ADHD

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) refers to a family of related disorders that interfere with a child's capacity to regulate activity level (hyperactivity), inhibit behaviour (impulsivity), and attend to tasks (inattention) at home and at school. It affects an estimated 3-5% of school aged children and can continue into adulthood.

Various genetic and environmental risk factors for ADHD have been identified, though its causes are not yet defined.

There are three main types of ADHD:

• Predominantly inattentive type in which children are overly forgetful about what they have been asked to do, easily distracted, and unable to organise or finish simple tasks
• Predominantly hyperactive-impulsive type which makes it hard for children to sit still and listen to classmates, teachers or others
• Combined type when children have all three symptoms of inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity.

ADHD is three times more common in boys than girls, and most boys have predominantly hyperactive-impulsive symptoms.

Children with ADHD tend to have low self esteem, emotional and social problems, and are likely to have problems at school. For many individuals, the impact of ADHD continues into adulthood.

Treating ADHD

One goal of ADHD treatment is to relieve the symptoms of the condition so as to enable the affected child to achieve more at school.

A comprehensive treatment programme, with behavioural and drug therapies for children, and advice and support for parents, carers and teachers, is considered to be the most effective way to treat ADHD.

Children can take available medications in several different ways, starting with a dose before they go to school. With short acting treatments, a second dose is needed at lunchtime when they are at school. This may be inconvenient or make children feel different from other children.

Other treatments work for 8 or even up to 12 hours. Some parents would prefer that their child wasn't medicated during the evening, as ADHD symptoms may not be such a problem at home. If they need to, they can give their child a short acting medication. This gives parents more flexibility.