ADHD in the News

The New York Times Silicon Valley technology reporter Matt Richtel won a Pulitzer Prize for his series “Driving While Distracted.” Good for him. Too bad his continued glaring, and even intentional, omission of ADHD in his subsequent reporting on similar topics has earned him a spot in The ADHD Roller Coaster Hall of Shame. (Yes. I know. He’ll be really upset to learn this.)

For any good reporter who dips the tiniest toe into the research, the evidence is clear about ADHD deficits’  adverse effect on driving safety. Moreover, I have written to Richtel numerous times over the years explaining the substantial research in this area, as highlighted in my book chapter on the topic:  “Driving to Destruction.”  (Yes, many people with ADHD drive very well;  when it comes to research, though, we’re talking significant trends within a group, not individuals.) I have also invited him to sit in on our Silicon Valley Adult ADHD Salon in Palo Alto, so he could talk to his fellow  Valleyites about their experience with ADHD.  No response. None at all. Read the rest of this entry »

I really thought we were done with stories like this, especially on the blog of a well-known medical school. Ah, but this is Stanford, in my backyard, and if you seek evaluation or treatment for ADHD there, well, good luck to you.

In many ways, I consider the Bay Area, in general, the Third World of ADHD medical treatment. Yes, there are a few excellent clinicians in private practice. And the University of California, Berkeley has as its Psychology Department Chair an internationally renown ADHD researcher, Stephen Hinshaw, Ph.D.  But the two university medical schools that serve as Silicon Valley bookends? For all their Nobel laureates, Stanford and UCSF simply can’t hold a candle to Harvard or the University of Pennsylvania when it comes to ADHD research or expertise, and this lack filters out into the community.   Still, even I was surprised today to read this post in Stanford School of Medicine’s blog, Scope: “Blogger Asks, To Ritalin or not to Ritalin?” It is in response to a blog post by an adult who was treated for ADHD as a child and is now a behavioral therapist. Read the rest of this entry »

There’s a cartoon floating around among my Facebook friends. One character says: “Come to bed, honey.” And the other character, at the computer keyboard, says, “I can’t. Someone is saying something wrong on the Internet, and I must correct it!”

For 10 years, I’ve resembled that character, rat-a-tat-tatting at my keyboard to counter fallacious information about ADHD on the Internet. The latest just this morning, which as both an ADHD advocate and responsible journalist, was too hard to resist.  (If you’d like to skip my preamble, scroll to the end of this post to get to a recent CNN article and my response to it.)

And yes, it’s been a  personal mission, though it hasn’t kept me up late at night and I aimed for surgical strikes, not omnipresence.   As a writer and editor with a long-held reputation for fairness and accuracy, though, I’ve found this new “medium” of the Internet by turns extremely exciting yet unsettling. Read the rest of this entry »

Lots of ADHD in the News for July and early August. Environmental groups call for ban of pesticides linked to ADHD. Western diet linked to ADHD. Lots of links, but what are the facts?

Please remember as you read some of these reports: Association is not causation. A “risk factor” is something that is associated with a condition. Whether that factor causes the condition or results from the condition, that is often the question that remains to be answered.

For example, in the first news story below, note that there is a link between the Western diet and ADHD.  As the study’s researcher rightly points out (far down in the story):

“This is a cross-sectional study so we cannot be sure whether a poor diet leads to ADHD or whether ADHD leads to poor dietary choices and cravings,” Dr Oddy said.

NUTRITION:

Western Diet Link to ADD, Australian Study Finds

ScienceDaily, July 29

A new study from Perth’s Tlethon Institute for Child Health Research shows an association between ADHD and a “Western-style” diet in adolescents. Read the rest of this entry »

For generations, the “foolishness” has suddenly struck middle-age members of an extended family in Colombia’s Antioquia region.  It starts with mild forgetfulness but soon reduces its victims to infantile incapacitation.

People here have long attributed La Bobera to a host of superstitions: a mythic priest’s revenge or touching a mysterious tree. Scientists now know it is a genetic mutation, concentrated by the intermarriage that’s not unusual in this rather isolated area. The malady is a type of early-onset Alzheimer’s Disease.

It’s called the “Paisa Mutation” because this clan of 5,000 are called Paisas. They are descended primarily from a group of 16th Century Spanish immigrants. By studying this mutation, researchers hope to learn more about other forms of Alzheimer’s and its treatment. Pam Belluck shares the dramatic details on the disease and its discovery, along with hopes for treatment, in a recent story in The New York Times.

This isn’t the first time genetic discovery has taken place in the Paisa population. In fact, researchers studying this unique group of people have learned much about ADHD from them, too. For example, a genetic link between ADHD and conduct disorder/oppositional defiance disorder was discovered by studying selected Paisa families (multi-generational). Read the rest of this entry »

Welcome to a new department here at the ADHD Roller Coaster blog: ADHD in the News Monthly Roundup.   In this spot,  you”ll find  links and summaries to key ADHD-related news stories, starting now with the March 2010 headlines. (Please note: Some sources might require registration or a fee.)

Topics include: Vision therapy for ADHD, Adderall abuse on college campuses, sensory integration disorder, George Will’s opinion on the new DSM, requiring health insurance policies to cover mental health treatment, and  more.

As always, your comments welcome!

The Washington Post:

Parity law requires mental health benefits comparable to physical care benefits

Summary: An estimated 140 million Americans, most of them covered by employer-provided group insurance plans, are the beneficiaries of a new federal law designed to guarantee mental-health parity in insurance coverage.  In other words, the brain is finally being acknowledged as a physical body part!

Excerpt:

Denise Camp was resigned to the double standard that had long applied to her medical bills, forcing her to skimp on other expenses so she could pay for mental health treatment. While visits to her internist for physical problems required a $20 co-pay, her weekly therapy sessions with a social worker cost $50 and trips to the psychiatrist who prescribed her medication were $75. A similar disparity applied to medicines: Drugs to treat the crippling depression that ended her engineering career cost her twice what she paid for an antibiotic. Click here to read the rest of the story.

Science Daily:

Mouse Model Reveals a Cause of ADHD

Summary: To better understand the mechanisms of ADHD, particularly the dopamine pathway, scientists created genetically modified mice.

Excerpt:

Although it’s typically considered an adolescent curse, ADHD actually affects about five percent of adults as well. New research in a mouse model of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder suggests that the root of the psychiatric disorder might be the over-activity of a protein that regulates dopaminergic pathways. The work suggests a path toward new treatments for symptoms including inattentiveness, over-activity and impulsivity. Read the rest of this entry »

I knew something was up when a greater-than-usual  number of “help, please!” e-mails appeared in my in-box this morning.

Then my friend Doreen gave me the heads up on Facebook: MSN.com had featured a “When Your Lover Has ADHD” tag on its Valentine’s-themed homepage.  It linked to an interview I’d done last year with Health.com: “When Someone You Love Has ADHD: Frequently Asked Questions About Helping Your Partner and Yourself.”  It begins this way:

When journalist Gina Pera married a man with undiagnosed Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (AD/HD) she embarked on a wild ride that took her from frustration and confusion to understanding and advocacy. Today she runs support groups for people with ADHD and their partners, and her book Is It You, Me, or Adult A.D.D.? was published in 2008.

“Wild ride” indeed. But our marriage started out more on the rainy side. (That’s us at our outdoor wedding in 1998.  Despite the huge two-person umbrella, my husband still managed to position the dripline right over me. Fortunately, that kind of center-of-the-universe tendency is a relic of the past — or neither one of us, not to mention our marriage, would have survived!) Here’s a sample of the questions:

Q: How did you realize that your husband had ADHD?

Q: In the title of your book, you used the outdated term “ADD.” Why that instead of ADHD? Read the rest of this entry »

Pressured by Congress to crack down  on performance-enhancing drugs and “false claims of A.D.D.,”  Major League Baseball is pleased to report that the number of exemptions for ADHD medications are tapering off.  Is this really news worth celebrating?  I’m not so sure.

In 2007, the number of players receiving exemptions for ADHD rose to 108, from 28 in 2006.  That figure strikes me as reasonable, not alarming, given increasing public awareness during that time period.

After all, the players receiving exemptions represent about 9 percent of total players, which number  1,200 or so.  Extremely conservative estimates place the percentage of adults with ADHD in the general population at about 4 percent, but experts acknowledge that using more realistic criteria bumps the figure as high as 16 percent.

Yet, as reported in a previous post (“Anti-Doper Doc Dopey about ADHD?”), this spike created quite the rhubarb among sports officials, including non-savvy ADHD physicians. (“This is incredible. This is quite spectacular. There seems to be an epidemic of ADD in major league baseball,” said Dr. Gary Wadler, chairman of the committee that determines the banned-substances list for the World Anti-Doping Agency.)

This recent article in The New York Times article (“Number of M.L.B. Players Given Drug Exemptions Up Slightly“) explains the latest report on all medication exemptions.

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This week: A guest post from ADHD coach Cynthia Hammer, founder and former executive director of Seattle-based non-profit ADD Resources (click here to visit her blog, “Pinnacle Coaching”).

I’ve always enjoyed Cynthia’s personal essays (look for more to come), and we both appreciate the thoughtful perspectives of Judith Warner, who writes the “Domestic Disturbances” column for The New York Times.
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Do you ever get discouraged about all the bad and inaccurate press about ADHD? That it is a condition that doesn’t exist? That those of us who have ADHD are seeking the easy way out by taking medicine or that we parents give dangerous medicine to children for a made-up condition?

I just finished reading an article by Judith Warner, a columnist for The New York Times who planned to write a book on these kinds of topics, but she kept putting off writing the book—and she finally realized why. Read the rest of this entry »

Since I posted this blog entry on recent research from neuroscientist Nora Volkow and colleagues, more detailed stories interpreting the study’s findings have become available. In particular, this report from MedPage today targets clinicians. That site also includes an audio interview with Dr. Volkow, below (despite a strong Spanish accent, Dr. Volkow does a good job of making complex concepts understandable to the layperson, in my opinion).

Thanks to Philadelphia ABC affiliate WPVI-TV for airing this well-balanced segment during ADHD Awareness Week, and thanks to Dancing with the Stars star Karina Smirnoff and the amazing Kavanaugh family for sharing their stories. (Oh, I make a small cameo appearance, drawn from a 30-minute interview with Health producer Dawn Heefner. Astute, intelligent questions all!)

PHILADELPHIA, PA.; September 22, 2009 (WPVI) — Attention deficit disorders are common among children. But few people know that they affect anywhere from 4 to 16% of American adults too – though most don’t know it. But identifying the disorder can be a big step in learning how to live a good life with AD/HD.

Karina Smirnoff moves across the dance floor in “Dancing With the Stars” with a precision that shows hours & hours of practice.

That’s not easy for someone with attention deficit disorder – ADD….

Continue reading at KPVI’s website, and PLEASE leave a note of appreciation there for this story.

Okay, the headlines this week may not come as news to us. But, following the recent ADHD Hall of Shame entry, science-based reportage comes as welcome relief. The following news sources, among others, report the latest study by NIDA Director Nora Volkow and colleagues showing that, well, ADHD is real. Read all about it.

Here’s a sampling of the breaking headlines, followed by the press release from the researcher:

• BBC News: ADHD Brain Chemistry Clue Found
  US researchers have pinned down new differences in the brain chemistry of people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). They found ADHD patients lack key proteins which allow them to experience a sense of reward and motivation. Read the rest of this entry »

Introducing: The ADHD Hall of Shame, a new ADHD Roller Coaster department.

Inaugural inductees: HBO show host Bill Maher and his guests Arianna Huffington, Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA), and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA). Two liberals and two conservatives who could agree on one thing only: It’s okay to bash ADHD.

“Paddling a child is inhumane but drugging a child is the way to go?” began an indignant Kingston (R-GA), implying that there’s nothing about ADHD that a good whupping won’t cure. Read the rest of this entry »

New study on ADHD and adults

To watch a short interview on NBC’s The Today Show with preeminent ADHD research scientist Dr. Russell Barkley, click on the link above. He introduces the studies examining long-term outcomes of children diagnosed with ADHD. For details on this groundbreaking research by Dr. Barkley and colleague Dr. Mariellen Fischer, read ADHD in Adults: What the Science Says. (Click on the title to learn more about it on Amazon.com.)

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High intelligence does not protect you from the effects of ADHD, a recent study indicates. Unfortunately, too many people mistakenly assume that high IQ rules out ADHD entirely.

Psychologist Thomas E. Brown, a prominent ADHD expert and assistant professor at the Yale School of Medicine, has previously conducted several studies to learn more about high IQ individuals with ADHD. The latest effort is now available from the online edition of the Journal of Attention Disorders (for a fee to non-subscribers) and will be published in the September print edition.

The scoop, according to the press release from the Yale University Office of Public Affairs: Read the rest of this entry »

While I was enjoying the tremendously fun crowds at CADDAC’s ADHD conference in Toronto, my book was whooping it up in New York City….winning four national awards!

Is It You, Me, or Adult A.D.D.? , by Gina Pera (that’s me), was twice-named a winner in both the Independent Book Publishers Association’s (IBPA) Benjamin Franklin Awards and ForeWord Magazine‘s Book of the Year Awards.

IBPA Benjamin Franklin Awards:

1. Silver for best psychology book
2. Silver Bill Fisher Award for Best First book (non-fiction)

ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Awards:

1. Gold for best psychology book
2. Silver for best book on family and relationship

What’s most exciting about these honors is the potential Read the rest of this entry »

“If there is one mental health disorder that has captured the attention of the American public over the last few decades, it is attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD. Some people joke about it; others take it seriously. But one thing is certain: People know about ADHD, and increasingly educators, parents and adults are learning effective ways to manage the disorder. But this hasn’t always been the case.”

So begins an opinion piece in Roll Call, one of two newspapers written for and distributed to every U.S. Congressional office. The authors are two college students: Courtney Gifford, the reigning Miss Wyoming, and Blake Taylor, author of ADHD & Me: What I Learned from Lighting Fires at the Dinner Table.

The piece continues: Read the rest of this entry »

Is ADHD a modern “invention,” created by computers, fast food, or even…Big Pharma? Recorded history says no. In fact, a recently discovered medical text from 1798 describes, in some detail, disorders of attention, including the observation that some are likely hereditary.

Physician Alexander Crichton (pictured right, at his Cambridge University graduation) provided the first known medical description of disorders of attention in his three-volume medical textbook. Moreover, “he certainly deserves credit for being the first to describe adults with attention disorders,” says ADHD expert Russell Barkley, Ph.D., writing a commentary about Crichton’s work and its modern relevancies in the February issue of The ADHD Report, a newsletter that follows research and trends in the field of attention disorders.

Until the discovery of Crichton’s three-volume textbook (by the two Washington University researchers who wrote a paper introducing it), most medical historians acknowledged physician George Still as providing the first description of symptoms of what we today call ADHD, in children.

Specifically, in his lectures before the Royal Society of Medicine and later writing for the medical journal Lancet in 1902, Still Read the rest of this entry »

Tom was trapped: stuck on a 13-hour road trip with his wife — and his marriage on the rocks.

“Something’s wrong,” Liz started, and Tom’s heart sunk.

The Newmarket couple was heading from Ontario to visit family in New Brunswick. She wanted to have it out with him — then and there.

Tom knew, hurtling down the highway, there would be no escape. He had to face facts. Read the rest of this entry »

A physician with the World Anti-Doping Agency contends that ADD (as he calls it) is being overdiagnosed in major-league baseball. More importantly, it is over treated with medication. On what does he base this? The fact that he has rarely diagnosed the condition throughout his career.

Fail to see the logic? Me, too.

Just when I think this blog can move on to topics other than ADHD medical treatment, another flagrant show of ADHD ignorance makes the headlines. Being a big believer in speaking truth to misperception, I just can’t let it pass.

Besides, it’s pretty good timing. You know those physicians-in-denial-about-ADHD that Dr. Charles Parker wrote about last time? This physician serves as a good example. Read the rest of this entry »

This Thanksgiving finds me with much to be grateful for: friends, family, husband, health, and a book that is being generously received.

But this very day, my biggest, warmest THANKS goes to all those adults with ADHD who took the time to write their truth, so eloquently and movingly, in response to this recent New York Times column on ADHD.

Read the rest of this entry »

Lunch rush was over, but distractions remained numerous inside the La Bou cafe just off Highway 49 in Auburn. Blenders whirred out smoothies every few minutes, laughter erupted from a nearby group, a young worker noisily cleared tables.

Yet, through it all, Cass Brown Capel stayed focused – eyes locked on her interviewer, the need to interject random thoughts stifled, attention not straying to her daughter, Ariana, who was sitting placidly next to her.

You would have no inkling that Capel, a 54-year-old psychologist from Auburn, has been diagnosed with the adult version of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder since 1991.
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So begins the main story on Adult ADHD, by reporter Sam McManis, in last Sunday’s Sacramento Bee. Immediately, readers learn that ADHD probably isn’t what they thought it was — a childhood ondition that makes someone fidgety or flighty.

Read the full story here: http://www.sacbee.com/749/story/1234819.html

Thanks to the Bee, McManis, and especially Cass and John Capel, for sharing their story in order to educate the public on this vastly underdiagnosed condition.

This article by reporter Sam McManis is short, but it goes straight to the heart of the matter. (I just discovered it is a sidebar to a much longer article — see next post.) I’m very grateful to read one of the rare articles on Adult ADHD and relationships that doesn’t deny, minimize, or otherwise sugarcoat the challenges of untreated or unacknowledged ADHD.

http://www.sacbee.com/273/story/1229847.htm

We need more articles like this. Because until Adult ADHD is better understood, people will continue to suffer needlessly. That would be a shame, because we have terrific solutions; we just need better awareness.

If you have a minute, please leave a comment on the article at the Sacramento Bee site, thanking Mr. McManis and the Sacramento Bee for this article. We can’t blame “the media” for poor coverage of Adult ADHD if we let good coverage like this go unacknowledged. (And unlike websites that pick up stories like this, violating copyright, this newspaper actually pays people to produce strong content.)