
Large imaging study confirms brain differences in ADHD - devinp
http://sciencebulletin.org/archives/10505.html
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blakesterz
Interesting quote: "The different volumes of the five brain regions involved
in ADHD were present whether or not people had taken medication, suggesting
the differences in brain volumes are not a result of psychostimulants."

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SEJeff
Being an extremely hyperactive child (whom my mother refused to medicate and
instead just disciplined me often), I always knew I was different. Not special
different, just different in an annoying hard to fit in way. I find it
interesting the "sides" in this debate when other studies also find entirely
different brain chemistry in ADD/ADHD (whatever the flavor of the day to call
it is). People with this demeanor tend to gravitate very heavily towards
engineering / technology related fields and excel, although I never understood
why.

The way I describe it to most people is very simple. If you give a ADD/ADHD
child Ritalin, Adderol, etc, they will calm down. You give those drugs to a
normal child and they get super hyperactive. Inversely, you give most people a
stimulant such as caffeine and their heart beat increases and they perk up.
I've always been very careful about coffee in the morning or teas as it is
very much a calming downer. Sometimes I will drink a coffee to really calm my
(always thinking too much) brain and let me focus, but can't do it if I'm the
least bit tired as I'll be more inclined to doze off mid day.

I'm happy to see more actual science that shows this is a real thing, not
something made up by an impatient child or child who had lots of trouble
paying attention in school.

EDIT: Removed the first paragraph where I was thankfully wrong. Thanks
geoelectric and filoeg for beating me with the cluebat, it is appreciated.

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geoelectric
Think you're confusing what happened to Asperger's--it was redefined as a
spectrum variation rather than its own thing. In fact, DSM4 didn't allow
simultaneous autism and ADHD diagnoses and DSM5 does.

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SEJeff
Indeed, I was incorrect. We were talking about a girl who has Aspergers she
helps in school and I got confused.

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indolering
How did this get so high up on HN? This is in no way a breakthrough.

The volume of scans and age ranges help nail down etiology, but the article
and commentary here suggest that we didn't know what brain structures were
involved or that ADHD is a "brain based disorder."

We've been doing MRI research on ADHD for decades[0] and independent
longitudinal studies that track ADHD children into adulthood[1].

[0]:
[http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/abs/10.1176/appi.ajp.201...](http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/abs/10.1176/appi.ajp.2012.11101521)

[1]: [http://www.guilford.com/books/ADHD-in-Adults/Barkley-
Murphy-...](http://www.guilford.com/books/ADHD-in-Adults/Barkley-Murphy-
Fischer/9781609180751/authors)

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6stringmerc
Okay so now an MRI brain scan will be par-for-the-course for children thought
to be experiencing ADHD symptoms in advance of prescribing medication, right?
Seems reasonable. Otherwise how else can one objectively note whether an ADHD
"brain issue" is at fault or, uh, simple emotional adaptive recalcitrance?

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wyldfire
That's pretty unlikely IMO. Physicians are remarkably pragmatic. Diagnostic
imaging tools like CT and MRI were created in order to avoid the risk of
exploratory surgery. As a byproduct, they are also useful in medical research
applications like these.

From the article:

> “We hope that this will help to reduce stigma that ADHD is ‘just a label’
> for difficult children or caused by poor parenting."

In general, diagnostic imaging is funded to mitigate some other downstream
risk. "Would the wrong treatment be harmful?" [not in this case, popular
treatment is pharmeceutical - psychostimulants, pretty safe drugs]. "Would
delaying diagnosis of a non-ADHD disease be harmful?" [not likely given the
symptoms].

If you had an extraordinary case ("Patient is allergic to psychostimulants and
alternative treatment X is expensive or risky"), this research might be used
to convince the relevant parties that an MRI to rule-out ADHD is worthwhile.

