Attention Deficit Disorder - ADD / ADHD

Steven Pavlakis MD http://www.TheDoctorsVideos.com Medical School Brown University Resident Fellowship Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center Chief of Pediatric Neurology; Maimonides Medical Centers

Male Speaker: A lot of kids in the school seem to be daydreaming and not focusing. The teachers are concerned. Maybe the kid has some kind of a focusing problem. What's that all about? Male Speaker: Well, there is such a thing as Attention Deficit Disorder, with or without hyperactivity, and these are children that have problems with concentration, distractibility, impulsivity, and they may be hyperactive as well. They don't have to be. The boys that have it are more likely to be hyperactive, girls are less likely to be hyperactive. Male Speaker: What's the ratio between boy and girl? Male Speaker: I don't know the exact number, but I think it's 2:1 or 3:1. Boys more commonly have it than girls. It's also probably underdiagnosed in girls. One of the problems with this whole condition is that the teachers worry about it if the kid is hyperactive because they are disrupting the class, and that's not necessarily something that we are all worried about. It's really the teacher's problem in that situation. Whereas, you might have a child that sits there and isn't attentive and doesn't learn anything, and the teacher doesn't worry about that child because the child is not disruptive. And that child is actually one that we don't want to miss, because that child might be the one that's truly falling behind. Male Speaker: Any diagnosis or any tests we can do? Male Speaker: Well, ADHD is just an -- in general, it's usually a genetic condition. These children tend to be disorganized, tend to be felt to be immature. And the key thing to know about ADHD is that it does and can get better as you get older. It's an immaturity of attention, and that's really what it should be looked at. It's not really a disease as such, but it's an immaturity of concentration, where your concentration improves. Male Speaker: Are there any written tests? Male Speaker: What we do is we can do tests for it. There are several ways of diagnosing it. One way is by a standard scale that has been validated. Sometimes parents look at this and say, well, this is ridiculous, but it does work, where we give a scale that's checkoff list to the parents and to the teachers, and we can score that scale and make a diagnosis that way. Male Speaker: What is the name of this test? Male Speaker: There are different tests. There is a Conners, which is most commonly used. There is a Vanderbilt. There is also a SNAP form that I tend to like, and this is generally the way we diagnose.