Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
Many students are diagnosed
with varying degrees of Attention Disorder, they are known
as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), or Attention
Deficit Disorder (ADD). Most children with ADHD are inattentive,
impulsive and hyperactive. In teenagers, the hyperactivity
often quiets to a restlessness.
For some, paying attention is their biggest problem. Others are mainly impulsive and hyperactive.
The Food and Drug Administration has approved several stimulant medicines for treating ADHD: methylphenidate (Ritalin and generics), dextroamphetamine (Dexedrine and generics), methamphetamine (Desoxyn), and an amphetamine-dextroamphetamine combination (Adderall). FDA recently restricted another approved stimulant, pemoline (Cylert), to secondary use, as it can cause liver failure.
The drugs stimulate the central nervous system, but no one knows exactly how they work in treating ADHD.
"Stimulants have been used to treat ADHD for over three decades," says Nicholas Reuter, FDA associate director for international and domestic drug control affairs. "And the amount used has increased steadily during that period. Methylphenidate is the most widely used."
Not everyone with ADHD requires or responds to stimulant treatment. There are some Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder schools that have had success in working with such teens. They break the school day into smaller segments, and require the student to stay on task to receive privileges. There are several Utah Boarding Schools that are experiencing success with various methods of behavior modification. There are also Boarding Schools in Georgia that have had similar success in helping ADHD children. The Georgia Boarding School is a non-traditional type setting, a borderline wilderness program if you will. The students are required to work together, learning cooperation. The academics are also non-traditional. The children seem to move a little quicker through their studies than in a regular classroom setting. One problem with "problem" students is the struggle to diagnose Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.
About 30 percent of young people with ADHD aren't diagnosed until middle school or later. These students are very bright. "The more intelligent you are, the better you cope--until stressors in the environment outpace your ability to cope. Maybe your disorder becomes a problem in high school when you have only lecture classes or in college when you have to do everything for yourself and go to class, too."
By the time someone with undiagnosed ADHD gets to middle school or high school, the main complaint is classroom underachievement rather than hyperactivity or distractibility. Some people shorten the name to ADD when it affects older people. "But you shouldn't assume that everyone who is underachieving has ADHD."
Not everyone with attention difficulty has
ADHD
For example, one 16-year-old girl had extreme
difficulty concentrating. ADHD was suspected. Thorough examination,
however, revealed the culprits were anxiety, depression
and a sleep disorder, which are improving under a treatment
plan that includes medication and counseling.
Narrowing a diagnosis to ADHD requires more than a single visit to the doctor. Substantial detective work by the doctor involves talking not only to the patient, but also to the parents and to nurses and teachers at the patient's various schools.
One simple way to see if there may be signs of ADHD is to examine report cards from kindergarten on. "Teachers usually comment, 'He would do so much better if he could only pay attention.' One mother said of her son in high school, 'One day in first grade, he came home without shoes. He didn't know where he put them.' Kids with this disorder lose their jackets, shoes. So he had symptoms early on."
There is no biological test for ADHD. Doctors base their diagnosis on guidelines set by the American Psychiatric Association.
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