Research Into Positive Traits
Possible positive traits of ADHD are a new avenue of research, and therefore limited. Studies are being done on whether ADHD symptoms could potentially be beneficial.
A 2020 review found that creativity may be associated with ADHD symptoms, particularly divergent thinking and quantity of creative achievements, but not with the disorder of ADHD itself â i.e. it has not been found to be increased in patients diagnosed with the disorder, only in patients with subclinical symptoms or those that possess traits associated with the disorder. Divergent thinking is the ability to produce creative solutions which differ significantly from each other and consider the issue from multiple perspectives. Those with ADHD symptoms could be advantaged in this form of creativity as they tend to have diffuse attention, allowing rapid switching between aspects of the task under consideration flexible associative memory, allowing them to remember and use more distantly-related ideas which is associated with creativity and impulsivity, which causes people with ADHD symptoms to consider ideas which others may not have. However, people with ADHD may struggle with convergent thinking, which is a cognitive process through which a set of obviously relevant knowledge is utilized in a focused effort to arrive at a single perceived best solution to a problem.
Tips For Managing Inattentive Adhd In Adulthood
An adult with inattentive ADHD may find it challenging to perform some everyday tasks, such as staying organized, keeping appointments, paying bills on time, and maintaining relationships with friends and family.
However, several strategies and can help a person with ADHD to maintain focus and regain control over their daily tasks.
Some helpful techniques include:
Getting organized: This can compensate for any symptomatic forgetfulness. Make to-do lists, use calendars and planners, and try to avoid procrastination.
Also, it can help to designate specific areas for important items, to reduce the risk of losing them.
It may help to avoid clutter by paying bills online and opting for paperless transactions.
When a collection of paperwork is unavoidable, it can help to set up and maintain a clearly labeled or color-coded filing system.
Managing time: Time perception can be difficult for people with ADHD.
Set specific times to do certain tasks. It can help to keep clocks handy, and to set alarms and reminders. Alarms can also help a person to plan for breaks during longer activities.
Ahead of appointments, plan to arrive early instead of on time.
Staying focused: It can help to start each workday by setting aside 510 minutes in which to organize tasks and the workspace. Try to work in a space with as few distractions and as little commotion as possible.
Also, when making plans, it may help to repeat the arrangements back to the person proposing them.
What Are The Symptoms Of Inattentive Adhd
The American Psychiatric Associations diagnostic manual for ADHD, the DSM-V, lists nine symptoms of inattentive ADHD. In a child or adolescent, at least six of these must be present and must significantly disrupt a patients life in order to merit a diagnosis. After age 17, only five symptoms must be present to warrant a diagnosis of ADHD.
- Often fails to give close attention to details or makes careless mistakes in schoolwork, at work, etc.
- Often has trouble holding attention on tasks or activities .
- Often does not seem to listen when spoken to directly.
- Often does not follow through on instructions and fails to finish schoolwork, chores, or duties in the workplace .
- Often has trouble organizing tasks and activities.
- Often avoids, dislikes, or is reluctant to do tasks that require mental effort over a long period of time.
- Often loses things necessary for tasks and activities .
- Is often forgetful in daily activities.
- Often distracted by stimuli
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What Else Can I Do To Help My Child
- Become informed. Find out all you can about all aspects of ADHD.
- Find out aboutmental health services in your area, including parent programs, groups for kids, and individual interventions to learn ways of helping with ADHD symptoms. Psychologists, behaviour specialists, mental health therapists, and some physicians are able to help coach families with effective behaviour strategies.
- Advocate for your child. You may need to help your childs teacher understand ADHD and what is being recommended to help your child. Teachers will help put in place the educational aspects of your childs ADHD treatment plan. Their observations can also be helpful when children are trialing or adjusting medication.
There is good information for parents in the resources below.
Inattentive Adhd Is More Prevalent In Women
Inattentive ADHD is more common in women than men. In women, inattentive ADHD often goes undiagnosed because some of its traits are confused with signs of stress or anxiety.
In some cases, inattentive ADHD can also co-occur with other mental health conditions, such as autism,anxiety disorders, depression, and substance abuse.
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How Do Stimulant Medications Treat Adhd
ADHD is a neurological disorder, resulting from the deficiency of a neurotransmitter, or a group of neurotransmitters, in specific areas of the brain. Neurotransmitters are chemicals that transmit signals between nerve cells by bridging the synapse between them.3
One key neurotransmitter often deficient in individuals with ADHD is norepinephrine, along with its building blocks, dopa and dopamine. In theory, the primary stimulant medications used to treat ADHD stimulate specific cells within the brain to produce more of this deficient neurotransmitter. Thats why these medications are called stimulants though its unknown exactly how they work to relieve ADHD symptoms.
The two main classes of stimulant medications, methylphenidate and dextro-amphetamine both generic names have been used since the 1930s.4 All brand-name stimulants are variations of these two medications. The ADHD medication Adderall for instance, is a modification of dextro-amphetamine. Methylphenidate, on the other hand comes in many forms with each variation having its own name.
What Your Doctor Will Do
First, the doctor will conduct a thorough medical examination to rule out other conditions. Some disorders such as learning disability or anxiety disorder can mimic ADHD.
Then, theyll watch your child for the symptoms associated with the subtypes of ADHD. This could mean observing your child during the day. You and your child will also take several ADHD rating scales. Your doctor will use these to help make an evaluation or diagnosis.
These scales dont give a definitive answer, but they can help you and your doctor see the bigger picture. The surveys will ask about your childs behavior in school, at home, or in other settings.
Asking other people, such as teachers and other family members, who interact with your child to provide behavior descriptions may also show a bigger picture of your childs behavior.
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What Is Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
Approximately 3-5% of children and 2% of adults in the UK are diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, making it one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders in children.
Despite significant progress in understanding ADHD and its subtypes, many still associate ADHD with high-energy, loud, fast-paced individuals. In actuality, only around 20 to 25% of people with ADHD fit the hyperactive subtype, which often displays these characteristics. The other 75 to 80% of people can be categorised as having one of the other two forms of ADHD predominantly inattentive ADHD or combined ADHD. Scientists are still studying the causes and risk factors of ADHD however, these still remain mostly unknown. Current research shows that genetics plays an important role, and there could be other risk factors too.
Inattentive type ADHD was referred to as ADD and considered a stand-alone condition however, the American Psychiatric Association changed this in 1987. The APA further developed things in 2013 to recognise the inattentive type of ADHD many people presented with, in addition to the predominantly hyperactive-impulsive presentation.
Adhd & Add In College
When the untreated ADHD adolescent goes off to college, their symptoms may noticeably increase since theyre now truly on their own and working without the advantage of a supportive, structured home environment.
Oftentimes, even very bright children who made it through high school without any issues were only able to do so because their supportive, structured home environment helped compensate for their neurophysiologic limitation with executive functioning.
When this individual gets to college, and their parents are no longer close at hand to back them up and act as a safety net, the ADHD adolescent can become quickly overwhelmed since theyre no longer being micro managed by their parents.
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Attention In Social Contexts
Social attention is one special form of attention that involves the allocation of limited processing resources in a social context. Previous studies on social attention often regard how attention is directed toward socially relevant stimuli such as faces and gaze directions of other individuals. In contrast to attending-to-others, a different line of researches has shown that self-related information such as own face and name automatically captures attention and is preferentially processed comparing to other-related information. These contrasting effects between attending-to-others and attending-to-self prompt a synthetic view in a recent Opinion article proposing that social attention operates at two polarizing states: In one extreme, individual tends to attend to the self and prioritize self-related information over others’, and, in the other extreme, attention is allocated to other individuals to infer their intentions and desires. Attending-to-self and attending-to-others mark the two ends of an otherwise continuum spectrum of social attention. For a given behavioral context, the mechanisms underlying these two polarities might interact and compete with each other in order to determine a saliency map of social attention that guides our behaviors. An imbalanced competition between these two behavioral and cognitive processes will cause cognitive disorders and neurological symptoms such as disorders and .
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Nov 03, 2016 · Treatment. Studies involving treatment plans that are specifically effective for children with the IN type of AD/HD are limited. Research is underway at the Mount Sinai AD/HD Center, supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health , to investigate the effectiveness of stimulant medications in children with IN..
Characterized by symptoms of inattentiveness, such as distractibility, failure to complete work, forgetfulness, and disorganization, the IN subtype differs from the more commonly recognized.
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Treating Brain Wave Abnormalities
A key component of our treatment protocols is the use of qEEG brain mapping, which helps us obtain a clearer picture of the dysregulation occurring in the brain.
Creating a brain map for an ADD/ADHD patient is every bit as important as running an EKG for a heart patient. The more information the physician has about whats causing the patients symptoms, the more effective their treatment can be.
As is true with any medical test, brain map findings must be correlated with the patients clinical symptoms and evaluated to determine optimal EEG biofeedback protocols.
When ADHD and ADD are present, the brain can be literally stuck in abnormal brain wave patterns, showing imbalances in either fast or slow brain wave activities, which is often the root cause of ADHD and ADD symptoms.
Either type of disrupted functioning can negatively affect the attentional and executive functioning systems in the brain, even in highly intelligent people.
Below is an image showing the “before and after” brain map of a patient who learned to normalize their frontal lobe brainwave patterns by completing our brain map guided neurofeedback treatment:
As a result of completing our treatment and improving brain functioning, this child’s quality of life was remarkably improved. Many of our patients report a substantial improvement in their life experience when their brain functioning improves as evidenced from their qEEG brain map.
What Are The Newest Adhd Medications
Qelbree is a non-stimulant approved for the treatment of ADHD in children and adults in 2021 and 2022, respectively.
Other new ADHD medications on the market include Jornay PM and Adhansia XR stimulant medications approved in 2019 by the Food and Drug Administration for use in children and adults. Unlike most stimulants, Jornay PM is taken in the evening the medication begins working by the time the patient wakes and through the rest of the day. Adhansia XR is available in six extended-release capsules, which include some of the highest dosage strengths currently on the market.
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Understanding The Inattentive Brain
For Inattentive ADD to occur, most commonly there is dysregulation in the prefrontal cortex. When this type of dysregulation is present, individuals may feel as if they need to be pushed to concentrate on non-preferred tasks in front of them.
This is because the prefrontal cortex plays a significant role in a persons ability to plan, focus, and to ignore external distractions present in their environment. And, with a dysregulated frontal lobe, the individual will not only find it difficult to focus, but they could also experience negative symptoms like mood swings, low self-esteem, low energy, poor executive functioning, and anxiety.
In the case of the individual seeking employment, the need to acquire employment may stimulate the patients brain to kick the brain into a temporary improved state of activation or functioning. However, this effect may only be temporary and once it wears off, the mundane act of executing the job is no longer stimulating enough to sustain focus and adequate functioning on their work.
At home, the inattentive individual might be excited to do some spring cleaning but immediately give up soon afterward as their brain cannot sustain a concerted effort to finish a non-stimulating task. In addition to the house being littered with clutter, trash, and unwashed dishes, the house may also be filled with unfinished projects as well.
What Happens If Adhd Is Left Untreated
Left untreated, ADHD and ADD can be a disruptive force for children, adolescents, and adults.
Indeed, ADHD and ADD can lead to late or incomplete homework assignments, poor performance at work, bullying, and even depression.
If you or someone you know is suffering from the symptoms of ADHD, its important to seek medical help ASAP.
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How It’s Different From Other Kinds Of Adhd
Inattentive ADHD used to be called attention deficit disorder. Children who have it have a very hard time paying attention. That’s how you can tell it apart from two other types of the disorder.
- Hyperactive-impulsive ADHD makes kids appear to be in constant motion. Their bodies and mouths are always going, as if driven by a motor.
- Combined ADHD is when a child has both inattentive and hyperactive-impulsive symptoms.
What Is Inattentive Adhd & Add
Inattentive ADHD or ADD is one of the theorized 7 types of ADD , and is characterized by an inability to focus, pay attention, and complete tasks assigned by either a parent, teacher, or work superior.
Inattentive ADD is a very common type of ADD. However, due to the nature of its observed symptoms, it is often confused for other disorders such as anxiety or depression. Indeed, while hyperactive individuals are easy to spot , children and adults afflicted by this ADD subtype often slip under the radar since their Inattentive ADHD symptoms often dont result in overt behavioral problems. Additionally, its important to note that Inattentive ADD is more likely to be present in girls than in boys.
Theres a lot to learn about Inattentive ADD, and in this article, we will discuss the specific features of this type of ADD, including how our medical and psychological professionals at the Drake Institute utilize non-drug, non-invasive treatment protocols to help families and individuals all around the world find relief from their ADD and ADHD symptoms.
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The Latest Treatment Technology: Neuromodulation
In addition to qEEG brain mapping and neurofeedback, the Drake Institute now uses Neuromodulation technology that consists of a low-intensity pulsed electromagnetic generator , transcranial Direct Current Stimulation , and transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation to treat ADD & ADHD symptoms.
How does it work?
Simply put, Neuromodulation can stimulate a brainwave pattern that the patient is deficient in. In turn, the dysregulated brain will then mimic or emulate the stimulation to produce healthier brainwave patterns.
This technology has had such a tremendous impact on our success rates that it is fully integrated into our treatment protocols available for each patient, resulting in faster improvements in symptom reduction and more normalization of post-treatment brain maps. In other words, it gets the brain healthier, faster.
Like all treatment protocols used by the Drake Institute, Neuromodulation Therapy is a non-invasive, safe, and clinically effective treatment option for individuals looking to reduce their ADD symptoms.
The History Of Adhd & Add
For historical accuracy, the diagnostic term ADD was actually discontinued in 1994 by the American Psychiatric Association’s published manual, the DSM-IV, and replaced with the diagnosis of ADHD consisting of 3 subtypes:
The DSM is used to classify recognized mental health disorders. In 2013, the new DSM-5 redefined ADHD once again into 3 main subtypes:
Many families are confused with the diagnostic label of ADHD when their child or the adult who is experiencing symptoms of the disorder has never been hyperactive nor impulsive, but to be clear, its entirely possible to be diagnosed with ADHD, even without the presence of hyperactivity.
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What Medicines Are Used To Treat Adhd
Stimulants
Although they wont cure ADHD, medications are more likely than other approaches to improve symptoms of attention, impulsivity and hyperactivity.
The most common medications used to treat ADHD are called stimulants. Stimulant medications will help improve symptoms for about 7 out of 10 children with ADHD.
Here is how stimulants work:
- When someone has ADHD, the pathways in the frontal lobe part of the brainwhich is involved in attentionarent working the way they should.
- Stimulants increase dopamine, a brain chemical that helps the pathways become more active.
- This increase in dopamine helps improve attention and decrease hyperactivity and impulsivity.
Stimulant medications have been used for a long time. Doctors understand how they work and what to watch for so that they are safe and effective.
Each of the 3 main stimulant medications has a different active ingredient:
- methylphenidate
- dextroamphetamine
- mixed amphetamine salts or MAS
All of these medications work in about the same way, and have similar side effects.
They come in shorter and longer acting forms. The active ingredient is the same but the form that it comes in and the way it is released in the body are different. Your childs doctor will choose a medication based on your childs symptoms, other health conditions, sleeping and eating habits, and ability to swallow medicine.
Second-line medications
There are other medications that can be used for ADHD if stimulants are not effective or not tolerated: