Re: Brain clues to attention disorder

"mat" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> "John H." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>...
> > Another myth bites the dust, though the evidence of ADHD being a real
> > condition has rarely been in dispute by those who read the research.
> > Hopefully this finding will further our understanding of this condition,
> > which I have no hope of understanding.
> >
> >
> > John H.
> >
> > http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3284629.stm
> >
> > Scientists have found differences in the brains of children with
> > attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.
> > University of California Los Angeles researchers found some areas of the
> > brains of the children were smaller, and but others had more grey
matter.
> >
> > .....
>
> I don't see how this actually moves the debate on - after all we
> already knew children labelled ADHD were different, this just confirms
> there is a difference *not* that there is a pathology.  I think it is
> still debatable whether all children currently diagnosed with ADHD
> should be labelled as 'ill' or 'diseased'.  I do not think the debate
> is whether the childrens' behaviour is variant but whether it is
> 'abnormal' or 'pathological'.  The more you categorise people the
> narrower the definition of normal becomes.

Irrespective of any labelling genuine ADHD cases are outside the norm. The
changes in brains occur very early in life. ADHD is associated with higher
rates of criminality, learning disorders, and psychopathology. These people
are not being labelled for the purposes of exclusion from the norm or to
create an industry, they are thus labelled because as a group they present
problems far more frequently than "norms" and ways must be found to help a
significant number of these people; though paradoxically some genuine ADHD
cases seem to display inordinate intelligence and creativity. Certainly
there has been far too much fast and loose diagnosis of ADHD but 50 years
ago the same was true of schizophrenia, and 100 years ago Multiple
Sclerosis, because of higher rates in women, was presumed to be
hypochondria. The above research moves the debate on because it deepens our
understanding of what is happening. PS: "Norm" is a conceptual convenience,
it doesn't have to carry moral undertones.


John H.