ADHD

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ADHD

• By Stacey Hull

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Introductory main content

• What it is?
• What does and doesnt cause ADHD?
• Signs and symptoms
• Impulsiveness
• Hyperactivity
• Inattention
• How can specialists tell if its ADHD?
• Treatment
• Side effects of treatments

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What is it?

• Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.
• The most common mental disorder that develops in
  children
• Kids with ADHD have impaired functioning at home,
  school, and in relationships with peers.

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What causes ADHD?

• The exact cause of ADHD is unknown
• Some questions teens ask are
• Were they born with it?
• Did something in their home or school cause them
  to be hyperactive?
• Did they learn impulsive behavior from their
  family?

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What doesnt cause ADHD?

• Bad parenting- the best parents could have kids
  with ADHD, poor parenting and a bad home life may
  cause ADHD to be worse.
• Poor schools- crowded classrooms and poor
  teaching may cause teens to be restless and
  bored, this doesnt mean they have ADHD

• Minor head injury/damage to brain- most people
  with ADHD have never had a head injury or an
  illness that affected the brain
• Too much sugar- sugar doesnt always make teens
  more hyper, actually it can cause them to be slow
  and dull

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Signs and symptoms

• Impulsiveness- act quickly without thinking first
• Hyperactivity- cant sit still, walks around or
  climbs around when others are seated, talks when
  others are talking
• Inattention- daydream or seem to be in another
  world, is sidetracked by what is going on around
  them.

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More symptoms and signs

• Symptoms appear over the coarse of many months
• Symptoms of Impulsiveness and hyperactivity
  precede those of inattention.
• Different symptoms appear in different settings

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IMPULSIVENESS

• arent able to control their immediate reactions
  and they dont think before they act
• Often yell out inappropriate comments
• Display their emotions without restraint
• Act without regard for the later consequences of
  their actions

• Impulsivity makes it hard for children to wait
  for things they want
• Makes it hard for them to take their turn when
  playing games

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More impulsiveness

• Impulsivity makes it hard for children to wait
  for things they want
• Makes it hard for them to take their turn when
  playing games

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HYPERACTIVITY

• Always seem to be on the go or constantly in
  motion
• run around touching or playing with whatever they
  can see or touch
• talk incessantly
• squirm and fidget in their seats or roam around
  the room
• May wiggle their feet

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More hyperactivity

• Touch everything
• Make consistent noise
• Hyperactive adults or teenagers may feel
  internally restless
• Often need to stay busy
• Try to do several things at once

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INATTENTION

• Have a hard time keeping their mind on one thing
• Get bored with a task after a few minutes
• Focusing deliberate, conscious attention to
  organizing and completing tasks is difficult
• Learning something new is also difficult

• Homework, if finished, is usually full of errors
• Frustration by child and parent over homework and
  school
• Becoming easily distracted by sights and sounds

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More inattention

• Homework is hard for the children
• forget to write down assignments, or leave it at
  school
• forget to bring a book home or bring the wrong
  one
• Fail to pay attention to details
• Make careless mistakes
• Dont follow directions fully and lose or forget
  things needed for a task
• Skip from one uncompleted activity to another

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How can specialists tell if its ADHD?

• Everyone shows behaviors related to ADHD at times
  
• The diagnosis requires that the behaviors are
  demonstrated to a degree that is inappropriate
  for the persons age

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How can they tell? continued

• Behaviors must appear early in life before age 7
• Must continue for at least 6 months
• Behaviors must create a real handicap in at least
  two area of a persons life such as school,
  playground, home, etc.
• Specialists consider several critical questions

• Are these behaviors excessive, long-term, and
  pervasive?
• Do the behaviors occur in several settings?

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TREATMENT

• The main treatment is medications
• Stimulants are known to be the most effective
• Adderall, Concerta, Cylert, Dexedrine,
  Dextrostat, Focalin, Metadate ER, Metadate CD,
  Ritalin, Ritalin SR, and Ritalin LA

• Different medications work in different ways for
  different people

Adderall
Ritalin
Concerta
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More treatments

• Stimulants are the most commonly administered
  medication
• Can also increase the heart rate, blood pressure,
  and electrical activity in the brain
• People may develop tics or uncontrollable
  twitchings

Cylert
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Side effects

• Most common are decreased appetite, insomnia,
  increased anxiety, irritability, stomach aches,
  and head aches

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Sources cited

• BOOKS
• Williams, J. (2001). Attention-Deficit/
  Hyperactivity Disorder. Berkeley Heights, NJ
  Enslow Publishers, Inc.
• Peacock, J. (2002). ADD and ADHD. Mankato,
  Minnesota Capstone Press

• Web sites
• Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
  ( July 19, 2006). on-line. Retrieved on October
  4, 2006. Available http//www.nimh.nih.gov/public
  at/adhd.cfmsymptoms