Breastfeeding — The New Ritalin?

Posted by on May 16th, 2013 | 1 Comment

New research suggest it is
Mimouni-Bloch, A, Kachevanskaya, A, Mimouni, FB, et al. Breastfeeding May Protect from Developing Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.

Breastfeeding Medicine. 2013; doi:10.1089. Accessed May 14, 2013. Full study: http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/bfm.2012.0145

The May 14, 2013 issue of Breastfeeding Medicine reports that breastfeeding may offer a protective effect from ADHD. The Israeli scientists performing the study say breastfeeding may keep children from developing ADHD even as they get older.

The Israeli researchers recruited 6 to 12 year-olds diagnosed with ADHD.These children were matched up with two sets of healthy control groups. The control groups were the ADHD children’s siblings who did not have ADHD, and 6 to 12 year old children with similar backgrounds. Siblings were included because they likely have similar genetic and
environmental backgrounds as the children with ADHD.

The researchers found that children who had been diagnosed with ADHD were breastfed less often than their healthy peers. Here’s the breakdown:

* At one month of age, only 63 percent of children with ADHD were breastfed.

* At one month of age, the non-ADHD kids were breastfed 86 percent of the time while the ADHD children’s non-ADHD siblings were breastfed 79 percent of the time.

* By six months of age, only 29 percent of the ADHD children were breastfed while 50 percent of their healthy siblings and 57 percent of the non-related children were breastfed.

“A stepwise logistic regression … demonstrated a significant
association between ADHD and lack of breastfeeding at 3 months of age, maternal age at birth, male gender, and parental divorce,” the researcher wrote. “Children with ADHD were less likely to breastfeed at 3 months and 6 months of age than children in the two control groups. We speculate that breastfeeding may have a protective effect from
developing ADHD later in childhood.”

One can’t help but ask if the child’s propensity to be distracted, fussy, or moody could have a difference in the outcomes of this study. In other words, were they breastfed less because of ADHD like symptoms early on, or does the act of breastfeeding actually act as a protective effect.

Mimouni-Bloch, A, Kachevanskaya, A, Mimouni, FB, et al. Breastfeeding May Protect from Developing Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.

Breastfeeding Medicine. 2013; doi:10.1089. Accessed May 14, 2013. Full study: http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/bfm.2012.0145

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Study Says Most Doctors Don’t Follow ADHD Treatment Guidelines for Preschoolers

Posted by on May 6th, 2013 | No Comments

Does yours?

Published in the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)
Study presented Saturday at the Pediatric Academic Societies’ annual meeting in Washington, D.C.
author Dr. Andrew Adesman

New treatment guidelines were published recently by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). These guidelines now allow for an ADHD diagnosis in children as young as 4-years old. The new guidelines are somewhat controversial because three out of the four common medications used to treat ADHD patients are not FDA approved for use among children that young.

Much like the guidelines in the United Kingdom, the new AAP guidelines recommend that behavior therapy be the first treatment approach for preschoolers with ADHD. Treatment with medication is a last resort option used when behavior-management is unsuccessful.

A study presented Saturday at the Pediatric Academic Societies’ annual meeting in Washington, D.C. reports that about 90% of the pediatric specialists who diagnose and treat preschool children do not follow those treatment guidelines. According to study author Dr. Andrew Adesman, chief of behavioral pediatrics at Cohen Children’s Medical Center in New Hyde Park, NY, some pediatric specialists prescribe medication too soon and some do not offer them as a second line treatment.

In a medical center news release, Adesman noted, “It is unclear why so many physicians who specialize in the management of ADHD — child neurologists, psychiatrists and developmental pediatricians — fail to comply with recently published treatment guidelines.”

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Does ADHD Last My Whole Life?

Posted by on March 14th, 2013 | No Comments

A new study sheds light
Reported in US News & World Report, published health.usnews.com

US News& World Report cites a study that shows ADHD persists as one ages and produces more problems in adulthood.

The researchers also shed light on our current process of diagnosis, stating:

“We should use caution in describing this constellation of behaviors as a ‘disease,’” he said.

The American Academy of Pediatrics says doctors should do an evaluation for ADHD for any child aged 4 to 18 who has behavioral problems or is falling behind at school. But that should also include a thorough assessment for learning disabilities, emotional issues or physical conditions that could be causing their symptoms — such as sleep apnea.

Barbaresi’s advice to parents: “Don’t accept a cursory evaluation and a prescription.”

Read the entire article: http://health.usnews.com/health-news/news/articles/2013/03/04/adhd-can-often-persist-into-adulthood?page=2

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Finishing Tasks Strategies

Posted by on February 27th, 2013 | No Comments

Finishing tasks can be a problem for all of us, but for those with ADD or ADHD it’s a major issue. This applies whether you are an adult or child. Here are a few strategies to help:

1. Break the task down. Often times breaking a task into small doable segments will help you get the full project down.

2. Set a timer. During your task, set a timer to start and end. If you know you can clean your kitchen in a half hour, set the timer and stick to it. That way your kitchen gets cleaned in a half hour instead of three!

3. Prep! Place all materials needed for the job close to the job. For example, if you get all your cleaning supplies out the night before and leave them on your kitchen counter, you’ll be prepared for the full cleaning the following day. It also serves as a reminder and a little impetus to avoid procrastination.

4. Reward yourself. If you’ve done your prep and set your timer, your project will get done on time. Plan to give yourself a reward if you meet your goals. Remember to set reachable goals and appropriate rewards, i.e. don’t eat a whole container of Häagen-Dazs for just cleaning your kitchen on time.

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Can I Talk to My Baby and Prevent ADHD?

Posted by on February 19th, 2013 | No Comments

Reported in healthychildren.org
The answer may surprise you.

A Scottish study being being published in the journal Research In Developmental Disabilities, analyzed hundreds of videos of mothers interacting with their year-old babies. The researchers found that less vocal communication (talking, singing, cooing, making sounds, etc.) by the parent was associated with an increase in the likelihood the child would develop conditions such as ADHD.

Most parents experience a little guilt when using the TV or computer as an electronic babysitter, and this guilt may be warranted.

The researcher’s data were quite profound: For every reduction of five vocalizations per minute by the mother, the odds of an infant going on to develop mental health issues such as ADHD by the age of seven increased by 44%.

Study co-author Philip Wilson, professor of primary care and rural health at the University of Aberdeen, said “We have got the possibility that active parenting and active communication by the parents may have a protective effect against the development of problems with attention and conduct.”

The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests no TV or electronic stimulation before the age of 2. After that age, one half hour or less is recommended.

For a full article on brain development and TV watching, see http://www.healthychildren.org/English/family-life/Media/Pages/Why-to-Avoid-TV-Before-Age-2.aspx?nfstatus=401&nftoken=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000&nfstatusdescription=ERROR%3A+No+local+token

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DNA chip for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Posted by on February 9th, 2013 | No Comments

[Date: 2013-02-07]

Is your child like this? ‘He does not sit still, he makes you crazy always tapping or moving his leg, he cannot do one thing at a time and he is unable to remain seated at the table during dinner. It’s like he’s got a motor in him; he doesn’t stop talking.’ In school you may hear teachers say things like ‘he does not listen, he does not pay attention, he loses everything, he is unable to do his own work and he makes so many mistakes’. This could be a case of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

ADHD is the most common childhood neuropsychiatric disorder. It is a potentially serious problem; a European survey conducted in 2010 found that children with ADHD are statistically more likely to be afflicted with other impairments on their quality of life than children without ADHD. Yet, despite the warning signs, parents take on average 26.8 months to achieve a diagnosis for their child. One reason is that there is currently no tool to confirm an ADHD diagnosis. However, Spanish researcher Araitz Molano-Bilbao from the the UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country has come up with an innovation that she believes could improve the rate of diagnosis of this disorder, and open the way to potential new therapeutic treatments.

The prevalence of ADHD is calculated to be between 8 % and 12 % among infant-adolescents worldwide, with 50 % continuing to exhibit symptoms in adult life. Children with ADHD have great difficulty in paying attention and completing assignments, and are frequently distracted. They may also display impulsive behaviour and act inappropriately at times. They may experience greater difficulty in controlling these impulses. ‘All these symptoms seriously affect their social, academic and working life of the individuals, and impact greatly upon their families and milieu close to them,’ says Molano.

Dr. Molano studied how genetic polymorphisms (variations in the DNA sequence between different individuals) are associated with ADHD. ‘We looked for all the associations that had been described previously in the literature worldwide, and did a clinical study to see whether these polymorphisms also occurred in the Spanish population; the reason is that genetic associations vary a lot between some populations and others.’

Around 400 saliva samples of patients with ADHD and a further 400 samples from healthy controls (people without a history of psychiatric diseases) were analysed. The analysis of over 250 polymorphisms led to the discovery that 32 polymorphisms could be associated not only with the diagnosis of ADHD, but also with the evolution of the disorder, the specific ADHD subtype, the severity and the presence of comorbidities (the presence of one or more disorders).

On the basis of these results, Dr. Molano has proposed that a DNA chip with these 32 polymorphisms could be used not only for diagnosing the disorder, but also for calculating genetic susceptibility to different variables, including how well the patient is responding to drugs or the normalisation of symptoms.

The study also confirmed the existence of three distinct ADHD subtypes: lack of attention, hyperactivity, and a combination of both. ‘It can be seen that on the basis of genetics, the children that belong to one subtype or another are different,’ explains Dr. Molano.

By contrast, no direct associations were found between the polymorphisms analysed and the response to pharmacological treatment (atomoxetine and methylphenidate). Dr. Molano believes that this could be due to the fact that ‘in many cases, the data on drugs we had available were not rigorous.’ Dr. Molano therefore intends to pursue her research in this field. ‘We want to concentrate on the drug response aspect, obtain more, better characterised samples, and monitor the variables in the taking of drugs very closely, whether they were actually being taken or not,’ she says.

Dr. Molano hopes that this tool will reach clinics and begin to help children with ADHD.

The project was funded by Progenika Biopharma and the pharmaceutical company JUSTE SAFQ. Already 10 collaborating clinics belonging to public and private centres in Spain are looking into this tool with the aim of marketing it.

For more information, please visit:

Elhuyar Fundazioa

http://www.elhuyar.org/EN

Category: Miscellaneous
Data Source Provider: Elhuyar Foundation
Document Reference: Based on information from Elhuyar Foundation
Subject Index: Medical biotechnology; Medicine, Health

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ADHD & Your Future

Posted by on February 7th, 2013 | No Comments

Left untreated, it isn’t bright

“The Effects Of Childhood ADHD On Adult Labor Market Outcomes” issued by the National Bureau of Economic Research and authored by Jason Fletcher of Yale provides a detailed analysis of the affects ADHD has on adult labor market outcomes.

The author used data stemming from the 1990s through today. This longitudinal study shows that left untreated, ADHD children who carry their symptoms to adulthood are employed 10% to 14% less of the time than their peers. They earn about 33% less and require social assistance 15% more frequently.

Other studies have reached similar conclusions. Additionally, substance abuse and increased crime rates have also been attributed to non-treated ADHD.

Start your program today. Play Attention 800.788.6786

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New Study Finds ADHD Rates on Rise

Posted by on January 25th, 2013 | No Comments

The study, published in Monday’s issue of JAMA Pediatrics, examined health records from California and found that rates of ADHD have jumped by 24% since 2001.

“That is a very significant increase,” says Darios Getahun, a research scientist with the Kaiser Permanente Southern California Medical Group who conducted the study.

Many experts theorize that the rise in diagnoses can possibly be attributed by growing awareness of the condition. If one were cynical, one could also point out the increased rate of marketing for ADHD medications. Let’s not be blind; ADHD is a multi-billion dollar business to the pharmaceutical industry.

Kaiser Permanente reviewed the health records of more than 840,000 children, ages 5-11, and also found that boys were three times more likely to be diagnosed than girls. The cynic might say that boys are more boisterous than girls. They display greater signs of hyperactivity.

“I don’t agree with the language about ‘epidemic’ proportions [in the study] and ‘dramatic’ increases,” says Paul Hammerness, an ADHD expert at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. “It is my impression that absolute rates are fairly stable over time, from country to country as well.”

One must always question whether we are allowing children to be children or trying to mold them through medication.

Suggested reading: The Last Normal Child: Essays on the Intersection of Kids, Culture, and Psychiatric Drugs (Childhood in America) [Lawrence H. Diller M.D.] on Amazon.com.

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Prenatal Exposure to Mercury May Be Linked to ADHD

Posted by on October 10th, 2012 | No Comments

Mothers beware of your diet

We’re all concerned about contaminants in our environment. We worry about drinking clean water, breathing clean air, and eating non-toxic food. A recent study published online Oct. 8 in Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine reveals another possible concern: mercury hidden in fish. The study links mercury exposure in expectant mothers to ADHD symptoms in their children at the age of 8. Mercury is known to affect the human nervous system.

As with other studies of mercury and its possible link to ADHD, the current study “adds to concerns about mercury consumption and to evidence about the benefits of fish consumption,” said Dr. Susan Korrick. Korrick is the study’s co-author and an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.  Korrik’s team found that more mercury exposure leads to a higher incidence of ADHD symptoms. However, more fish consumption — the main source of mercury exposure — leads to a decreased risk.

“How much fish you eat is not equivalent to how much mercury you are exposed to,” said Dr. Korrick. “I think the public health conclusion that I would come to is that one can benefit from fish consumption, but it’s important to try to consume fish that are low in mercury.” Fish high in mercury include swordfish,shark, and fresh tuna. Fish with lower levels of mercury include salmon, haddock, shrimp, and cod.

Korrick and her reviewed data on children at age 8 from the New Bedford, Mass., area who were born between 1993 and 1998. New Bedford is on Massachusetts’ coast and is a fishing community where fish consumption is popular. Fish consumption is a primary source of mercury. Korrick’s team investigated whether greater mercury exposure before birth, prenatal exposure via mothers’ wombs, might lead to more behavioral problems in kids later in life.

The researchers tested the children and evaluated teacher reports. The researchers found that some children of mothers who had the highest levels of mercury before birth were 40 percent to 70 percent more likely to have the behavioral problems.

There are flaws to the research because of its design. It doesn’t prove that mercury is directly responsible for the behavioral problems or ADHD although prior studies have found links. Also, children in the study were not actually diagnosed with ADHD because the study only looked at ADHD symptoms. Better to be safe than sorry regarding mercury consumption.

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Bullying at School

Posted by on September 7th, 2012 | No Comments

What every mom, dad, and child ought to know. 

It’s a fact: teasing and playful banter are unfortunate but inevitable parts of the social scheme at school. However, ADHD children, who commonly also have social skills problems, often attract more bullying than their peers.  Because they have social skills problems, they often don’t know how to respond to bullying either. This can make school life very unpleasant.

Parents can teach a few basic skills that can make a world of difference. Also, proactive parents can help by shaping the school environment. It may take a little work, but it’s with it.

Here are some basic strategies:

  • Teach your children to stand up to bullying without overreacting. Suggest a series of steps your child can take without escalating the problem. Start by teaching them to walk away and immediately report bullying to a teacher, or calmly respond verbally without escalating the situation.
  • Martial arts classes can provide self-confidence and often teach skills to cope with bullying. Simple skills like making eye-contact, standing up straight, and speaking in a clear firm voice are often taught in martial arts classes and are effective.
  • At the first sign of bullying, whether it involves your child or another, alert your child’s teachers and school principal so they can take care of the situation. Follow up to be certain the matter has been addressed.
  • Another great martial arts technique is to yell, “Ouch! Stop! You’re hurting me!” when bullied. This response attracts attention from nearby adults without your child coming off as a tattle tale.
  • If the school doesn’t have an anti-bullying policy, ask them to establish one. You may need to attend some meetings with the school or with the PTO to assist in the development of the policy.
  • Keep an open line of daily communication with your child to stay aware of any problems.

 

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