Attention Deficit

While pharmacological (drug) intervention is usually the first line of therapy for ADHD, many children cannot tolerate medication. They sometimes develop tics, loss of appetite, sleeplessness, etc. Furthermore, the majority of studies documenting benefits of stimulant medication are relatively short-term, show no true correlation to improved behavior, improved grades, or improved social interaction. Data showing that stimulant medication improves the long-term prognosis for children with ADHD are scant.

Many people currently use dietary supplementation of long-chain fatty acids to maintain heart health. It has been suggested in several studies that certain highly unsaturated fatty acids (HUFAs) may positively affect many neuro-developmental and psychiatric conditions. Several studies have demonstrated that ADHD children have low blood levels of HUFAs. This suggests that increasing HUFA levels via dietary supplements could enhance brain functioning and reduce ADHD symptoms.

Two studies are noted here, one in the UK and one in Australia. Both studies show promising data on HUFAs and ADHD.

The UK study involved 117 5-12 year old children. Approximately 33% of the children were girls. The children were diagnosed with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD). Although none of the children were formally diagnosed with ADHD, many of them possessed highly elevated levels of ADHD symptoms. This presented a severe limitation to the study; since the participants had not been screened for ADHD, it is not possible to extrapolate the results to ADHD children.

Aside from the aforementioned limitation, the study was well conducted. Participants were randomly assigned to receive dietary fatty acid supplementation treatment or a placebo over 3 months. Outcome measures included:

• standardized assessments of reading and spelling achievement
• Conners teacher ratings of children’s ADHD symptoms.

Results from this study were extremely encouraging:

• Reading and spelling scores: before treatment, average reading and spelling achievement scores were about 1 year below age level for children in both groups. After 3 months, children receiving fatty acid supplementation gained an average of 9.5 months in reading and 6.6 months in spelling. Children in the placebo group gained only 3.3 months in reading and 1.2 months in spelling.
• Prior to the study, the average Conners teacher rating scale for ADHD was elevated for both groups. After 3 months, scores for treated children showed a significant decline while scores for placebo children were essentially unchanged. 16 children in the fatty acid group presented clinically elevated ADHD scale scores. After 3 months, 7 no longer fell in this range. Among children in the placebo group, only 1 of 16 children showed this same improvement.

Again, while this is significant data, one must be cautious of the extrapolation to a diagnosed ADHD child. It is a promising study.