ADHD Part 1

“My four-year old son was just diagnosed with ADHD. My husband says it’s a lot of “hooey” (which I assume is Pennsylvania Dutch for BS) and that the physician is a drug pusher. His mother (good old mother-in-law) thinks all the drug companies are a bunch of crooks, no better than an organized form of crime. My best friend says it's an epidemic, no one ever heard of ADHD when we were kids. And me? I think… well… I don’t know what to think. What’s the truth?”

The statistics for ADD / ADHD are staggering; 3-10% of all children have symptoms consistent with a diagnosis of ADD / ADHD; 3.5 million children take daily ADHD medications; $3.1 billion was spent on ADHD medications in 2005, an amount that reportedly is four times the number in 2000. So, is it an epidemic? The statistics would say “yes” if an epidemic is defined in terms of a disease or disorder “that appears as new cases in a given human population, during a given period, at a rate that substantially exceeds what is expected, based on recent experience (the number of new cases in the population during a specified period of time is called the "incidence rate").” (taken from Wikipedia). However, is the epidemic real or related to other factors?

Research appears to indicate that improvements in our diagnostic tools (and accuracy), introduction of higher demands within the educational system (“No child left behind”) along with “punishments” for schools that “leave a child behind” and the advent of medications that are both safe and effective (ie., why diagnose a disorder if you cannot treat it) contribute to the dramatic increase in diagnoses of ADD / ADHD.

But beyond that, there is some equally compelling evidence that the actual incidence of children with ADD / ADHD is on the increase much like the diagnosis of childhood autism, cancers, etc. And the cause? Hmmm. round up the usual suspects, toxic chemical factors, stress associated with our high speed technology lives, poisoning (heavy metals, mercury, lead, etc.) and nutritional deficits. Add in two parents working full-time with children being rushed from home to day-care to stores to … (you get the point), over-stressed families who have moved away from grandparents and extended family support… 133 television stations, video games…

Since we are not in a position to treat our modern lives nor control our children’s exposure to atmospheric toxic substances or heavy metal poisoning beyond normal precautions, parents often feel both helpless and powerless. However, recent work has suggested that a combination of interventions that ARE under your control may just have an impact upon a subset of children presenting with symptoms of ADD / ADHD.

Biological interventions: One such “biologcial” program under the control of parents (I’m excluding medications at this time since parents do not control medications) is the 4-A Healing Program of Dr. Kenneth Bock. The 4-A (which stands for ADD / ADHD, Autism, Allergies and Asthma) Healing Program components include: (a) Nutritional Therapy, (b) Supplementation Therapy, (c) Detoxification Therapy and (d) Medication. While the program may not work for all children with ADD / ADHD symptoms, existing evidnce along with anecdotal reports indicate that a subset of children do show benefits and from a cost-benefit analysis the cost of being wrong (ie., good nutrition, good diet, etc.) is minimal relative to the potential benefits. Will it work for your child? I do not know nor is there any evidence that anyone can identify children who will be responders.

Environmental interventions: Unfortunately there are no magic program or McDonald’s drive-through solutions. But we do know that providing high levels of structure within the home is beneficial … structure the child’s room, desk, backpack, etc… structure the child’s time with schedules… daily schedules (ie., posted on the refrigerator) including homework and play times. Reduce the pace of life… children exposed to frantic paces elevate their own activity levels to match the pace required… and the number one internvetion? SPEND MORE 1:1 TIME WITH YOUR CHILD! This does not mean dropping the child off at soccer practice, but more like 1:1 coloring, drawing, walking, hiking, throwing a baseball, reading, fishing, playing board games. Your time is the best intervention and to the extent that you slow down the pace, your child will match your pace (remember the “mirror neurons”)!

Other avenues? Hmmmm… let me get back to you on that one.

_______________________________________________________________

Dr. Richard Dowell is a Neuropsychologist located in Pennsylvania. Dr. Dowell evaluates upwards of 400 children and adolescents each year. In addition, Dr. Dowell is recognized as one of the top Forensic Neuropsychological witnesses in the North East.

Dr. Dowell can be contacted at DrDowell@NeuropsychologicalServices.net

For more information on Neuropsychology visit NeuropsychologicalServices.net

M&M’s and a Spray Bottle Part 2

I wish I had asked for more than a week to address your question from the last installation.

You indicated that your four year-old daughter presents with multiple developmental delays along with eating non-food items, self-stimulation, self-abuse, some biting and rocking. The cluster of behaviors that you are describing tend to be classified as being primitive, meaning that the symptoms emerge during the neonatal/infant period and are generally related to limbic system-driven drives (eating/biting) and instincts (fight or flight). Under “normal” conditions of development, these instinctual behaviors are suppressed starting at about age three years. Onset of inhibition of these primitive drives/instincts corresponds with emerging development or maturation of frontal lobe inhibitory processing.

The same frontal lobe mechanisms that inhibit lower level drives/instincts (biting, pica, exploratory behaviors, “fight or flight”) are responsible for inhibition (over-rides) of sphincter reflexes for successful completion of potty training. Prominence of instincts/drives in governing behavior beyond about 3-4 years of age typically indicates a high potential for frontal lobe dysfunction or maldevelopment (which also undermines cognitive, adaptive and social development giving rise to references to “mental retardation”).

The behavioral program you described as being a “failure” in our last installation was an operant conditioning model. The frontal lobes learn via operant conditioning. Taken together, it should not be terribly surprising that a child who shows delays in frontal lobe development should fail to show benefits to an operant conditioning intervention. Development of a software program (operant conditioning intervention) that relied on hardware (frontal lobe) that the child did not possess was doomed to fail and as a result, you and your frontal lobe have been “punished” by the failure with resulting high levels of frustration.

In contrast, the limbic system is 40,000 years old, has not changed appreciably in 40,000 years and I’m guessing that you will not change it with a few M&M’s. Limbic system responses are elicited by unconditioned (no learning necessary) stimuli that are “hard-wired” into the system. However, the limbic system can be modified via classical or Pavlovian conditioning. Remember Pavlov? His work went something like this… present a dog with food (unconditioned stimulus) and it salivates (unconditioned response). No learning necessary. Use the can opener (neutral stimulus), present the food (unconditioned stimulus) and the dog salivates (unconditioned response). Eventually, open the can (conditioned stimulus) and the dog salivates (conditioned response). Limbic system responses are not modified by consequences, but are elicited or controlled by antecedents (triggers).

Hmmmm … and what has this to do with our child? The first strategy is to record the ABC’s (antecedent – behavior – consequence) of unwanted behaviors with an emphasis on identification of those antecedent stimuli or triggers that consistently elicit maladaptive behaviors. Recall (in previous installations) how I preach evaluation and assessment? This time, you get to do my job. Assessment is not a specific set of tests or tools, but a way of thinking and your assessment and recording are central to any program. Antecedent (A) stimulus recording generally includes the date, time and external environmental stimuli (who, what, when, where, etc.) that were present prior to the onset of maladaptive behaviors. Recording is an important part of the entire intervention process since it both sets a baseline against which to judge the effectiveness of any interventions and provides important information regarding potential antecedents. Once specific antecedents are identified, the next step is to avoid antecedents. I love this one (that I hear once a month) “every time we go to K-mart, my child acts out.” Solution, “do not go to K-mart.” The goal is to have low elicitation of limbic system-driven “fight or flight” responses. If one cannot avoid the antecedent (such as a sibling coming home from school), the next step is to “put the frontal lobe in front of the antecedent.” This rule suggests that once specific antecedents are identified, attempts should be made to introduce structured activities (frontal lobe functions) during high risk time frames. Provide your child with a routine task or set of tasks to complete (ie., set the table) when antecedents (ie., sibling coming home from school) are present.

You are probably wondering, “then what?” Hmmm… give me 2-3 weeks (see my frontal lobes are learning).

Defiant Johnny

“Johnny is oppositional and defiant! He doesn’t listen… and when you tell him “no” or to do something, he explodes… he screams, hits, kicks… he used to bite… but now he generally just throws things and yells at me. We’ve been at this since he could walk (unspoken: “… and we are very tired”). I can’t even leave him at school (the respite center for most parents)… they call a couple times each week with more complaints… he doesn’t stay in his seat, he doesn’t listen, he hits other kids… plays too rough on the playground. He saw a couple counselors but nothing helps.” This scenario, in various terms by various parents, plays out during the initial screening about 200-300 times each year in our clinic (from among 400 referrals). Interesting (to us), but frustrating to the parents, Johnny sits stoically during the recitation of his “crimes” with nary a complaint nor hint of the symptoms that are tearing this parent (and usually family) apart. Occasionally a parent may go so far as to prod the child into a negative response simply to show that they (the parent) are not lying. Other parents support their argument with a recitation of the teachers, service providers, family, etc. that have been ravaged by their child’s behaviors and concluded the ominous diagnostic verdict, “Your child has oppositional defiant disorder.”

A child who is oppositional and defiant has “oppositional defiant disorder?!?” As professionals, we may need to guard the diagnostic secret that all we do is say “disorder” after the child’s symptoms! Given this line of reasoning, secondary diagnoses for this child could include “scream disorder and kick disorder.” Labeling the child’s symptoms as “oppositional defiant” does not advance understanding of the etiology of symptoms nor potential treatment avenues. Unfortunately, this scenario plays out millions of times each day for children across the country with similar conclusions. The primary cost of this labeling approach to diagnoses is that it tends to result in termination of the search for the underlying etiology or cause for the presenting symptoms. The solution… complete an evaluation or assessment to search for factors that may contribute to the symptoms.

Existing research irrespective of diagnosis indicates that outcomes are related to three factors including: (1) abilities (ie., “hardware” or central nervous system-based processing capacities), (2) skills (ie., acquired responses based on the environment including academic skills, daily living skills, social skills, etc.) and (3) coping resources (ie., “software” packages written by a child in response to the world in which they live). Given this background, a logical extension is that failures of positive outcome (ie., oppositional defiant behaviors) must similarly be related to limitations or deficits related to abilities, skills and coping resources.

What about Johnny? Test results showed strengths across measures of verbal (language), perceptual-motor, learning/memory and higher level reasoning abilities. In contrast, deficits were observed across measures of lower level executive or “conductor” functions including: (a) inhibition (b) rhythm/background tone and (c) “select” (ie., multi-tasking, shifting mental sets, etc.) functions. Deficits in inhibition (or disinhibition) were reflected across external stimuli (ie., short attention span, distractible, etc.), motor responses (ie., hyperactive, hurried, fidgeting, messy, etc.), behavior (ie., rule violations), mood/emotions (ie., irritable, anger, temper tantrums, etc.) and arousal level (ie., difficulties falling asleep, constant motion, broken sleep, etc.). Poor rhythm/background tone was reflected in low frustration tolerance and difficulties adapting to change. Deficient “select” functions were reflected in difficulties with respect to multi-tasking (ie., performing two tasks at once or in rapid/alternating succession) with a high frequency of off-task behaviors (ie., failure to complete assignments, requirements for re-direction and difficulties completing assignments on time). The conclusion…. Johnny’s collection of symptoms/problems (his “ODD”) was related to a breakdown in abilities that warranted a similarly biologically-based (central nervous system) intervention program foundation. Research suggests that an estimated 90% of children with this profile (who also meet ADHD criteria) show benefits to psychostimulant medications.

My Lazy Kid

“Teachers have been telling me that my child is lazy and that if only she just worked harder, was more motivated, etc., then she could do very well. We have responded by setting aside daily study times, requiring her to complete all homework before going out to play, providing her with stars for success, taking away all video games and grounding her for poor grades. Our interventions have resulted in study times that take all night, angry outbursts, depression (“I just wish I was dead”), loss of friends, no free time and… poor grades. Help!” The parent saying these words generally looks the part of the beleaguered parent with the wear and tear of endless nights of battles over homework and being the target of child anger being etched in their face.

Hmmm….. First, a quiz. Which would be easier? To put in forty-five minutes of study time, go out and play, be the recipient of parental praise and have extended free time… or… take four hours to complete a homework assignment while having your parents relentlessly harass you, lose privileges, have your videogames taken away, lose friends and have no free time to play? I’m thinking that it would be much easier to just do the work in the shortest amount of time and receive the benefits… and so would every child. Present to each child in school (through about age 12 years) a request that “Who ever wants an “A” in all their classes for this year, just raise your hand” and you will see 100% compliance or agreement. If the ante was raised slightly, “Who ever wants an “A” in all their classes for this year, raise your hand and walk around the track one time (400 meters)” and you may see a slight reduction in compliance. How about “Raise your hand, walk around the track one time and run the 100 yard dash in under 11 seconds” and you will begin to lose some more hands.

The point?…. everyone wants success, but at some point the child may not have the tools to achieve that success. For the child that is working four hours while screaming and crying, losing privileges and enduring parental harassment, these conditions are obviously more readily available than success by studying 45 minutes. I see about 350 children each year… and during the past 20 years, I believe that I have seen about three “lazy” children (and each of these were adolescents with psychopathic features). The rest? The rest were children with undiagnosed learning disorders that have variously included deficits in attention, visual-spatial processing, visual-motor integration, auditory processing disorders… or children that were the victims of significant life stressors, neglect, deprivation, etc. that undermined their capacity to translate abilities into “real world” performance on a consistent basis.

Your child has been labeled “lazy”? Consider the probability that your child has an undiagnosed learning disorder or other stress-related disorder. The solution… consider having a formal evaluation completed to rule out this potential.

Pharmaceutical Guinea Pigs

You enter your physician’s office… once again you are greeted by a smiling nurse that escorts you quickly into an examination room where moments later the physician enters the room. She nods pleasantly and greets you with a smile. You inform her that you are experiencing abdominal pain. The smile does not leave her face as she begins to write vigorously on a prescription pad. After a few minutes, you are greeted with the product of her efforts…. a prescription for gall bladder surgery. You gulp… “Surgery???” you ask imploring a different response, “… but how do you know?… couldn’t it be something different?” Your physician smiles and unveils the explanation, “We have found that statistically speaking, the highest base rate disorder to account for your somatic distress is a gall bladder problem and the definitive treatment for gall bladder problems is surgery… so we’ll do the surgery first… if you still have the symptoms one month after surgery, then we may consider doing some testing.” Ludicrous?!? I hope you are nodding “yes”.

Unfortunately, many parents who present their children to professionals (physicians, psychologists, etc.) with symptoms of inattention and hyperactivity receive psychostimulant therapy since statistically speaking it is the most common childhood disorder associated with inattention and the definitive treatment for inattention is psychostimulants. The parents are subsequently informed that if the child fails the psychostimulant trial (ie., meaning the child develops insomnia, crying spells, shakiness, emotional lability, tremors, tics, etc.), then an evaluation may be considered. Ludicrous?!?! I hope you are still nodding. Managed care organizations (HMO) and insurance carriers support this approach by encouraging treatment of children but denying or limiting insurance coverage for evaluations. In other words, you (the consumer) are actually paying for and supporting the strategy of using medications to rule out or rule in a diagnosis. While the American Medical Association and its various branches decry this strategy, the reality is that medications, and psychostimulants in particular, are commonly used as a tool in diagnosing attention deficit and attention deficit hyperactivity disorders (ie. “Let’s give this a try… if its ADD/ADHD, then the medication will work…”). The Solution… ask “…and what will happen if it does not work?… adverse symptoms? delays in treatment? child perceptions of being a guinea pig. Parents need to be empowered to say “no” to medical testing on their children and request evaluations prior to treatment.

Hmmm… let’s open up the skull and see if there is a tumor or just nothing.

Time: A Marker for Change

“My child always did well in elementary school… but since about 5th or 6th grade, his performance has really deteriorated… he is disorganized, does everything at the last minute, makes repeated careless mistakes. I’ve been told that a lot of kids have difficulties at that age due to the transition into middle school along with the hormones kicking in. Is this just a maturity thing? Will it just get better with time?” The last two questions posed by beleaguered parents take on the quality of a hopeful plea.

Last things first. “Will it get better with time?” Check out your garden… some weeds crop up. Will the weeds get better with time? How about the rusty fender on your car… will the rust go away over time? Unfortunately, nothing changes as a result of or due to time. Time is a marker for change, but time actually causes nothing. So, the belief (or perhaps wish) of parents that “time” will make things better is unfortunately not true. What actions you take across time, however, definitely have the potential to make things better. Unfortunately, some actions have the potential to have no effect and some actions have the potential to make things worse. Actions, like treatments, need to address the specific underlying problem or issue. Weeding the garden will enhance the quality of the garden, but has no known effect upon the rust in your car’s fender. Likewise, the actions of trimming away the rusty fender, sanding, painting, etc. may enhance our fender, the garden weeds tend to show limited effect (unless you pour the solvent on the weeds). Getting the point?! An effective intervention (or parental action) must address the underlying problem or issue. The solution… treatments, interventions or parental actions must begin with a comprehensive assessment of the problem and factors contributing to the problem.

A Dennis the Menace Incarnation

Johnny is a six year-old boy who appears to have missed his calling for the leading role in the remake of “Dennis the Menace”. He is blond-haired with two teeth missing. When I introduce myself, he steps behind his mother allowing one eye to remain trained on me. He follows his mother and me into the office, sits quietly while his legs swing rather quickly under his chair. He tells me that he has no idea why he is here today (although mother swears they had a thirty minute talk about the visit on the trip to the office), but later relents to suggest that his mother wanted him to come here because he doesn’t “listen”. Mother subsequently describes a child history of significant inattention at home that includes not following instructions (ie., he may recall only one step in an instructional set), not attending when she calls him name and becoming overwhelmed in high stimulation (noise) conditions. Mother indicates that problems intensified when Johnny entered kindergarten. In addition, the teacher reports an increase in social withdrawal and limited peer interactions on the playground. However, mother suggests and the kindergarten teacher concurs that perhaps symptoms are due to immaturity. Mother reports that the situation deteriorates in first grade. Johnny is off-task when the teacher is talking, he turns and looks at the papers of other children, he cannot answer questions posed by the teacher, he looks puzzled during class sharing/discussions and he constantly draws or plays with small items in his desk. Mother reports that she took Johnny to see the family physician with a handful of checklists in which the Inattention boxes had been checked by the teacher. Do you know him? Classic ADD, right?

Mother reports that Johnny was started on Strattera (since its not a “stimulant”). After a month of no benefits, the medication is discontinued and replaced with a more potent psychostimulant (fill in the brand name). Mother reports that since taking the psychostimulant, Johnny is restless, has trouble falling asleep and appears to be more “fragile”. Mother indicates that the dose of the medication is increased since the physician suggests that perhaps his symptoms are intensifying in the school setting. Johnny reportedly responds with insomnia, crying, agitation and irritability. Johnny is seen by a counselor who discusses issues of low self esteem with mother. Mother reports feeling overwhelmed and anxious… she is failing her child. Which brings us to today’s clinic visit….

…findings of our comprehensive neuropsychological evaluation reveal that Johnny has a receptive language disorder. While statistics on the frequency or base rate of this disorder are unclear, research suggests that perhaps 4-8% of children with “classic ADD” symptoms may have receptive language disorders. For Johnny, the English language is like a second language (recall taking Spanish in high school?). He cannot decode speech sounds at the rate necessary for comprehension and, as result, he cannot follow instructional sets, cannot comprehend the discussion of the teacher and cannot decode the rapid-fire playground speech of his peers (with resulting social withdrawal). Reading, which is dependent upon integrating speech sounds with letters is labored for Johnny (and no fun) and, as a result, he learns words based on the visual configurations (which appears to reflect “impulsive” guessing). On the playground, Johnny retreats since he cannot keep pace with the conversation rate and slang of his peers.

Application of a symptom-based diagnosis (which Johnny fits all ADD criteria) resulted in termination of the search for the underlying cause with resulting delays in introduction of intervention strategies, social isolation, loss of self-confidence, dislike of reading, treatment using medications for a disorder that he did not “have” and counseling sessions after school. . The solution… demand evaluations that search for the underlying cause while ruling out other alternative or possible causes.

Symptom-based diagnostic models

You enter your physician’s office holding your head from a throbbing headache. The nurse cordially smiles at you and takes you to an examining room. Minutes later (hey… this is my dream… I can keep the wait short)… the physician enters the office. You inform him or her that you have a headache. Your physician gives you a long look, sighs then pronounces the diagnosis “You have a headache disorder!” Nonplussed, huh? Thinking that perhaps its not too late to get your co-payment back?

Unfortunately, each day millions of parents take their child into offices of physicians, psychologists, therapists, etc. proclaiming that their child has a deficit in attention and is hyperactive and are told by well-meaning professionals, “Your children has an attention deficit hyperactivity disorder!” Nonplussed? I hope so. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is a symptom-based diagnosis much like a “headache disorder” would be a symptom-based diagnosis. The unfortunate aspect of this scenario is that labeling the symptom (ie., “headache disorder”) does not explain the underlying cause or etiology of the symptom. Headaches are non-specific symptoms and may be related to underlying etiologies ranging from muscle tension, cervical neck strain, migraines, cluster headaches, increased intracranial pressure, hemorrhagic strokes to brain to tumors. As a patient-consumer you (and your physician) want to know the underlying cause of the headache so that subsequent treatment may be directed towards the cause, not simply the symptom, of the headache. Similarly, inattention, distractibility, off-task behaviors, restlessness, etc. are non-specific symptoms. A review of the DSM-IV-TR (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual – IV Text Revision) and other diagnostic manuals reveals that this cluster of symptoms is consistent with multiple diagnoses ranging from anxiety, depression, Tourette’s Syndrome, post-traumatic stress disorder, neurologic disorders, pervasive developmental disorders to learning disabilities.

The unfortunate effects of this symptom-based diagnostic model of “ADHD” include: (a) the simplistic labeling of symptoms (ADHD) with resulting termination of the search for an underlying cause, (b) evaluations that are limited to symptom counting, (c) a delay in the development of effective intervention plans among children with more pervasive developmental disorders or other deficits, (d) utilization of the child’s response to medication as a tool for confirming the accuracy of the diagnosis and (e) the “mis-diagnosis” of children with resulting public perceptions that oftentimes effective medications (ie., psychostimulants) are of no value or counter-productive. The solution… hmmm…

See you next week.

Neuropsychological Services

During the past twenty years, Dr. Dowell has completed neuropsychological evaluations among over 5000 patients. Neuropsychological Services currently completes consultations among over 300 – 400 children/adolescents each year presenting with a variety of symptoms/problems including features of attention deficit hyperactivity disorders (ADHD), learning disabilities, behavioral disorders (ie., oppositional defiant disorder, conduct disorder, etc.), pervasive developmental disabilities (ie., autism, Asperger’s Syndrome), post-traumatic stress disorders, neglect/deprivation, reactive attachment disorders and other adjustment disorders. He has served as a forensic neuropsychological witness within the county and federal court systems throughout Pennsylvania and New Jersey and testified in front of the State Department of Education.

Here Dr. Richard Dowell will share insights to common issues seen within the clinical and forensic neuropsychological arenas. At times humorous, other times a bit sarcastic, examples given are taken from real world experience, with the any names being changed to protect the innocent, and the doctor of course. While certain matters may be shown in a lighthearted manor the illnesses and people suffering from any type of mental or physical pain is not taken lightly.

The intent of Inside Neuropsychology is to open a dialogue between patients and their loved ones and the medical staff serving them. It is also a means to uncover some of the lunacy often common in diagnosis and treatment.