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Questions like "Why? what did I do wrong? or What caused it?" will not find an answers very often because, although social factors and child raising may have a part in the evolution or severity of the condition, they are very rarely its causes, as it was proved so far. Genetics and neurobiology are the most probable sources of ADHD.
The past is not blamed, but analyzed for answers on how to continue life, helping the child, treating the illness or even prevent it in the future. Parents must not feel guilty because of the feeling that, maybe, they are the ones that caused their child's condition and behavior. More often, evidence are found that ADHD does not arise from social environment or child raising, and it can be blamed on biological sources. Specialists have made research, and, over the past decades, formulated a few possible theories on the sources of ADHD. Some of them failed and some of them paid off.
Smoking and drinking alcohol during pregnancy may be linked to the apparition of the condition, some research say, so it is recommended, as a precaution, not to drink or smoke at that time.
Lead. It is no longer used in paint but it is still found in old buildings' paints or plumbing systems that have been covered with lead paint, which may create children's playing or living environment. High levels of lead found in the bodies of preschoolers were associated with the risk of ADHD.
Attention disorders were, although in a small percentage, also discovered to be caused by traumatic brain injury. Early theories proved that behavior of some children who suffered accidents causing brain injury, may be related to the ADHD condition.
In 1982, at the National Institutes of Health, the issue of a scientific consensus conference was that aliments, food additives and refined sugar, may be a probable cause for ADHD or at least they would exacerbate the condition's symptoms. For about 5 percents of young children suffering from the ADHD condition with food allergies, diet restrictions helped. Yet, using substitutes of sugar alternative to real sugar had no effect on the behavior or learning ability as a more recent study has shown
Another research has shown that children with ADHD which were believed to be sugar sensitive and were given alternative substances (aspartame) instead of sugar were observed to have different behavior only by the mothers that were told they got sugar and not aspartame, as in the Placebo effect.
Genetic influences are believed to have an influence on the ADHD condition because the condition often runs in the family. In those families with ADHD children, there are 25 percents of the close relatives have ADHD too whereas the rate for the general population is about 5 percent. Strong genetic influence exists in the attention disorders at twins, many studies say.
Many information were shared by the scientists through the Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Molecular Genetics Network ever since it was created in 1999. The genetic contribution to ADHD and the identification of the genes that cause a person to be susceptible to ADHD were continuously researched by specialists.
In order to better understand the work of researchers in the ADHD matter, little knowledge of the brain structure is required. The frontal lobes of the cerebrum represent one part of the brain that researchers have focused on. Solving problems, planing ahead, controlling impulses, understanding the others' behavior, are matters that the frontal lobes deal with. The corpus callosum is the link between the 2 frontal lobes, the nerve fibres that make the connection between the left and the right frontal lobes. The white matter consists of fibers that establish long-distance connections between brain regions. It normally thickens when the child grows older and the brain matures.
The connection between the cerebrum and the cerebellum, the basal ganglia (the interconnected gray masses deep in the cerebral hemisphere ), together with the cerebellum, which is divided into 3 parts, coordinate the motor skills. The middle part is called the vermis.
Researchers have studied these parts of the brain using various methods to get a clear image of the brain. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI), single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and positron emission tomography (PET) are some of those methods. Through these studies, the central psychological deficits in those with ADHD were linked. Until 2002 the researchers in the NIMH Child Psychiatry Branch had studied 152 boys and girls with ADHD, matched with 139 age- and gender-matched controls without ADHD. The children were scanned from 2 to 4 times in one decade. The ADHD children showed almost 4 percent smaller brain volumes in all regions: the frontal lobes, temporal gray matter, cerebellum and caudate nucleus. Also, the study shows that the children suffering from the ADHD condition, who were on medication, had a white matter volume that did not differ from that of controls, unlike those that were never medicated and had an abnormally small volume of white matter. Although the study used MRI to scan the children's brains, the researchers stressed that MRI remains a research tool and can't be used to diagnose ADHD, also this affirmation is correct for other neurological evaluating methods for the brain, such as PET and SPECT.
The symptoms for ADHD are sometimes similar with a temperamental character for very young children. They can't keep interest in things for too long, they are very active impulsive. The best thing a parent can do is try work with his or her child to improve his or her behavior and look for abnormal manifestations for the age of the child. Wait to see the changes that take place in a period of time like 6 months or more and if after this time the symptoms haven't improved or had serious consequences, then it is best to see a professional.Click Here to Read More
Researchers are focusing on the hereditary cause of the ADHD condition and the identification of the genes that cause it. Yet, the exact cause of ADHD is unknown.Click Here to Read More