Post by Beth W on Jul 14, 2006 12:19:42 GMT -5
health.msn.com/centers/adhd/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100124847>1=8344
Reality Check: ADHD
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by Rich Maloof for MSN Health & Fitness
Affecting children and adults alike, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD or ADD) has become familiar enough that we use it as slang for kids with high energy or anyone who taps a pencil on a desk. But what do we really know?
If you’re waiting for your child to outgrow ADHD … don’t.
Approximately 60 percent of children with the condition will carry it into adulthood. Early evaluation and treatment, when appropriate, can pre-empt years of more serious problems. As the ADHD child gets older, his symptoms—and his means of coping with those symptoms—can intensify. A 10-year study currently under way has already found that young adults are at high risk for “markedly elevated rates of antisocial, addictive, mood and anxiety disorders.”
Overtreatment and misdiagnosis are still problem areas.
Some bioethicists believe that pharmaceutical companies are pushing their drugs, leading to medical treatment in patients who don’t need it. At the same time, a true case of ADHD is a neurobiological condition—a medical problem, not just a psychological one—and does warrant the use of prescribed medicine.
A major part of the problem is that most primary-care physicians are simply not trained yet in diagnosing ADHD. The disorder was not formally recognized as a disability until 1998, and doctors are still catching up to the ongoing research and the efficacy of treatments.
Seek physicians with experience in ADHD diagnosis, and educate yourself.
ADHD is most effectively treated with a combination of medication and therapy.
Prescribed medicines are effective for approximately 50 percent of the patients who need them. But even in the patients who do respond, only about half of their symptoms are relieved. The drugs won’t necessarily treat problems with organizational skills, coping socially and the overwhelming emotions associated with underachievement and failure. Cognitive psychotherapy can reach where medication does not.
It is still undetermined whether ADHD can be beat.
We don’t know yet whether adult patients can be free of the condition after stopping medication and therapy. (Children may have not carried the condition into adulthood.) While on a treatment program, people do learn to relieve impairments and decrease distress. But it is unknown whether patients can maintain long-term control over symptoms on their own when the course of meds is ended.
Half of all people with ADHD have other disorders as well.
Depression and anxiety are the most common conditions that “co-travel” with ADHD. These co-travelers present a major problem because they mask ADHD; physicians will often recognize and treat the mood disorder, which they’re familiar with, but miss the ADHD completely.
As in children, adults with ADHD are also more likely to have asthma. Other co-travelers include smoking, drug or alcohol abuse, and obesity—all of which signal ways in which people try to cope or self-medicate.
Need a Reality Check? Find more on MSN Health & Fitness:
ADHD Medications and "Black Box" Warnings
Q&A: Is Strattera Dangerous?
FDA Issues Alert on Strattera
The Upside of ADHD