Post by John on Nov 14, 2007 11:47:41 GMT -5
Brain imaging illuminates ADHD
Tuesday, November 13, 2007Randolph E. SchmidAssociated Press
Washington - Crucial parts of brains of children with attention deficit disorder develop more slowly than other youngsters' brains, a phenomenon that earlier brain-imaging research missed, a new study says.
Developing more slowly in ADHD youngsters - the lag can be as much as three years - are brain regions that suppress inappropriate actions and thoughts, focus attention, remember things from moment to moment, work for reward and control movement.
That was the finding of researchers led by Dr. Philip Shaw of the National Institute of Mental Health, who reported the most detailed study yet on this problem in Monday's online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (pnas.org).
"Finding a normal pattern of cortex maturation, albeit delayed, in children with ADHD should be reassuring to families and could help to explain why many youth eventually seem to grow out of the disorder," Shaw said in a statement.
But not all children outgrow the disorder, said Dr. Judith Rapoport, a co-author also of the NIMH Child Psychiatry Branch. She said researchers are working to determine the differences between those who have a good outcome and those who do not.
Between 3 percent and 5 percent of school-age children are thought to have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Dr. Louis J. Kraus, chief of child psychiatry at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, said, "What is really important about this study is it shows us there is clearly something biologically driven for children with ADHD."
Kraus, who was not part of the research team, said that with this finding no one can argue that children are making it up.
"It is important that parents don't immediately jump out and want to get some type of MRI of their child's brain or functional study to support a diagnosis," Kraus added in an interview.
The research team used scans to measure the cortex thickness at 40,000 points in the brains of 223 children with ADHD and 223 others who were developing in a typical way.
The scans were repeated two, three or four times at three-year intervals.
In both groups the sensory processing and motor control areas at the back and top of the brain peaked in thickness earlier in childhood, while the frontal cortex areas responsible for higher-order executive control functions peaked later, during the teen years, they said.
The only part of the brain that matured faster in the ADHD children was the motor cortex, a finding that the researchers said might account for the restlessness and fidgety symptoms common among those with the disorder.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007Randolph E. SchmidAssociated Press
Washington - Crucial parts of brains of children with attention deficit disorder develop more slowly than other youngsters' brains, a phenomenon that earlier brain-imaging research missed, a new study says.
Developing more slowly in ADHD youngsters - the lag can be as much as three years - are brain regions that suppress inappropriate actions and thoughts, focus attention, remember things from moment to moment, work for reward and control movement.
That was the finding of researchers led by Dr. Philip Shaw of the National Institute of Mental Health, who reported the most detailed study yet on this problem in Monday's online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (pnas.org).
"Finding a normal pattern of cortex maturation, albeit delayed, in children with ADHD should be reassuring to families and could help to explain why many youth eventually seem to grow out of the disorder," Shaw said in a statement.
But not all children outgrow the disorder, said Dr. Judith Rapoport, a co-author also of the NIMH Child Psychiatry Branch. She said researchers are working to determine the differences between those who have a good outcome and those who do not.
Between 3 percent and 5 percent of school-age children are thought to have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Dr. Louis J. Kraus, chief of child psychiatry at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, said, "What is really important about this study is it shows us there is clearly something biologically driven for children with ADHD."
Kraus, who was not part of the research team, said that with this finding no one can argue that children are making it up.
"It is important that parents don't immediately jump out and want to get some type of MRI of their child's brain or functional study to support a diagnosis," Kraus added in an interview.
The research team used scans to measure the cortex thickness at 40,000 points in the brains of 223 children with ADHD and 223 others who were developing in a typical way.
The scans were repeated two, three or four times at three-year intervals.
In both groups the sensory processing and motor control areas at the back and top of the brain peaked in thickness earlier in childhood, while the frontal cortex areas responsible for higher-order executive control functions peaked later, during the teen years, they said.
The only part of the brain that matured faster in the ADHD children was the motor cortex, a finding that the researchers said might account for the restlessness and fidgety symptoms common among those with the disorder.
