ADHD not just bad behavior?

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DanieltheDragon
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ADHD not just bad behavior?

Post #1

Post by DanieltheDragon »

http://www.timeslive.co.za/sundaytimes/ ... our-study1


A major study using brain scans to detect structural differences between people with ADHD and those without. Key points:

1. The study group had people who had and had not taken ADHD medication and found no structural differences ruling out the effects of the medication with regards to previous brain scan studies.

2. Overall brain volume was smaller

3. The amygdala was smaller, which is the region that regulates emotion

__________________


Given the new findings do you still consider ADHD just a behavior issue?

Should ADHD sufferers be treated?
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Re: ADHD not just bad behavior?

Post #2

Post by benchwarmer »

DanieltheDragon wrote: http://www.timeslive.co.za/sundaytimes/ ... our-study1


A major study using brain scans to detect structural differences between people with ADHD and those without. Key points:

1. The study group had people who had and had not taken ADHD medication and found no structural differences ruling out the effects of the medication with regards to previous brain scan studies.

2. Overall brain volume was smaller

3. The amygdala was smaller, which is the region that regulates emotion

__________________


Given the new findings do you still consider ADHD just a behavior issue?

Should ADHD sufferers be treated?
I think anyone with a medically verified issue should be treated.

My problem is that it seems many people like to lump other non related issues under various labels and then blame that label instead of the underlying problem.

For example, I know some parents who never imposed any sort of coherent discipline with their children and they wondered why the children always acted out. Naturally, the children practically ran the house and chaos was the order of the day. Rather than taking a hard look at their parenting style, they went on a mission to have their kids tested for every disorder they could find. One week it was ADHD, the next it was autism, etc. Now, just to be clear, the children may have actual medical issues which exacerbate the underlying chaos. However, the parents seemed more focused on finding a medical issue (which is understandable to a degree, everyone wants healthy children) rather than looking at themselves.

I realize this is probably a bit of a side rant, but it really irks me when people would rather slap a bunch of labels on their children and blame that rather than first ruling out the simple causes which are being pointed out to them. It seems easier to medicate your children rather than learn how to parent in some cases.

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Re: ADHD not just bad behavior?

Post #3

Post by DanieltheDragon »

[Replying to post 2 by benchwarmer]

I feel this may be good news with the problem you are referring to. This should help refine diagnosis and rule out misdiagnosis. The thing that bothers me is that people refer to this as a children's disease failing to take into account that it doesn't simply resolve itself over time. This study should help adults to. Now that we have identified key areas to study medications could be improved as well.

Another concern is brain scans are expensive and I don't see insurances ponying up to use this as a diagnostic tool.
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Re: ADHD not just bad behavior?

Post #4

Post by benchwarmer »

[Replying to post 3 by DanieltheDragon]

I agree, any advancement in diagnostic tools is fantastic news. Misdiagnosis can often be worse than no diagnosis.

I watched my mother get misdiagnosed for years before they finally did a test for MS. Improper diagnoses can lead to false hope, potentially damaging medication for the wrong thing, and later treatment of the actual problem.

Ain't science grand?

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Re: ADHD not just bad behavior?

Post #5

Post by marco »

DanieltheDragon wrote:
Given the new findings do you still consider ADHD just a behavior issue?
It is a behaviour issue but apparently investigators have identified it as something that can be given a medical name, a syndrome, a disorder. Given that humans are different, act differently and play differently then it is hardly surprising that when we study a group of children we shall notice differences and with a bit of good will we can give certain differences names. The French say that to understand everything is to forgive everything. We may be offering murderers baskets of fruit in the future.

But who knows - perhaps there really are things called syndromes.

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Post #6

Post by Neatras »

With the onset of medical science, the range of passable brain states has gone up, at least from a perspective taking genetic drift into account. Strictly speaking, the label "normal" will not be able to exclude milder forms of ADHD or autism for much longer. As the population containing "abnormal" brain states increases (or rather, abnormal people survive to a reproductive age), their proliferation through future generations will also escalate. If there aren't enough selective pressures (which we have a habit of eliminating using superior environmental controls and technology), we will experience a phenomenon where only the most severe forms of antisocial or self-destructive behavior will require any treatment; almost all other forms of abnormal psychology will be so ingrained in culture, and so risk-free given our engineered environment, that treatment will be considered extraneous.

This is, of course, excluding the notion of medical science improving over the next century or so and eliminating many of the "disorderly" brain states by modifying humans directly. Alzheimer's, schizophrenia, and various other conditions come to mind.

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Re: ADHD not just bad behavior?

Post #7

Post by Kenisaw »

benchwarmer wrote:
DanieltheDragon wrote: http://www.timeslive.co.za/sundaytimes/ ... our-study1


A major study using brain scans to detect structural differences between people with ADHD and those without. Key points:

1. The study group had people who had and had not taken ADHD medication and found no structural differences ruling out the effects of the medication with regards to previous brain scan studies.

2. Overall brain volume was smaller

3. The amygdala was smaller, which is the region that regulates emotion

__________________


Given the new findings do you still consider ADHD just a behavior issue?

Should ADHD sufferers be treated?
I think anyone with a medically verified issue should be treated.

My problem is that it seems many people like to lump other non related issues under various labels and then blame that label instead of the underlying problem.

For example, I know some parents who never imposed any sort of coherent discipline with their children and they wondered why the children always acted out. Naturally, the children practically ran the house and chaos was the order of the day. Rather than taking a hard look at their parenting style, they went on a mission to have their kids tested for every disorder they could find. One week it was ADHD, the next it was autism, etc. Now, just to be clear, the children may have actual medical issues which exacerbate the underlying chaos. However, the parents seemed more focused on finding a medical issue (which is understandable to a degree, everyone wants healthy children) rather than looking at themselves.

I realize this is probably a bit of a side rant, but it really irks me when people would rather slap a bunch of labels on their children and blame that rather than first ruling out the simple causes which are being pointed out to them. It seems easier to medicate your children rather than learn how to parent in some cases.
Completely agree here Bench. Its lazy parenting, or even worse diagnosis my non-medical people who think they know what they are talking about, and convince themselves or someone else of a problem that doesn't actually exist.

You need a license to drive or to own a business, but any two morons can have children...

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Re: ADHD not just bad behavior?

Post #8

Post by DanieltheDragon »

[Replying to post 5 by marco]
It is a behaviour issue but apparently investigators have identified it as something that can be given a medical name, a syndrome, a disorder
This is why I put "just" in the question as the research indicates the behavioral issues stem from a physical disability. Not to point out that ADHD is not a behavioral disorder but that disorders like ADHD can have physical links and those physical links should be treated much in the same way we would treat other physical ailments.

We wouldn't tell a person with broken legs to just suck it up and deal. We set the bone put it in a cast administer pain medication. Supply crutches until the bone has strengthened. A person with a broken bone doesn't get stigmatized for seeking medical help the same way a person with a mental illness does. As a society we collectively tell people to suck it up.
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Re: ADHD not just bad behavior?

Post #9

Post by marco »

DanieltheDragon wrote: [Replying to post 5 by marco]
It is a behaviour issue but apparently investigators have identified it as something that can be given a medical name, a syndrome, a disorder
This is why I put "just" in the question as the research indicates the behavioral issues stem from a physical disability. Not to point out that ADHD is not a behavioral disorder but that disorders like ADHD can have physical links and those physical links should be treated much in the same way we would treat other physical ailments.

We wouldn't tell a person with broken legs to just suck it up and deal. We set the bone put it in a cast administer pain medication. Supply crutches until the bone has strengthened. A person with a broken bone doesn't get stigmatized for seeking medical help the same way a person with a mental illness does. As a society we collectively tell people to suck it up.

That's fine - by all means treat the afflicted, try to cure the ill. The problem is that those diagnosing belong to a branch of medicine not far from mythology and theology and their verdicts are at least suspect.

It is interesting that some syndromes came into being when some such medical people got their medical certificates. An odd coincidence.

But I oversimplify, of course.

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Re: ADHD not just bad behavior?

Post #10

Post by Divine Insight »

DanieltheDragon wrote: Given the new findings do you still consider ADHD just a behavior issue?
But isn't ADHD a diagnosis based precisely on behavior?

ADHD is actually a description of behavioral symptoms.

The precise cause of the behavior may not have been determined.

DanieltheDragon wrote: 2. Overall brain volume was smaller

3. The amygdala was smaller, which is the region that regulates emotion

Should ADHD sufferers be treated?
How do you treat a small brain volume, or a small amygdala?

Does the treatment for ADHD increase brain volume and amygdala size?

If not, then exactly what does the treatment do? Perhaps whatever the treatment actually does is more in line with the true cause of these behavioral problems?
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