosed for the convenience of the parents, teachers and mostly the people pushing the drugs. But the condition does exist, call it what you may. Both of my grandsons developed their medical problems when they were babies. They didn't have all the conveniences or computers at home until they were in their teens. My older grandson has been off medication for about a year and only used it on school days before because it helped him learn a lot, but couldn't afford to take it every day. He still very definately has issues and he and I clash because he has a very short fuse and gets very riled up over small things, even when I'm teasing. I'm learning to back off, and believe you me....that's not my nature. Do I agree with kids taking drugs? No! I have been trying to find natural things to help them, and zink did help my younger grandson a lot. But my daughter prefers the drug adderal, or however you spell it. She used the zink when she ran out of drugs. I was also buying him multivitamins for a while, but I don't live close now.
I don't mean to be argumentive, I just know that in my grandchildren, they do have an attention problems. Poor little guys got plenty of (Too much) training and punishment when they were little but they would go right back and do whatever it was they were punished for again without batting an eye. I growled at my older grandson not long ago because he left tools laying where ever he used them last, and he said "Grandma, I have a real problem with that and I've been trying really hard to do better!".....so now I remind him without growling.
I just read an interesting book, Right-Brained Children in a Left-Brained World by Jeffrey Freed and Laurie Parsons. It presented an interesting idea, that some children diagnosed ADD or ADHD may be right-brained and that our education system is a left-brained system, focusing on order, neatness and lists, auditory teaching style, memorization and drills, a difficult system for right-brained children. It says many more children today are right-brained, partially due to genetics and partially due to environment--our visual world with tv, video games and computers, and so their brains learn visually. The book has suggestions for how to help these right-brained children learn so that they can do better in school. It has a test in the beginning to see if your child or your teenager or an adult is right-brained.
Here's another test you can use to determine if your child is right-brained:
Study: 1 in 3 cases of ADHD linked to lead or smoke
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