From the Houston Chronicle:

Nearly half of the youths locked up in the Harris County Juvenile Detention Center [have] mental health problems — far more than the estimated 20 percent with mental disorders in the general youth population — figures released Thursday show. [Harris County includes Houston.]

These youngsters, mostly teenagers, have been diagnosed with maladies including bipolar and attention deficit disorders, according to data compiled by a group of organizations studying the issue. Nearly 20 percent have severe emotional problems, the data show, and a quarter had never been diagnosed previously.

“For the first time ever we’ve collected amazing data that really give us the hard facts about what issues are there and what diagnosis we need to treat,” said Betsy Schwartz, president of Mental Health America of Greater Houston. The nonprofit agency and the county juvenile probation department are coordinating Operation Redirect, a collaboration of local groups trying to prevent mentally ill kids from ending up behind bars.

See related posts:

• Mentally ill strain Georgia prisons
• Editorial: Help — not jail — needed for people with mental illness

Heart Association calls for child cardiac testing

From the Wall Street Journal, Philadelphia Inquirer and elsewhere:

Millions of children taking drugs for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder should be checked for heart problems, the American Heart Association said yesterday, a recommendation that also might identify more youngsters with cardiac disorders.

Ritalin, Adderall, Concerta, and other stimulants commonly prescribed to treat ADHD can increase blood pressure and heart rate. While not a problem for the vast majority of patients, they can lead to life-threatening conditions and even sudden cardiac death in those with heart conditions.

… The advice marks the first time a medical-guidelines body in the U.S. has urged wide use of an electrocardiogram, which charts electrical activity in the heart, to screen a presumed healthy population for abnormalities.

But there is debate among experts about the value of using the test to screen such a large pool of patients to detect a rare condition. The hope is that such a test — in combination with a comprehensive checkup — will help to avoid the rare cases of sudden cardiac arrest that have been linked to the widely used medicines.

Harnessing the creative energy behind the diagnosis

Wall Street Journal columnist Sue Shellenbarger offers encouragement to parents of kids with ADHD, introducing us to some adults who were labeled as children and went on to build satisfying, productive lives for themselves.

Among those she lists: Ty Pennington, the host on “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition;” JetBlue founder David Neeleman and Kinko’s founder Paul Orfalea (above), who also has dyslexia. All had challenging childhoods, run-ins with school authorities, and teachers who didn’t believe they could succeed at much of anything. Neeleman said he thought he was “stupid.” Their stories are more relevant now than ever, with an estimated 8 percent of school-age children carrying the ADHD label.

The common thread in each case was the help of supportive parents who valued their children’s individuality, emphasized their strengths and didn’t give up. (Medication also gets a brief mention, as do behavior modification techniques.) Paul Orfalea praises a saying his mother used: “Look at your five fingers. All five are different for a reason. School wants to make you all the same.”

It’s worth noting that the strategies suggested here for helping a child with ADHD are markedly similar to those needed to help any child, disability or not.

If only Shellenbarger had edited out her references to ADHD “sufferers,” especially in light of the positive messages offered by parents. The phrase “people with ADHD” would have felt so much better.

Readers, now it’s your turn. Any tips of your own to share?

From the Contra Costa Times:

Blake Taylor’s new memoir — one of the first penned by a youth with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder — offers a fascinating and ultimately hopeful glimpse into the childhood challenges shared by 4 million other young Americans.

“I want to change the view that ADHD doesn’t exist or that it’s solely a disability,” says Blake. “It’s a gift.”

The book, called “ADHD & Me: What I Learned From Lighting Fires at the Dinner Table,” arose out of Taylor’s college admissions essay. He is a freshman at the University of California, Berkeley.

Accompanying the story are tips for teens on managing ADHD, as well as a reading list.

Earlier post here.

From the [UK] Times:

British exam regulators report a 43 percent increase in the number of students who were given extra time or extra help to complete standardized tests, sparking allegations of affluent parents exploiting the system to benefit their children.

A number of experts agreed yesterday that the rules were open to abuse. Tom Burkard, a research fellow at the Centre for Policy Studies and director of the Promethean Trust, a charity for dyslexic children, said that many middle-class parents were exploiting the system to gain an unfair advantage for their children.

“Schools are under great pressure not to give students extra time in exams. When they do, it’s usually the result of pressure from middle-class parents,” he said.

Children with ADHD feel different, but can be comforted and supported by caring teachers and parents, says a new report in the Journal of Pediatric Nursing. The report is based on numerous interviews with students, and includes such sections as “I missed a lot,” “I was misunderstood,” and “I learned how to manage.” Excerpts in the New York Times.

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.