Editor's Blog
Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, ADHD, is one of the most common neuropsychiatric disorders of childhood. Worldwide, 3% of children are affected with the disorder. Key symptoms of ADHD include age-inappropriate hyperactive and impulsive behaviour and/or a reduced ability to focus attention. Clinically, three different ADHD subtypes are classified, a primarily inattentive subtype, a primarily hyperactive/impulsive subtype, and a combined subtype in which patients show deficits in both domains. At the level of the brain, small aberrations in both structure and activity of specific brain regions, as well as the connectivity between brain regions have been observed in children and adults with ADHD (Valera et al., 2007; Schneider et al., 2006; Makris et al., 2008; Pavuluri et al., 2009; Broyd et al., 2009).
Although ADHD has classically been viewed as a disorder of children, more than half of the patients carry symptoms, or even the full ADHD-diagnosis, into adulthood (Faraone et al., 2006). The prevalence of ADHD in adults lies between 1% and 4% (Kessler et al., 2006; Polanczyk et al., 2007; Kooij et al., 2005). Adult patients have difficulties in the social, educational and professional fields, such as developing or maintaining stable social relationships, completing educational programmes and holding down jobs. Untreated adults with ADHD often have chaotic life-styles: They may feel that it is impossible to get organised, or remember and keep appointments. Unfortunately, many adults who have the disorder are not aware of this. As symptoms in adults tend to be more varied than symptoms seen in children, health care professionals need to consider a wider range of symptoms when assessing adults for ADHD.
An expert calls "ADHD […] one of the costliest medical conditions in the US", the average loss of income for ADHD adults being $10,000 to $40,000 a year (see also Kessler et al., 2005; Kessler et al., 2006). In addition, patients are at increased risk of comorbidity, including aggression-related disorders and addiction. More than 60% of the adult patients have at least one additional psychiatric diagnosis. Substance abuse disorders are seen in 10% of the patients.
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5 Comments
I wonder if we’d call fear of falling a disorder? For primates living in trees it wouldn’t be. Same with a condition that placed primary importance on being alert (distracted) by potentially significant activity outside of the cubicle in which we’re being taught our ABCs and how to line up the peas on our dinner plates. For most of human existence our survival depended on our being constantly alert to what was happening on the periphery of our senses. Imagine if classes were only taught out while tending our sheep. Which student would be considered dysfunctional; the one on guard or the one who’s sheep are being eaten without their even noticing it?
The American Medical Industrial Complex will tell you anything for a buck.
The fact that you people have been convinced that there is a mental “disorder” called ADHD is a testament to just how stupid and out of touch modern Americans have become.
What’s that? You find it hard to sit motionless for hours on end in some drab lifeless building while the current education system sucks the creativity and very life from you?
Yeah, something must be wrong with you.
But don’t worry, we have a (very addictive) pill for that.
It’s just a coincidence that we’re making billions of dollars with those pills, really, I swear.
(and the guys in our 100 million dollar marketing and advertising department totally agree with me)
Until we take the profit out of health care, there will be more and more of these horrible tragedies. Giving children amphetamine salts has got to be one the most f@#ked things you could possibly do to them.
lol. You obviously don’t have or have ever lived with someone suffering from severe ADHD. While I will agree that big pharma has taken advantage of this disorder for profit, it does exist. Just google for PET scans and such clearly showing differences in attention centers and reward pathways.
I think you are right!
Look a part from i study that i recently found on the web:
Meta-analysis of genetic data in IMpACT has, so far, focused mainly on established ADHD genes from studies in children. The gene encoding the dopamine transporter (DAT1), a regulator of signalling through the neurotransmitter dopamine in the brain, has been studied multiple times. Though results have been inconsistent for single genetic variants, a combination of genetic variations at two positions of the gene seems to increase ADHD risk in children. However, in a recent study of 1440 patients and 1769 controls in IMpACT a different combination of variants at the same two positions was found to increase the risk for the persistent, adult form of ADHD. This shows that age is an important factor to be taken into account in genetic association studies in ADHD, and might explain some of the discrepancies between the results of earlier studies (Cormand, Franke et al., presented at the ECNP Congress 2009).
For the most part, I’m with Tom. I wonder how many genetically natural “scouts”, nomads and foragers are being medicated so they don’t freak out in their tan cubicles. Progress?
I always picture Hemingway with his work area designed so he could type standing up — presumably an arrangement that allowed him to dissipate more kinetic energy and, paradoxically, concentrate better.