Just like a pitcher goes through a series of exercises and a routine of throwing in the bullpen to warm up for pitching in a game, your child will benefit from “warming up his brain” through a series of simple exercises. Have your ADHD child “warm up” prior to doing his homework, or when possible prior to taking a test at school. It won’t hurt, and may just help your child a lot! Read more of the article...

When the Detroit Tigers placed pitcher Dontrelle Willis on the disabled list last Sunday (3/29/2009) with the diagnosis of "anxiety disorder" it was very interesting to me for two reasons:

First, because my nephew Casey Fien was trying to make the Tigers as a pitcher and we had just recently returned from a trip to spring training to follow the Tigers and watch Casey pitch (Casey was just assigned to AAA Toledo a few days ago), and we have started following the Tigers very closely; and

Secondly, because of the reports that although Willis had not reported any symptoms of an anxiety disorder, he was diagnosed solely through the results of a blood test, according to news reports. Read more of the article...

A recently published study on children, ADHD, and sleep, gives parents good reasons to make sure that their ADHD kids develop good bed-time habits and are in bed as early as possible.

The study was just published on March 1, 2009 in the journal SLEEP. It confirms what many parents already know about their ADHD children or teens, that they simply are not getting enough sleep at night, and that they often wake up tired and sluggish in the morning, which causes other problems all through the day. Read more of the article...

OK, I have to admit that I didn't see this coming.

Whenever I have heard people comparing Ritalin to Cocaine I have just turned them off as either over-reacting, or uninformed. Yes, both are psychostimulants. Yes, both impact the brain's performance. But other than that, why not compare caffeine to cocaine, as both are stimulants and impact the brain.

I had worked in a psychiatric hospital for a few years, and had seen people who had come because of their cocaine addiction, and they didn't look anything like the kids I saw with ADHD who were benefiting from the use of Ritalin or other stimulants (and I had worked with nearly 1,000 kids who had benefited from treatment with stimulants). Read more of the article...

Studies Examine Genetic Determinants of ADHD

Interesting Press Release from Wiley, Boston, Mass. – January 07, 2009

A special issue of American Journal of Medical Genetics (AJMG): Part B: Neuropsychiatric Genetics presents a comprehensive overview of the latest progress in genetic research of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The issue covers major trends in the field of complex psychiatric genetics, underscoring how genetic studies of ADHD have evolved, and what approaches are needed to uncover its genetic origins.

ADHD is a complex condition with environmental and genetic causes. It is characterized by developmentally inappropriate levels of inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity that has an onset in childhood. It is one of the most common psychiatric diseases, affecting between 8-12 percent of children worldwide. The drugs used to treat ADHD are highly effective, making ADHD one of the most treatable psychiatric disorders. However, despite the high efficacy of ADHD medications, these treatments are not curative and leave patients with residual disability. Because ADHD is also has one of the most heritable of psychiatric disorders, researchers have been searching for genes that underlie the disorder in the hopes that gene discovery will lead to better treatments for the disorder.

Among the many studies in the issue are two from the first genomewide association study of individual ADHD patients. The study examined more than 600,000 genetic markers in over 900 families from the largest genetic study of ADHD, the International ADHD Multicenter Genetics (IMAGE) project led by Stephen V. Faraone of SUNY Upstate Medical Center. The authors have made these data publicly available to researchers who are interested in pursuing further studies. Read more of the article...

I'm beginning to prepare for a parent-teen seminar that I will be leading in January on "Virtual Idols and Addictions," and the more I study the more my heart is saddened. I am learning things that as a parent I never wanted to know, but need to be aware of. And I guess that someone had told me some of these things ten years ago, so that maybe I could have made things easier for my own kids growing up.

I want to pass some of these things on to you, so that you can be warned, and so that you can begin as a parent to prepare yourselves to deal with these issues in your own home with your teenagers. So here are some excerpts from a press release in our local paper promoting the seminar...

Virtual Idols and Addictions Read more of the article...