The Etiology of Adhd

“The Pythagorean theorem is A squared plus B squared,”

“The sky is really blue today, was that Mrs. Scanlon that just drove by?

Mrs. Scanlon makes the best cookies I have ever had in my life!”

“C squared, this only work with triangles that have a ninety degree angle in them.

Also know as a right triangle.”

“I wonder what is in the cafeteria today. I sure hope its not fish. Grandpa Martin has a great fishing boat, we caught a bunch of fish last time we went out.”

Many people are unaware of the hardships Attention-Deficit-Disorder (ADD) can place on a child in school. It makes paying attention in math class harder than saying the Declaration of Independence, backwards. The smallest things will catch your eye and trigger a chain of thoughts that can range from A – Z, and often times this distraction cannot even be controlled by the child. ADD is the most common neurobehavioral disorder of childhood. ADD is prevalent in approximately 5% to 10% of the United States Children, and it is diagnosed in males roughly nine times more than it is in females. (DiMaio et al, 2003) The odd part about ADD is that for having such a large number of diagnoses it is extremely strange that there is still no exact etiology of ADD. Many people have done numerous studies and numerous surveys, but there is still no definite answer. Those many studies have not come back with nothing. In fact there are many theories on where ADD is originated. Many studies have shown that the etiology of ADD is environmental. Some have shown that it to be hereditary and claim there are many genetic traces. All these study show what they believe to be the etiology of ADD.

The first theory suggests that there is an environmental approach to the Etiology of ADD. Studies of environmental hardships have exceedingly difficult implications. Some believe that there are many prenatal links to ADD. Some of those implications are pregnancy and delivery complications. In a study done by the National Institute for Environmental Health’s and Sciences (NIEHS), an early delivery or a complication during the final stages of pregnancy could cause the Central Nervous System (CNS) to have problems fully organizing and developing (NIEHS, 2001). For example those babies that are born weeks or even months early, were not allowed to have the same amount of time in the womb, where the babies body has the fastest and most efficient growth rate. Once the baby leaves the womb then it has to deal with other outside complications that in the womb, it would not have to endure. Other Environmental factors include marital distress and family dysfunction. These possible environmental causal factors play a crucial role in the disorder’s etiology. Even in early stages of the CNS building process, stress from the mother can often cause complications in the organizing of the CNS (Faraone, 1998). What many women do not realize is that just abstaining from smoking and drinking alone is not enough for the child’s growth process; the baby feels all ailments experienced by the carrier. The research accumulated suggests that there is a relationship of both psychosocial and biological factors in the incidence of ADD (Cherkes-Julkowski, 1998). Other authors note, however, that psychosocial factors are not thought to play nearly as important a role in the disorder’s etiology as are biological factors (Cantwell, 1996). Judith Stern, Professor at The University of California at Davis, says, “environment loads the gun, but genetics pulls the trigger.”

Many theorists believe biological factors implicated in the etiology of ADD are numerous. Magnetic resonance imaging findings suggest that children with ADD have abnormal frontal lobes. Another area of function in the brain that might warrant future studies would be the dorsolateral area of frontal lobes as well as the dorsolateral prefrontal circuit of functioning. Many people who have studied this (Reeve et al, 2001) believe that the dorsolateral area is responsible for attention and planning. Since this dorsolateral area of the frontal lobes is more often damaged in children and adults with ADD it tends to take the blame. Difficulties in planning and short-term memory tend to be prevalent in dorsolateral syndromes. These findings also show that there was a reduction in the volume of the rostrum, and rostral body of the corpus callosum in children with ADD (Reeve et al, 2001). Single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) studies have revealed focal cerebral hypo fusion of striatum and hyper fusion in sensory and sensor motor areas. These brain areas are involved in the