ADHD Paper 3

682 Words2 Pages

Attention Deficit Hyper Activity Disorder or ADHD is a dysfunction in the brain. People that were diagnosed with ADHD will show these symptoms; poor attention span, excessive impulsivity, and hyperactivity. These symptoms will cause people diagnosed with ADHD trouble in organization, memory, focus, sitting still, and staying quiet. ADHD was first identified in 1902 by Professor Still. Professor Still was observing children that showed the signs of a person diagnosed with ADHD. He noted how children could not sit still for a certain period of time nor could they stay quiet. He believed that this “restlessness” originated from somewhere inside the brain. This theory was supported by Bradley in 1937, Bradley discovered a psycho-stimulant amphetamine that could reduce the levels of hyperactivity. ADHD is a common disorder, about 30%-40% of children are affected by ADHD. Today ADHD lead expert is Professor Russell Barkley. Barkley believes that the symptoms shown are just reactions. A simple explanation would be when you touch something hot you retract your hand that is a reaction no thought required. Barkley theory is that people diagnosed with ADHD just react, they don’t think or think as much as a person without ADHD. They just react on normal everyday task and everything is based off their personality in their frontal lobes. ADHD does not affect a person intelligence directly, meaning a person can have a high IQ score and still have ADHD but it does affect your educational abilities which can negatively affect your intelligence. There are two main ways to treat ADHD, psychosocial treatment and pharmacotherapy. Pharmacotherapy for ADHD involves taking medications to help with ADHD. Today there is a variety of medications available ... ... middle of paper ... ...making it more available for the brain to use for communication. This causes a long term improvement in the neurons. Anti-depressants are especially useful when the patient doesn’t respond to any of the other medication prescribed and or have a history with depression. SSRI take up to 4-6 weeks before it fully start to improve symptoms of ADHD. Anticonvulsants are more commonly known as anti-seizure drugs. It is recommend to use in treatments for ADHD but it is used rarely. In the end there are a large variety of stimulants and non-stimulants that are available and used for treatment for ADHD, but not as much of anti-depressants. The most effective would be stimulants compared to the other drug based treatments, but not as long lasting. Psychosocial treatments and educational intervention are the primary nonmedical treatments for children and adolescents with ADHD.

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