The ADHD Nervous System

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder otherwise known as ADHD is a common condition that affects kids and can continue into adulthood. Some of the effects of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder are problems paying attention, unable to follow directions, and easily bored or frustrated with any tasks. These types of behaviors are generally common in children, but they occur more often than usual and are more severe in children with ADHD. The behaviors that are common with ADHD interfere with a child's ability to function at school and at home when they need to be paying attention. Adults with ADHD have a difficult time with organizational skills, goal setting, time management, and employment. They may also have problems with relationships, self-esteem, and addictions.

ADHD individuals have deficits involved with the functions of executive control within the brain. This control center affects concentration, hyperactivity, and learning.

My entire life I’ve struggled with ADHD. I’m capable of all the work given to me but so many teachers don’t understand how much of a struggle it is for me to focus. It’s not just an excuse for me to be lazy, or get time extensions. Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder more well known as ADHD defined by Mayo Clinic as “A chronic condition including attention difficulty, hyperactivity, and impulsiveness.” So basically people with this condition have a hard time focusing, thinking through decisions, and staying still. This is a real condition that affects thousands of children and adults in the united states. The Center for Disease Control and

Some of my favorite theories on ADHD include "The Explorer Gene", "The nervous system of an ADHD 'ers is different" and "People with ADHD don 't have a shortage of attention." The Explorer Gene helped our prehistoric ancestors out, by constantly thinking about food, shelter, and fire. Cavemen with this gene were thought to have a better chance of survival. An ADHD 'ers central nervous system is somehow wired differently than a neurotypical person, a nerotypical nervous system means that the person has a normal nervous system. In order for a neurotypical person to get something done they have to have at least one of three things, the task has to be important/signifigant, has to have a sense of emergency or urgency, or the task has to have a punishment/reward system. Most people with an ADHD nervous system have a higher IQ than neurotypical people, so people with ADHD use their higher IQs in different ways than normal people, ADHD 'ers sometimes find simple solutions to problems that stumped other neurotypical people. People with ADHD do not have a shortage of attention they pay to much attention to everything causing the hyperfocuses, more commonly showing as hypersensitivity to light, sounds, smells, and touch.

The hypoactivity of dopamine then causes reduced attention, impaired working memory and poor behavioural organisation. Ritalin has been used to treat ADHD by blocking the neurotransmitters so they don’t reuptake dopamine, resulting in dopamine being in the system for longer. This means that there is increased motivation and attention, helping some of the symptoms that ADHD produces. There are many studies showing that Ritalin is an effective drug to treat ADHD, with studies showing that Ritalin decreases any abnormalities found in patients with ADHD (Hart et al., 2013; Spencer et al., 2013).

ADHD is caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain of a chemical called dopamine.

The pathophysiology of ADHD is also not clear. Both the neurotransmitters dopamine and norepinephrine have been linked to ADHD . Studies have shown individuals with ADHD have an increase in norepinephrine and a decrease in dopamine levels (Soreff, 2014). Extensive research is being conducted to determine the origin of ADHD but no

To better understand this diagnosis, one needs to fully understand what ADHD means and how it differs from ADD. ADD is attention deficit disorder, with characteristics of inattention and impulsivity ("Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)". With ADHD, it is identical to the ADD definition but adds in a good dose of hyperactivity. Although that definition seems simple, it really does encompass a great deal of conditions that are significant enough to interrupt normal functioning at home, work or school. Where ADD may have the individual seeming lost and oblivious or in a dream-like state, just not really caring, ADHD may have the person completely on the go, unable to sit still, impatient, frenzied, wired and/or seeking out something that is stimulating. Both of these may appear opposite but the effects are generally the same: it is difficult to pay attention, even harder to make and maintain friendships, tasks remain uncompleted, lack of impulse control, things are lost easily and places are left looking haphazard and disorganized.

Stimulant Therapy is used to treat both moderate and severe ADHD and can increase alertness, attention, and energy in addition to elevating blood pressure, heart rate, and respiration. This medication therapy may help children and adolescents focus their thoughts and ignore distractions to increase success across settings including at school, work, and home. The most commonly used stimulant medications are
methylphenidate and the
amphetamines. Evidence demonstrates that these
stimulants are safe when
prescribed to healthy children monitored
under medical supervision.21 (see table 1)

According to the Surgeon General website, “Because the symptoms of ADHD respond well to treatment with stimulants, and because stimulants increase the availability of the neurotransmitter dopamine, the “dopamine hypothesis” has gained a wide following. The dopamine hypothesis posits that ADHD is due to inadequate availability of dopamine in the central nervous system. The neurotransmitter dopamine plays a key role in initiating purposive movement, increasing motivation and alertness, reducing appetite, and inducing insomnia, effects that are often seen when a child responds well to methylphenidate. The dopamine hypothesis has thus driven much of the recent research into the causes of ADHD.” (Surgeon General website). It does make sense that neurotransmitters are involved, since the mechanism of medications that seem to effectively reduce the symptoms of ADHD impacts the neurotransmitters. This may explain why these medications are effective for many people

ADHD is influential to the learning ability which will affect their competitiveness in the society. Sufferers, who are still students, are difficult to concentrate on the lessons or when they are taking revision and eventually they will have lower learning outcome. Children with more symptoms of ADHD are found that they have around double probability of grade repetition and have worse performance in mathematic and reading than ordinary U.S. children (The National Bureau of Economic Research, 1990). The research shows the effect of ADHD on learning. In our society, most of the employees under the illusion that academic result reflects one’s working

When a child is diagnosed with ADD/ADHD, most medical professionals prescribe a amphetamine to help the child with his symptoms. These drugs increase the levels of dopamine in the brain. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that the body naturally produces for movement and attentiveness. When the brain is flooded with dopamine, the body reacts with a feeling of euphoria. The feeling of euphoria is the body’s way of feeling pleasure (Methylphenidate).

ADHD affects attention, impulse control, and other characteristics that when networked together, are referred to as "executive functions."

5% of children are diagnosed with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Although the effects of ADHD have been clearly ascertained in psychiatric investigations, origins of the neurological effects of this condition in the human brain are widely unknown. There is conclusive evidence proving neurological anomalies in the human brain caused by ADHD; this evidence includes dysfunction and disconnection in specific regions of the brain, especially the default-mode network (DMN) of the brain, which governs neural activity during cognitive rest outside of an externally introduced task. ADHD suppresses modulation of the DMN, causing it to be active even during cognitive tasks, which hinders attention span, learning, and social aptitude.

There are two different categories of medications used to treat ADHD; stimulant and non-stimulant. A stimulant, Methylphenidates, interacts and decreases activities of both dopamine and norepinephrine transports in the prefrontal cortex and striatum. The result, increased synaptic concentrations of both dopamine and norepinephrine. It was shown that methylphenidate decreased aggressive behavior in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR), the most commonly used ADHD rat model, when compared against the control ADHD group that received no treatment (figure 1) (Baek, 2014).