Involuntary Eye Movement May Provide Definitive Diagnosis of ADHD 200
Zothecula writes: If a child who's simply very active is mistakenly diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), he can end up on pharmaceuticals such as Ritalin unnecessarily. The problem is, it can be quite difficult to determine if someone actually has ADHD, and misdiagnoses are common. Now, however, researchers from Tel Aviv University have announced that analyzing a patient's eye movements may be the key. "The researchers found a direct correlation between ADHD and the inability to suppress eye movement in the anticipation of visual stimuli. The research also reflected improved performance by participants taking methylphenidate, which normalized the suppression of involuntary eye movements to the average level of the control group."
I would be very interested... (Score:4, Insightful)
100 percent bullshit (Score:2, Insightful)
The persistence of the notion of this disorder is disturbing. The method by which it's diagnosed is faulty. You can't come in after all this legacy of crap and tell us that you can diagnose it physiologically using a single criteria like this. These assertions will be disproven within the year. The entire ADHD diagnosis phenomenon is the culture struggling with the ramifications of human interaction with technology. You can't set the example of "pay close attention to the stimulating box for long periods of time" over multiple generations and not expect a massive change in the way kids behave. Whether they fit in with our plans or not, these kids are NORMAL. It's the expectation that this generation will behave like the previous one which is faulty.
Re:Fake diseases (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I would be very interested... (Score:3, Insightful)
As others have pointed out, in most cases this is called "being a kid." If something's presented in a boring way, try to do that differently. And, more importantly, try to think outside your box and find out things on which she does focus pretty well.
Re:100 percent bullshit (Score:3, Insightful)
He was right except for the part about "interactions with technology." We've built up some sort of model kid and heavily medicate those that fail to follow the model closely. That model kid happens to be highly risk adverse, entirely compatible with quiet suburban life and profoundly concerned with the sensitivities of its elders, their jet set lifestyles and half dozen credit lines. It's got little to do with stimulating boxes and everything to do with shoehorning kids into compliant slots in their parents world.
His skepticism of this supposed new diagnostic method is spot on. This is pseudo-science used to rationalize drugging people that don't fit the model, employ vast numbers of highly paid specialists and sink wealth into "health care."
Re:I would be very interested... (Score:5, Insightful)
Nope.
Notice the "regardless of the circumstances".
Medicating with amphetamine all the time is obviosuly quite moronic.
I myself need it to function normally in the work-environment.
I didn't even realize what people meant by saying "just concentrate" until I took my first methylphenedate when I was 25.
ADHD is an issue, and it's NOT just kids being kids.
It's a fundamentally different way for the brain/body to function then the norm.
Re:inb4 (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:inb4 (Score:5, Insightful)
Ignorance is a bliss. ADD and ADHD can actually be physically shown as disorder of the brains dopamine system - but you wouldn't know that since you haven't actually studied any real information about ADD/ADHD as it's easier to hold on to your pre-determined opinions when you have no facts to confuse you.
Also, that ADD/ADHD is a "children issue" only is something that makes me angry. I was diagnosed with ADHD at age of 26. Since I've started with medication my life, in certain areas has become much easier - some would say much more "normal", but I like to avoid that term. I was finally able to get through education on IT field - something people like you claimed I had problems only because of lack of motivation. They say that lack of motivation was the reason I couldn't pass a 3-year education even though I tried for 5-years, and they happily miss seeing anything illogical in their statement.
I do sometimes wonder how different my life had been if ADD/ADHD had been known when I was a kid. For sure I would have avoided many problems with school as well as with other problems I made my family go through... Child services tried to find ways to help me and my family, but they didn't know about ADHD back then, so the reasons behind my misbehaviours remained mystery.
May I presume you are a US citizen? I apologize if I'm wrong... However if I'm right then I have less problems understanding how, no matter how ignorant and irrational, you have come to your conclusions. It is true that medical industry is milking this thing - and USA is the leader in over-diagnosing of ADD/ADHD. Still, just like with chronic depression, the fact that some doctors are over diagnosing a medical condition and the fact that pharmaceutical companies are always more than willing to milk such errors to the maximum does not mean that said medical condition is false. Also it's logical fallacy to say that because a condition had not been known before a time, it didn't thus exists before said time.
Re:inb4 (Score:5, Insightful)
Nice diagnosis doctor assface.
Check the research. [nytimes.com]
Basically, ADHD isn't being able to sit still for a long time, it's not being able to focus on things that aren't fun.
For most brains, being able to get through say, homework, isn't a problem. You just sit down, figure, it's going to take about 20 minutes to do all the math problems and you go play video games.
For someone with ADHD, the brain is constantly craving rewards. So video games, movies, etc. all basically jam a fork into the pleasure centers of the brain. So ADHD kids can sit still and enjoy the fuck out of it. When the gears shift, and into say work mode, there's nothing jamming against the pleasure center and the mind loses focus.
Re:I don't know what they're talking about (Score:5, Insightful)
We also a problem of celebrating the ability to multi-task as an adult, and yet getting on the case of any child who exhibits those abilities because they're not "focused" enough.
Diagnosed (Score:4, Insightful)
I've got ADHD for real. My doctor used to joke that I was the only kid he knew of that definitively had it, the rest he was just pretty sure about. At the time they were heavily medicating children for it... much worse than they do now and my parents refused to have me walking around like a zombie. Like it or not that was probably the most instrumental decision my parents made in my upbringing. Without the medication, I was left to cope with the symptoms on my own. If given several tasks to complete, I'd spend hours bouncing from one to the other and never really start any of them. Eventually I learned to deal with it on my own but never really knew how until I got to talk about it with a few shrinks.
What I did was learn a type of "Hyper focus" they described as common amongst the afflicted. I would drive all other thoughts from my mind, almost like a Buddhist, and then focus exclusively on my task. If I allowed other topics into my mind, I'd wander and lose track of what I was doing, so I instead learned not to let myself think about anything else. This skill has it's upsides I was told. I was able to grasp larger, more complex tasks because my mind was not preocupide with other things. It also had it's downside. I'd be so focused on the task at hand that if someone interupetted me I'd fly into a rage: :-)
Me:WHAT?!?!
Wife: Dinners ready. Is programming the thermostat really that frustrating?
Me: um... sorry?
I'm glad to see they may have a definitive test, and it seems superior drugs. I don't want to say I wish I had them... I wouldn't be me without ADHD, but I welcome any tools that help parents be more informed. I wouldn't give up being abnormal for the world, but I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy either.
Re:inb4 (Score:2, Insightful)
The ability to "hyper-focus" on certain stimuli (such as video games) is a hallmark symptom of ADHD...