More sleep may help teens with ADHD focus and organize
Study is first to find executive functioning skills deteriorate with lack of sleep
April 8, 2019
Science Daily/American Physiological Society
Teenagers with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may benefit from more sleep to help them focus, plan and control their emotions. The findings -- the first of their kind in young people with ADHD -- will be presented today at the American Physiological Society's (APS) annual meeting at Experimental Biology 2019 in Orlando, Fla.
ADHD is one of the most common neurobehavioral disorders among children and adolescents. People with ADHD often have trouble with executive function, which are skills that contribute to being able to focus, pay attention and manage time. Executive function challenges in young people may interfere with academic performance, social skills and emotional development. Previous research has found that a lack of sleep contributes to poorer executive functioning in typically developing adolescents, but teens with ADHD have not been studied.
Researchers from Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center measured executive function in adolescent volunteers with ADHD after two separate sleep trials. The volunteers spent a week in which their sleep was restricted to six and a half hours per night, followed by a week in which they were allowed to sleep up to nine and a half hours each night. After each trial, the research team administered the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function, Second Edition (BRIEF2), a widely used measure of executive function in children up to age 18. The BRIEF2 assesses executive function areas such as working memory, planning and organization, emotional control, initiation and inhibition.
The tests showed significant deficits in all of the assessed areas following the sleep-restriction week as compared to the sleep-extension week. "Increased sleep may significantly [and positively] impact academic, social and emotional functioning in adolescents with ADHD, and sleep may be an important future target for future intervention," the researchers wrote.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/04/190408081816.htm
Children with ADHD and their mothers may live less than average population
A study conducted by Brazilian researchers shows that hyperactivity can produce chromosome changes that affect health
September 28, 2015
Science Daily/D'Or Institute for Research and Education
Brazilian scientists found that ADHD children and their mothers are more likely to have shorter telomeres, a hallmark of cellular aging, which is associated with increased risk for chronic diseases and conditions like diabetes, obesity and cancer.
Psychiatric disorders like Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) impact family's emotions and social life. It is well known. What is new is that this condition also affects the DNA of patients and their parents. Brazilian scientists from the D'Or Institute of Research and Education (IDOR) and the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) found that ADHD kids and their mothers are more likely to have shorter telomeres, a hallmark of cellular aging, which is associated with increased risk for chronic diseases and conditions like diabetes, obesity and cancer.
Telomeres cap the ends of chromosomes and act as protection against the loss of protein-coding DNA during cell division. While telomere shortening happens naturally with aging, researches indicate the process is accelerated by psychological and biological stress. The shorter the telomeres are, shorter is the biological "life expectancy" of one.
The study, published in Frontiers of Molecular Neuroscience, assessed the length of telomeres from 61 ADHD children (age 6 to 16) and their parents. Even among the children, who are beginning their lives, researchers found shorter telomeres than those that would be expected for their ages. Although mother's telomeres were also shorter, they did not find any alteration in the father's telomere length.
The researchers believe the phenomenon is due to the stress that ADHD symptoms generate for the children and their mothers. Mothers are in most cases the main caretaker of the offspring, showing higher levels of depressive disorders and stress in parenting their children than fathers. ADHD symptoms usually appear during childhood and vary from inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity -- a combination that can produce negative effects on children's and its relative's lives.
"When people think about behavioral issues with children, they think about the psychological component and how that impacts school performance and interaction with society," points out one of the study's authors, neuropsychiatry Paulo Mattos from IDOR. "These kind of impact are real, but what we are showing for the first time now is that TDAH can impact at the cellular level, at the DNA."
Telomere length is highly heritable. Fathers and mothers with shorter telomeres transmit this characteristic to their children. It means that ADHA children, who already have shorten telomeres, will generate an offspring with shorter telomeres at birth.
The researchers also noticed that hyperactivity symptoms are more related to the telomere length than inattention symptoms. They observed that higher levels of hyperactivity in children were associated with shorter relative telomere in ADHD children and in their mothers.
"This makes sense if you think that hyperactivity is the symptom that affects more negatively the family and causes more stress," say Mattos. "It is usually the reason why parents search for medical care in the first place."
The findings underscore the importance of intervening early to address behavior issues in children to prevent psychosocial stress and shortening of telomeres.
"Decrease the hyperactivity and impulsivity levels in children is fundamental to them and their mothers and this can be achieved by several behavioral techniques applied as soon as possible," affirms another author of the study, geneticist and pediatrician Débora Miranda from UFMG.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/09/150928082158.htm
ADHD diagnosis puts girls at much higher risk for other mental health problems
October 4, 2016
Science Daily/University of California - Los Angeles
Girls with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder are at higher risk than girls without ADHD for multiple mental disorders that often lead to cascading problems such as abusive relationships, teenage pregnancies, poor grades and drug abuse, psychologists report.
The researchers, who conducted by far the most comprehensive analysis of girls and ADHD, report:
• 37.7 percent of girls with ADHD met criteria for an anxiety disorder, compared with only 13.9 percent of girls without ADHD.
• 10.3 percent of girls with ADHD were diagnosed with depression compared with only 2.9 percent without ADHD.
• 42 percent of girls with ADHD were diagnosed with oppositional defiant disorder, compared with just 5 percent of girls without it. Oppositional defiant disorder is characterized by angry, hostile, irritable, defiant behavior. To meet the diagnosis for oppositional defiant disorder, a child must display at least four of eight symptoms for at least six months that result in significant academic, social and family problems.
• 12.8 percent of girls with ADHD were diagnosed with conduct disorder compared with only 0.8 percent without ADHD. Conduct disorder is similar to oppositional defiant disorder, but with more severe behavioral problems, such as committing violent acts, setting fires and hurting animals.
"We knew the girls with ADHD would have more problems than the girls without ADHD, but we were surprised that conduct disorder and oppositional defiant disorder were at the top of the list, not depression or anxiety," said Steve Lee, a UCLA associate professor of psychology and senior author of the study. "These conduct disorders, more than anxiety and depression, predict severe adult impairments, such as risky sexual behavior, abusive relationships, drug abuse and crime."
Symptoms of ADHD include being easily distracted, fidgeting, being unable to complete a single task and being easily bored. The disorder occurs in approximately 5 percent to 10 percent of children in the United States, and figures in many other industrialized countries with compulsory education are comparable, Lee said. ADHD can begin in pre-school kids and can persist into high school and into adulthood, especially when it's accompanied by oppositional conduct disorder.
The psychologists analyzed 18 studies of 1,997 girls, about 40 percent (796) of whom had ADHD. Most of the girls were between ages 8 and 13. Most ADHD studies focused on boys, or compared girls with ADHD to boys with ADHD -- not to girls without ADHD.
ADHD is often harder to detect in girls than in boys because girls with the disorder may appear disengaged, forgetful or disorganized, and perceived as "spacey" and stay "under the radar" without being referred for assessment and treatment, said lead author Irene Tung, a UCLA graduate student in psychology and National Science Foundation graduate research fellow.