From the Los Angeles Times:

A new series of studies of children in Finland and the United States raises provocative questions about the benefits of medicating children with ADHD. Among the findings: by the time they’re in their late teens, people who received drugs for attention problems seem to fare about the same as those who do not.

The study also found that a child’s likelihood of having adult ADHD is significantly greater if they have a parent — especially a father — who also has attention problems.

Study co-author Susan L. Smalley, a neuropsychologist from UCLA, said the studies show that ADHD is “an extreme on the continuum” for humans, and that people with ADHD may have compensating strengths.

If better medication or specialized therapy, or both, can drive down the risks that these children will be hobbled by academic failure, ill-chosen impulses and other psychiatric problems, their other talents could shine through, Smalley said. And the world would be a better place for it, she added.

“We need to step back and embrace neurodiversity, diversity in human behavior and try to work on ways to embrace and enhance being at the extreme, instead of only focusing on the deficits and disorder aspects of ADHD,” Smalley said.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 28th, 2008 at 2:50 pm and is filed under ADHD, NOT2BEMISSED, drugs, public attitudes, research news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.  Email This Post