When reading articles on the internet about Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) I have found that genes play a big role. It is said that ADHD runs in families which would make it genetic, but also said that genetics could interact with the environment to facilitate the ADHD. Although genetics are the main cause, tests have shown that smoking during pregnancy and low birth weight can also contribute to higher rates of ADHD. Since genes are passed down from both parents and if one of the parents has ADHD, their kids may have a higher rate of having ADHD. If the parent were to have ADHD and Conduct disorder the rates would become even higher. I found that there have been Twin adoption studies to show that there is consistent evidence that genetic factors contribute to ADHD. These studies found that the estimated heritability of ADHD is about 60–91%.
Overall, I found most studies suggest that there are genetic risk factors that influence ADHD. However, it appears that there are additional risk factors that are both genetic and environmental. Environmental risk factors do not influence the beginning of ADHD but they do contribute to its developmental course and outcome. ADHD cannot completely be explained by genes alone.
There are a couple of environmental factors that appear to be associated with ADHD. The first one that I found was exposure to smoking during or after pregnancy. Also, Low birth weight or prematurity was found to have a higher ratio of ADHD. However, not everyone that is exposed to these environmental adversities, such as smoking, will develop ADHD. That is why I believe environmental adversities don’t play a major role, but I think that it does affect the developmental course of the ADHD. That is why Gene- environment interaction is important, because genes operate by responding to environmental adversities. Although there may be more factors that might contribute to ADHD those are the two that I found to show up in most studies.
The reading for the week was the debate on what is the best way to treat ADHD but I wanted to get a feel for what causes ADHD. I think if the medication helps people with ADHD to concentrate and become more focused than it should be alright to use, but I do however think that it should be controlled so that they don't abuse the medication. I think behavioral therapy and medication is probably the best method in controlling ADHD.
Thanks for the extra info you looked up, I found your blog interesting. I agree with you on the ADHD issue. I also believe it is mostly a genetically passed down disease. I do know from personally experience, I have a distant cousin who has it and I grew up around her. She has more control over the ADHD, because she was given the proper help and medicine for it. It was definitely a hard life for her, though. I think with the medicine, family support, and her seeing a doctor that could teach her out to control her emotions was a huge contributor to her improvements. So, I am a firm believer in having the combination of medicine and the mental counseling.
ReplyDeleteI would also like to add that some genes within the genome are silent, and not all are active at the same time. Environmental cues can activate certain genes, at certain times. It takes a certain environmental stimulus to activate these silent genes. Once that occurs, the newly activated gene can influence the individual in new ways. It can make them sensitive to a new disease, and can have many other affects as well. Similar to the article we read regarding the two twins who acted differently when a death occured in the family. One developed severe mood changes, and experienced depression, while the other did not. This could be due to certain genes responding to the death stimuli, and becoming active. This could have caused her depression, and mood changes. Therefore, environmental factors can activate repressed genes,and once active can have a variety of effects.
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