Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Adhd

Pesticide exposure may raise ADHD risk in kids

May 18, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Washington, May 18 (ANI): Exposure to organophosphate pesticides is associated with increased risk of Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in children, says a team of scientists from the University of Montreal and Harvard University.

The boffins published their findings in Pediatrics.

The investigation found a connection between exposure pesticides and the presence of symptoms of ADHD.

The study focused on 1,139 children from the general U.S. population and measured pesticide levels in their urine. The authors conclude that exposure to organophosphate pesticides, at levels common among U.S. children, may contribute to a diagnosis of ADHD.

“Previous studies have shown that exposure to some organophosphate compounds cause hyperactivity and cognitive deficits in animals,” says lead author Maryse F. Bouchard of the University of Montreal Department of Environmental and Occupational Health and the Sainte-Justine Hospital Research Center. “Our study found that exposure to organophosphates in developing children might have effects on neural systems and could contribute to ADHD behaviors, such as inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity.” (ANI)

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Prenatal smoking exposure may lead to psychiatric problems

May 4, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Washington, May 4 (ANI): Prenatal smoking can lead to psychiatric problems in children and increase the need for psychotropic medications in childhood and young adulthood, claims a new study.

In the study, Finnish researchers found that adolescents who had been exposed to prenatal smoking were at increased risk for use of all psychiatric drugs especially those uses to treat depression, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and addiction compared to non-exposed youths.

The study has been presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

“Recent studies show that maternal smoking during pregnancy may interfere with brain development of the growing fetus,” said Mikael Ekblad, lead author of the study and a pediatric researcher at Turku University Hospital in Finland. “By avoiding smoking during pregnancy, all the later psychiatric problems caused by smoking exposure could be prevented.”

Ekblad and his colleagues collected information from the Finnish Medical Birth Register on maternal smoking, gestational age, birthweight and 5-minute Apgar scores for all children born in Finland from 1987 through 1989. They also analyzed records on mothers” psychiatric inpatient care from 1969-1989 and children”s use of psychiatric drugs.

Results showed that 12.3 percent of the young adults had used psychiatric drugs, and of these, 19.2 percent had been exposed to prenatal smoking.

The rate of psychotropic medication use was highest in young adults whose mothers smoked more than 10 cigarettes a day while pregnant (16.9 percent), followed by youths whose mothers smoked fewer than 10 cigarettes a day (14.7 percent) and unexposed youths (11.7 percent).

The risk for medication use was similar in males and females, and remained after adjusting for risk factors at birth, such as Apgar scores and birthweight, and the mother”s previous inpatient care for mental disorders.

Smoking exposure increased the risk for use of all psychotropic drugs, especially stimulants used to treat ADHD (unexposed: 0.2 percent; less than 10 cigarettes/day: 0.4 percent; and more than 10 cigarettes/day: 0.6 percent) and drugs for addiction. An increased risk for use of drugs to treat depression also was seen (unexposed: 6 percent; less than 10 cigarettes/day: 8.6 percent; and more than 10 cigarettes/day: 10.3 percent). (ANI)

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Deficits in brain’s reward system may explain clinical symptoms of ADHD

September 10, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Sept 9 (ANI): A new study has revealed that patients suffering from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have low levels of a certain chemical essential for experiencing reward and motivation.

“These deficits in the brain’s reward system may help explain clinical symptoms of ADHD, including inattention and reduced motivation, as well as the propensity for complications such as drug abuse and obesity among ADHD patients,” said lead author Nora Volkow, Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse and a long-time collaborator on neuroimaging research at Brookhaven Lab.

“Finding ways to address the underlying reward-system deficit could improve the direct clinical outcome of ADHD, and potentially reduce the likelihood of other negative consequences of this condition,” said study co-author Gene-Jack Wang, chair of Brookhaven’s medical department.

During the study, the researchers recruited 53 adult ADHD patients who had never received treatment and 44 healthy control subjects – all of whom had been carefully screened to eliminate potentially confounding variables.

The scientists used positron emission tomography (PET) to measure two markers of the dopamine system – dopamine receptors, to which the chemical messenger binds to propagate the “reward” signal, and dopamine transporters, which take up and recycle excess dopamine after the signal is sent.

The results showed that the ADHD patients had lower levels of dopamine receptors and transporters in the accumbens and midbrain,

These two key regions of the brain directly involved in processing motivation and reward.

In addition, the measurements of dopamine markers correlated with measures of behaviour and clinical observations of ADHD symptoms, such as reduced levels of attention as measured by standard psychological tests.

“Our findings imply that these deficits in the dopamine reward pathway play a role in the symptoms of inattention in ADHD and could underlie these patients’ abnormal responses to reward,” said Volkow.

“This pathway plays a key role in reinforcement, motivation, and in learning how to associate various stimuli with rewards.

“Its involvement in ADHD supports the use of interventions to enhance the appeal and relevance of school and work tasks to improve performance,” Volkow added.

The study appears in Journal of the American Medical Association. (ANI)

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Hyperactive children benefit from climbing

May 25, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Stuttgart, Germany – Climbing can be a form of therapy for hyperactive children, according to a German professional journal.

Climbing takes the need for movement in hyperactive children and channels it into controlled and planned movements, report the authors of an academic paper in the professional journal Ergopraxis.

Thus, therapeutic climbing doesn’t just help children physically, but also provides mental and emotional development in those suffering from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

The study shows that climbing helps foster concentration, grasp of detail and trust in others.

To boost the positive effects, climbing can also be linked to other activities, write the authors. For examples, cards with numbers can be placed in the climbing wall’s handholds and the child can be asked to add them up.

An additional benefit is that children immediately enjoy success, helping them to improve their self worth, a major plus for ADHD children, who often suffer a variety of setbacks and criticisms on any given day. (dpa)

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Understanding schizophrenia’s impact on cognition may help early diagnosis

May 14, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, May 14 (ANI): Doctors may accurately diagnose schizophrenia while in its earliest phase if they know about the significant and widespread cognitive problems from which its patients often suffer, say scientists.

Publishing a new study conducted by researchers at Harvard Medical School and SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, New York, the American Psychological Association has revealed that the cognitive problems linked with early-stage schizophrenia make it very hard for people with the disorder to work, study or be social.

The researchers say that understanding the early and central role of cognitive problems may help clinicians to more accurately diagnose incipient schizophrenia by telling it apart from other neuropsychiatric disorders that also have cognitive problems, such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

According to them, it may also allow doctors to provide more appropriate treatment.

They say that combining schizophrenia’s cognitive warning signs with family history and signs of worsening daily functioning may also aid early diagnosis, which may in turn make it possible to ease or even prevent these problems.

The researchers examined 47 previously published, peer-reviewed studies of first-episode schizophrenia that involved 43 separate samples comprising 2,204 patients and 2,775 largely age- and gender-matched control participants.

The psychologists sorted the studies’ collective findings into10 areas of neurocognition-including general cognitive ability, attention, memory, and various verbal, motor and visuospatial skills.

They observed that in the very first episode of schizophrenia, cognitive problems were already broad and serious. Early impairment approached or matched the severity of problems seen in patients who had been sick for a while.

The researchers also found that people experiencing their first episode of schizophrenia had significantly worse performance on all cognitive measures than healthy controls who were largely matched for gender and age.

They further revealed that patients struggled the most with processing speed and with verbal learning and memory, especially when encoding information. Although many psychiatric and eurological illnesses, such as bipolar disorder, affect processing speed, schizophrenia seems to disrupt it more profoundly.

The study also showed that measured IQ and other cognitive abilities dropped the most between the high-risk period just before symptoms appear and the first acute phases. After that, these cognitive abilities were stable. This cognitive pattern, when combined with other signs such as clinical symptoms and family history, could suggest a diagnosis of schizophrenia.

The first episode of schizophrenia, which is typically in the late teens or early 20s, brings “a sense of tremendous terror, trauma and shock, along with prominent cognitive disorganization, increasingly compelling unusual and/or paranoid thoughts, altered perceptions, and loss of insight,” say lead co-authors Dr. Raquelle Mesholam-Gately and Dr. Anthony Giuliano.

The authors say that cognitive testing could also be useful for older children who have a family history of schizophrenia and emerging clinical symptoms.

Doctors viewing cognitive impairments in a vacuum might think of something like ADHD, but the researchers said the new findings play up the importance of family history and better characterization of clinical or behavioural symptoms, especially around the age of peak risk.

The study has been published in the journal Neuropsychology. (ANI)

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Hypertensive kids more prone to learning, attention problems

May 5, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, May 5 (ANI): Kids with high blood pressure are at a greater risk of developing learning disabilities and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) than other children, according to a study.

Conducted by researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center, the study also revealed that hypertensive kids were also more likely to have a higher body mass index (BMI), an indicator of body fat.

The researchers also showed that children with hypertension were four times as likely to have a learning disability and/or ADHD.

“Clinicians should be aware that these conditions commonly occur together. More studies investigating the potential association between hypertension and neurocognitive deficits are definitely needed,” said Dr. Marc Lande, a pediatric nephrologist at the University of Rochester Medical Center.

During the study, the researchers observed that children with high blood pressure were not as good at complicated, goal-directed tasks as their peers without hypertension; had more working memory problems; and were less adept at planning.

If the kids were hypertensive as well as obese, they were also more likely to have anxiety and depression.

The researchers followed 201 children 10 to 18 years old who were referred to specialists for high blood pressure. Of those, 100 were diagnosed with hypertension while 101 were determined to either not have hypertension or to have white coat high blood pressure (or normal blood pressure that shoots up when nervous in an exam room).

It was found that almost 28 percent of children with hypertension had a learning disability, and 20 percent had ADHD. Some of those children had both a learning disability and ADHD.

Thus, the researchers deduced that, in total, 40 percent of children with hypertension had a learning disability and/or ADHD.

“This apparent association between hypertension and learning problems is particularly important in light of the recent increase in hypertension in children in this country that has occurred as a result of the dramatic rise in obesity,” pointed out Lande.

The study was presented in abstract form at the Paediatric Academic Society meeting in Baltimore. (ANI)

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Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder linked to sleep problems in teens

May 3, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, May 1 (ANI): Adolescents with a childhood diagnosis of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) are more likely to have current and lifetime sleep problems and disorders, regardless of the severity of current ADHD symptoms, says a new study.

In the study, which has been published in the May 1 issue of the journal SLEEP, authors suggest that mental health professionals should screen for sleep problems and psychiatric comorbidities among all adolescents with a childhood diagnosis of ADHD.

Results indicate that adolescents with a childhood diagnosis of ADHD, regardless of persistent ADHD were more likely to have current sleep problems and sleep disorders such as insomnia, sleep terrors, nightmares, bruxism and snoring.

Of the total sample, 17 percent of children with ADHD were currently suffering from primary insomnia, versus 7 percent of controls; lifetime primary insomnia occurred in 20 percent of children with ADHD, compared to 10 percent of controls.

Nightmare disorder affected 11 percent of children with ADHD and lifetime nightmare disorder affected 23 percent, versus 5 and 16 percent of controls. The presence of at least one psychiatric comorbid condition increases the risks for insomnia and nightmares.

According to principal investigator Susan Shur-Fen Gau, MD, PhD, associate professor at the College of Medicine and Public Health, National Taiwan University, symptoms and consequences of ADHD and sleep problems in children often overlap. Some primary sleep disorders are found to be associated with inattention, hyperactivity, behavioral problems and impaired academic performance, which are often mistaken for symptoms of ADHD.

“In some patients with ADHD, symptoms are caused or exaggerated by primary sleep disorders, and therefore treatment of the sleep disorder will improve ADHD symptoms,” said Gau.

Data were collected from 281 consecutive patients (86.2 percent male) between the ages of 10 to 17 years who had been diagnosed with ADHD according to DSM-IV criteria at a mean age of 6.7 years, and 185 controls who did not have ADHD as a child or teen. Diagnosis of ADHD was made based on information obtained from parent and child interviews, observation of the child’s behaviors, and rating scales reported by parents and teachers.

Findings of the study indicated that the rates of nightmare and lifetime nightmare disorder were more prevalent in girls and snoring was more prevalent in boys. Snoring may be more prevalent in boys due to an increased rate of sleep-disordered breathing in boys. Mothers were found to be more aware of symptoms related to ADHD in the presence of primary insomnia, sleep terror disorder or sleepwalking disorder, whereas teachers may be more sensitive to ADHD symptoms in the presence of primary hypersomnia and nightmare disorder. (ANI)

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Little sleep could make kids hyperactive

May 2, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Apr 28 (ANI): Children’s short sleep duration even without sleeping difficulties increases the risk for behavioural symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), says a new study.

The study, led by researchers at the University of Helsinki and National Institute of Health and Welfare, Finland, examined whether decreased sleep leads to behavioral problems similar to those exhibited by children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

280 healthy children (146 girls and 134 boys) participated in the study. The researchers tracked the children’s sleep using parental reporting as well as actigraphs, or devices worn on the wrist to monitor sleep.

The children whose average sleep duration as measured by actigraphs was shorter than 7.7 hours had a higher hyperactivity and impulsivity score and a higher ADHD total score, but similar inattention score than those sleeping for a longer time.

In multivariate statistical models, short sleep duration remained a statistically significant predictor of hyperactivity and impulsivity, and sleeping difficulties were associated with hyperactivity, impulsivity and inattention. There were no significant interactions between short sleep and sleeping difficulties.

“We were able to show that short sleep duration and sleeping difficulties are related to behavioral symptoms of ADHD, and we also showed that short sleep, per se, increases behavioral symptoms, regardless of the presence of sleeping difficulties”, says researcher Juulia Paavonen, MD, PhD.

“The findings suggest that maintaining adequate sleep schedules among children is likely to be important in preventing behavioral symptoms. However, even though inadequate sleep seems to owe potential to impair behaviour and performance, intervention studies are needed to confirm the causality,” Paavonen added. (ANI)

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Human brain ‘can predict blunders’

March 24, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Mar 24 (ANI): Scientists may soon be able to find a way to prevent common blunders, such as spilling a cup of coffee or failing to notice a red light, thanks to a new research, which has shown that the human brain is capable of signalling when an error is about to happen.

A research team, led by a researcher at the University of California, Davis, in collaboration with the Donders Institute in the Netherlands, has found a distinct electric signature in the brain, which predicts when an error is about to be made.

According to researchers, the new discovery could prove useful in a variety of applications, from developing monitoring devices that alert air traffic control operators that their attention is flagging, to devising new strategies to help children cope with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Ali Mazaheri, a research fellow at the UC Davis Center for Mind and Brain, said that how the brain responds to mistakes has been the subject of numerous studies.

“But what I was looking for was the state the brain is in before a mistake is made because that’s what can tell us what produces the error,” he said.

Working with colleagues at the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior at Radboud University, where he was a Ph.D student at the time, Mazaheri recruited 14 students into his study.

While they took an attention-demanding test, Mazaheri recorded their brain activity using MEG – magnetoencephalography.

As participants sit at a computer for an hour, a random number from 1 to 9 flashes onto the screen every two seconds. The object is to tap a button as soon as any number except 5 appears.

Mazaheri said that the test was so monotonous that even when a 5 showed up, his subjects spontaneously hit the button an average of 40 percent of the time.

By analyzing the recorded MEG data, the researchers found that about a second before these errors were committed, brain waves in two regions were stronger than when the subjects correctly refrained from hitting the button.

“It looks as if the brain is saying, ‘Pay attention!’ and then reducing the likelihood of another mistake,” Mazaheri said.

The work has been posted online on March 23 by the journal Human Brain Mapping. (ANI)

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