Psychological Treatment For ADHD Disorder & Causes, Symptoms

ADHD means Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Parents and teachers should be aware of how to deal with inattentive, hyperactive and impulsive kids.

ADHD is actually the disorder of brain and behaviour and affects 3-5% of children. The symptoms start before seven years of age. If seen globally the children affected by ADHD is 5 %. ADHD, is one of the most common mental disorders in children. Children who have ADHD find it hard to be around people, at home, school and in relationships with peers. If the disorder is not treated, the disorder might have long term effects in childhood and adolescence.

The symptoms of ADHD are as follows:

Impulsiveness:

Doing things without thinking about the result, doing one task and jumping to the other in the next second, disorganization, interrupting when other people are talking.

Hyperactivity:

Restlessness, not being able to sit still, fidgeting continously, squirming, climbing and restless sleep.

Inattention:

Easily distracted, day dreaming, incomplete tasks, difficulty in listening.

Subtypes of ADHD:

Predominantly hyperactive-impulsive:

 Most symptoms (six or more) are in the hyperactivity-impulsivity categories. 

Fewer inattention symptoms are present, but they are present.

Predominantly inattentive:

The majority of symptoms (six or more) are in the inattention category and fewer than six symptoms of hyperactivity-impulsivity are present, and hyper activity-impulsivity might still be present. Children like these have less likely to have difficulties getting along with other people. They just sit quietly and do not pay attention to what the others are doing. So, it is possible that a child who has ADHD might be neglected and the teachers might not notice the ADHD symptoms.

Combined hyperactive-impulsive and inattentive:

Six or more symptoms of inattention and six or more symptoms of hyperactivity-impulsivity are present. 

Most children have the combined type of ADHD

Causes:

There are no special causes of ADHD. However, there are some factors that lead to ADHD. These include genetics, diet, social and physical environments.

Genetic factors:

Studies have shown that ADHD is very much heritable and genetics are a factor in about 75% of ADHD cases. Hyperactivity is also said to be a genetic condition but there are other causes which have an affect. A large majority of ADHD cases arise from a combination of various genes, which also affects a chemical in the brain called dopamine. ADHD might not really be a gentic disease and should be seen as a complex interaction among genetic and environmental factors.

Environmental factors:

Environmental factors that lead to ADHD include alcohol and tobacco smoke exposure when a women is pregnant. Complications during the time-period of pregnancy and birth might also contribute to the ADHD problems.

Diet 

Additives

According to studies, dietary elimination of artificial food coloring and preservatives benefit children with sugar regulation. It is also known that sugar intake does not contribute to the symptoms diagnosed in children with ADHD.

Omega-3 supplement

Omega-3 supplement is another treatment for ADHD but there have been some conflicts about the supplement.

Social factors

Social factors alone are not a cause of ADHD. Studies have shown that if children are not given much attention by their caretakers, it might have a profound effect on the self-regulatory abilities. It was also seen that the children living in the foster homes had symptoms that were closely related with ADHD. These also included those children who were emotionally abused and had gone through violence.

Head injury

Another cause of ADHD might also be the head injuries, but some evidence has shown that head injuries might not really be the cause of ADHD in the patients observed.