WP: At Last, Attention Shifts to Girls (ADHD study)

[DeepModem Mom]

At Last, Attention Shifts to Girls
Symptoms May Differ, but ADHD Risks Are as Real as for Boys, Study Finds
By Sandra G. Boodman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 11, 2006; Page HE01

A major long-term study of girls diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in elementary school has found they are at greater risk for substance abuse, emotional problems and academic difficulties in adolescence than their peers who don't have the common neurobehavioral condition. The results, experts say, should help dispel the myth that the disorder, which affects an estimated 4.4 million American children, poses less of a risk to girls than to boys, on whom most research has focused.

The federally funded study by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, involves more than 200 girls who have been followed since 1997, when they were 6 to 12. The broadly focused study is designed to measure the ways ADHD, a disorder characterized by pervasive inattention and impulsivity, affects peer relationships, impairs school performance and is linked to substance abuse and psychological problems....

***

"The cumulative picture is that girls with ADHD are at risk for a lot of problems," said (Stephen P.) Hinshaw, chairman of the psychology department at Berkeley and a prominent ADHD researcher. Hinshaw said he and his colleagues did not expect the "breadth of impairment" they found. The team began the study with 228 girls: 140 had ADHD, while 88 did not.

Five years later, researchers conducted a follow-up study involving 209 of the girls, who had entered middle and high school. In nearly a dozen areas examined by researchers -- including academic performance, prevalence of eating disorders, relationships with peers and teachers, and organizational skills -- the girls with ADHD were significantly more likely to have problems than those in a matched control group who did not have the disorder.

The gap in reading and math ability had widened in five years and new concerns had emerged: About 30 percent of the girls with ADHD were at least mildly depressed, compared with 10 percent of the control group, Hinshaw said. The same percentages were seen in substance abuse....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/10/AR2006071000703.html

[SoCalDem]

1. Some day..someone will probably "discover" that ADHD

has its roots in the way children are treated in their first few years of life..

I have no "credentials" to back me up,but I know it;s not great for child development to have perpetually stressed Moms, and it's not ideal to have been put in daycare at 6 weeks, woken from a sound sleep at 4:30 am every workday, or to have entered preschool the second you quit pooping your diapers..or to be schlepped to an ever-changing parade of stranger-sitters, or to have been sequentially enrolled in tumbling, ballet, singing lessons, soccer, gymboree, dance, violin lessons, Tball, little league, pop warner football, after school tutoring, etc.

or to arrive home to an empty house, full of technology, but no humans..

or to be afraid/not allowed to go outside and play after school (that latchkey thing)

to sit at home or at a sitters for hours, waiting for a parent, and then to be shunted to the side as harried parents rush to prepare dinner..

and then it's bedtime..and it starts all over..

Years of that can take a toll on a kid..(or parent) :(

[shrike]

2. Er, I was raised by a stay-at-home mom

and never attended pre-school. And I have ADD. My father was also raised by an SAHM, never attended pre-school and grew up without a television. He also had ADD.

You don't know what you're talking about.

[Lorien]

3. All the women in my family have ADD

There's a genetic link; I don't think that environment has anything to do with it aside from diet (diets high in sugar and High Fructose Corn Syrup aggravate ADD).

[NVMojo]

4. well, gee, my egg donor beat the holy hell out of my little sisters and I

when we were growing up and she was a stay at home mom and I have ADHD. What do you know! 2 of my three sisters and I have ADHD just like my dad, his siblings and the ones before them and we can blame it all on our stressed out egg donors. Amazing!

It's about time research was spent on this issue and females.

[WildClarySage]

5. Girls with non-hyperactive ADD

like I was, are so much more likely to slip through the diagnostic cracks and never get the help they need. I spent a miserable childhood because everyone thought I was just lazy and had no sense. It's the hyperactivity component that gets the attention and girls who don't exhibit that symptom get overlooked. Thank heavens they're doing this kind of research.

Oh, and yeah, it's a very real disorder. Not how one was raised or lack of a sensible diet.

[shrike]

6. I hear ya

The early part of my life was absolute hell. Unfortunately I'm one of those lucky souls whose ADD symptoms follow them into adulthood, so until I was diagnosed life wasn't so very good. I'm so glad there's an awareness of girls with ADD these days, not to mention a study.

[mithnanthy]

7. I've lived with A.D.D. an entire lifetime

....and I'm approaching 60. School was hell and punishment at home for getting low grades, while having tested highly on I.Q. tests, was worse. I became anorexic from FEAR of school. Education is the ONLY thing that mattered to my adoptive parents. Back in the 50's and 60's, no one knew what was wrong, so I was acused as being lazy or psychologically distressed, as IF I wanted to be humiliated in class by teachers in the all girls private school and to be constantly critized. And I hated the negitive attention. I was 50 when I realized I had A.D.D. To this day....I still get a SICK feeling, trying to read BOOKS and still fear a classroom and tests (I remember there always being a big STACK of books on my desk at home, waiting to be read and volumes of homework constantly). I've never tried the pharms they perscribe nor do I want to. Thank Goddess for my simplistic webtv system which allows me to watch TV news while being on the internet. I have learned to read like an adult and can go at my own pace, while multi-tasking, without losing concentration. I am glad they are studying the girls, in hopes they don't have re-occuring nightmares of school, classrooms, tests, final exams, that have lasted a lifetime. I left home 2 weeks before I was scheduled to attend a low rated college for fear I would "off myself" than to face MORE SCHOOL and more failure and more punishment.. I was never forgiven.