ADHD – Is It A “Real” Medical Disease?

8 Pages 2120 Words

wise, when occupied in free play activities they are often impossible to tell apart from other children. However, in other settings, where activities are restricted and attention must be sustained to tasks that seem uninteresting, the symptoms are quite noticeable. However, when appropriate diagnostic criteria and procedures are used, ADHD symptoms are found to occur in between 3 and 5% of school aged children in the United States, 1% of children in the United States, and 2% in Australia. ADHD is also known to occur in other various cultures and in all socioeconomic levels.
At this point, there are no truly definitive statements about the cause of ADHD. Many argue that these behavioral problems should be blamed on bad parenting, defiant children or dietary factors such as artificial food colorings and sugar. However, based on currently available data, most experts in the field believe that dietary factors do not cause ADHD. There is also little evidence to suggest that parenting practices are factors in the development of ADHD, although these factors may influence the severity of a child’s symptoms. What most experts do believe is that there are biological factors that may influence some children to have major problems with attention and/or higher levels of activity and impulsivity. In particular, recent evidence suggests that there are hereditary factors that may affect brain functions in the areas responsible for inhibiting and modulating behavior. Experts believe that ADHD stems from under-activity of certain brain areas. While it may be difficult to believe, that that unruly, fidgety child that can’t sit still for even a moment in class or the back seat of a car may suffer from reduced brain activity, not over-activity.

ADHD has a very substantial genetic component. Among the most convincing pieces of evidence is the finding that if one id...