| Attention Deficit (Hyperactivity) Disorder Stephen B. Edelson, M.D., F.A.A.F.P., F.A.A.E.M. The Edelson Center for Environmental and Preventive Medicine What Is It? This medical problem is a very disturbing one, filled with many handicaps for the patient. It affects thousands of infants, children, adolescents, and adults. It affects behavior, learning processes and communication. A child is usually affected before birth, and this is most likely preventable. If not prevented, serious disabilities occur which threaten the child's future development. If left untreated, the condition may continue to affect the person through adulthood, in some form or other, although some remission may occur at puberty. During pregnancy, there is usually a great deal of fetal activity, coupled with very hard kicking. Hyperactive babies of ten suffer from "colic," need very little sleep, cry and scream a great deal, are restless and fidgety, will not feed properly, and are "rockers" and "head bangers." No amount of nursing or comforting will calm such a child. They often reject affection and mothering. As the child becomes more mobile (sometimes at a very early age), he is into everything, rushing from one thing to another. His attention span is very short and he is easily distracted. He touches everything and leaves a trail of destruction and havoc. He is not deliberately destroying things, but his lack of control and coordination and general clumsiness leads to breakage of items about the house. He is driven by what appears to be an endless source of energy-both day and night. The speech and thinking processes of the hyperactive child often reveal multiple defects. Some cannot integrate what they see and hear because of visual perception difficulties. This, in turn, leads to an inability to understand. Hyperactive children may often suffer with a wide range of other ailments and disabilities, such as eczema, asthma, chronic infections, hay fever, headaches, stomach aches, etc. Symptoms In Brief: Infancy and Young Children crying screaming restlessness needing little sleep difficult to feed cannot be pacified spurns affection and cuddles excessive dribbling increased thirst head banging rocking fits tantrums Older Children: (in addition to symptoms in infancy) clumsiness impulsive accident prone erratic disruptive behavior compulsive touching constant motion fatigued disturbs other children weak, weary, listless aggressive lacks concentration loud talk withdrawn at times normal or high IQ but fails at school poor appetite nightmares poor eye-hand coordination nervous uncooperative irritable defiant depressed with wild mood swings disobedient self-abusive oversensitive to odors, lights, sound, cold hair pulling picking skin sleep problems enuresis (bed wetting) muscle aches 'growing pains' bladder problems facial changes: dark eye circles puffy below eyes red earlobes red cheeks swollen neck glands fluid behind ear drums ringing ears dizziness excessive sweating low-grade fever There are degrees of the problem and not every child has all of the symptoms described. More boys than girls are hyperactive by a ratio of 3:1 (with a high percentage of blond hair, blue eyed). What Is The Cause? |
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