What do ADHD and cancer have in common? Variety
April 2, 2012 in Attention deficit disorders
According to new research conducted at Oregon Health & Science University, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is more than one disorder. It's an entire family of disorders, much like the multiple subtypes of cancer.
The research, which highlights various versions of the disease, each with differing impacts, demonstrates that there is likely not going to be a "one-size-fits-all" approach to treating patients. It also suggests new methods for characterizing any given individual are going to be required for improved diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of the disease. The research also indicates that scientists need to shift their thinking when it comes to conducting research aimed at understanding the cause and impacts of ADHD, and consider the vast variety of human behavior in non-affected children as well.
OHSU scientists Damien Fair, Ph.D., assistant professor of behavioral neuroscience, psychiatry, and the Advanced Imaging Research Center; and Joel Nigg, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry, behavioral neuroscience and pediatrics, led the research. The study will be published online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"Traditionally, physicians and psychologists have diagnosed patients through the use of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, commonly known as the DSM," explained Fair.
This video is not supported by your browser at this time.
"The problem with this approach is that it often relies on secondary observations of parents or teachers, where even if the descriptions are accurate, any given child may be behaving similarly, but for different reasons. Just as if there might be many reasons why someone might have chest pain, there might be many reasons why a child presents with ADHD. However, unlike diagnosing countless other well-understood diseases, there is no one test that can differentiate individuals when it comes to psychiatric and developmental conditions like ADHD. The data here highlights ways to recognize such individual variability and shows promise that we might be able to identify why any given child presents with ADHD, thus allowing for future examinations of more personalized treatments."To better understand ADHD's variations, Fair, Nigg and colleagues compared test results for several cognitive skills among a large sampling of ADHD patients and a control group. The testing focused on memory, inhibition, attention, comprehension, and several other categories.
"We have known for some time that there is wide performance variation in both the ADHD group and the control group," explained Nigg, "but this has never been formally described."
Although, overall, the ADHD group did more poorly than the control group on all the measures, they noted that in some areas, certain control group patients outperformed the ADHD patients. However, in those same areas, other ADHD patients outperformed the control group. Simply put, not all study participants ADHD and control - consistently showed the same strengths and weakness. Furthermore, they found that ADHD patients can be subcategorized depending on their deficits and relative strengths, showing unique subgroups among all children with ADHD.
Using some of these testing methods, the researchers believe they may have found a more precise way to subcategorize and perhaps in the future diagnose children with ADHD. Psychologists and physicians could provide patients with a series of cognitive tests, determine their strengths and weaknesses, and subcategorize them based on these traits.
Future research is required to better categorize the sub-types of ADHD, match patients to therapy and continue the quest to find the cause of ADHD, a question that has eluded researchers for many years.
Provided by
Oregon Health & Science University
-
ADHD kids need individualized treatment
Nov 18, 2011 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Creativity is an upside to ADHD
Mar 11, 2011 |
not rated yet |
0
-
AAP expands ages for diagnosis and treatment of ADHD in children
Oct 16, 2011 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Mutant gene linked to ADHD
Apr 18, 2011 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Better ADHD screening is developed
Jul 25, 2006 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Motion perception revisited: High Phi effect challenges established motion perception assumptions
Apr 23, 2013 |
3 / 5 (2) |
2
-
Anything you can do I can do better: Neuromolecular foundations of the superiority illusion (Update)
Apr 02, 2013 |
4.5 / 5 (11) |
5
-
The visual system as economist: Neural resource allocation in visual adaptation
Mar 30, 2013 |
5 / 5 (2) |
9
-
Separate lives: Neuronal and organismal lifespans decoupled
Mar 27, 2013 |
4.9 / 5 (8) |
0
-
Sizing things up: The evolutionary neurobiology of scale invariance
Feb 28, 2013 |
4.8 / 5 (10) |
14
-
Sphygmomonometers energy...storage?
2 hours ago
-
How does momentum, inertia and drag affect the motion of an object?
5 hours ago
-
What is Time-Varying Voltage?
6 hours ago
-
Contextual Relationships Between Momentum, Energy, and Force.
8 hours ago
-
Barometric pressure and the math behind it. Very interesting, I think.
9 hours ago
-
Doubts in electrostatics
15 hours ago
- More from Physics Forums - Classical Physics
More news stories
Expert explores how sunlight may affect ADHD patients
Researchers are interested in exploring how sunlight, sleep and screens (like those on computers and TVs) may affect those with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), says Dr. L. Eugene Arnold, a child psychiatrist ...
Attention deficit disorders
20 hours ago |
5 / 5 (3) |
0
Long-term ADHD treatment increases brain dopamine transporter levels, may affect drug efficacy
Long-term treatment of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) with certain stimulant medications may alter the density of the dopamine transporter, according to research published May 15 in the open access journal ...
Attention deficit disorders
May 15, 2013 |
not rated yet |
0
Can breastfeeding protect against ADHD?
Breastfeeding has a positive impact on the physical and mental development of infants. A new study suggests that breastfeeding may protect against the development of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder ...
Attention deficit disorders
May 14, 2013 |
not rated yet |
0
Methylphenidate 'normalizes' activation in key brain areas in kids with ADHD
The stimulant drug methylphenidate "normalizes" activation of several brain areas in young patients with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), according to a review published in the May Harvard Review of Psychiatry. ...
Attention deficit disorders
May 09, 2013 |
5 / 5 (2) |
0
90 percent of pediatric specialists not following clinical guidelines when treating preschoolers with ADHD
A recent study by pediatricians from the Cohen Children's Medical Center of New York examined to what extent pediatric physicians adhere to American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) clinical guidelines regarding pharmacotherapy ...
Attention deficit disorders
May 04, 2013 |
5 / 5 (1) |
0
AIDS science at 30: 'Cure' now part of lexicon
Big names in medicine are set to give an upbeat assessment of the war on AIDS on Tuesday, 30 years after French researchers identified the virus that causes the disease.
For combat veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, 'fear circuitry' in the brain never rests
Chronic trauma can inflict lasting damage to brain regions associated with fear and anxiety. Previous imaging studies of people with post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, have shown that these brain regions can over-or ...
Temporal processing in the olfactory system
The neural machinery underlying our olfactory sense continues to be an enigma for neuroscience. A recent review in Neuron seeks to expand traditional ideas about how neurons in the olfactory bulb might encode information about ...
Melon focus headband turns to Kickstarter for rollout plans
(Medical Xpress)—What if the quality of your work depends more on your focus on the piano keys or canvas or laptop than your musical or painting or computing skills? If target users can be convinced, they ...
Now we know why old scizophrenia medicine works on antibiotics-resistant bacteria
In 2008 researchers from the University of Southern Denmark showed that the drug thioridazine, which has previously been used to treat schizophrenia, is also a powerful weapon against antibiotic-resistant bacteria such as ...
Study identifies new approach to improving treatment for MS and other conditions
(Medical Xpress)—Working with lab mice models of multiple sclerosis (MS), UC Davis scientists have detected a novel molecular target for the design of drugs that could be safer and more effective than current FDA-approved ...