Luckily he kept seeking for opinions, and finally found out that his son was not being bad – his son suffered from ADHD.

For those of you that are as clueless as me about ADHD, here’s an excellent knol that explained extensively about ADHD.

What is ADHD?

Dr. Russell Barkley, a Clinical Neuropsychologist who wrote the knol explain ADHD as follow:

ADHD is characterized by difficulties with frequent distractibility, coupled with an inability to sustain attention to tasks or persist toward goals as well as others, particularly if the situation demands effort… They (the ADHD sufferers – ed.) are typically fidgety, restless, hyperactive, and otherwise engage in frequent task-irrelevant behavior, or activity that is frankly inappropriate for the situation.

How do you know if someone suffer from ADHD?

The typical symptoms of ADHD, according to the knol, are:

• Poorly sustained attention or persistence of effort to tasks, particularly those that are relatively tedious, boring, and protracted.
• Impaired impulse control and delay of gratification.
• Excessive task-irrelevant activity or poorly regulated activity to situational demands. Most, but by no means all individuals with ADHD, are excessively fidgety, restless, and “on the go” as children.

There are certain conditions related to ADHD:

• Academic under-productivity, underachievement, and learning disabilities.
• Aggression or conduct problems.
• Excessive emotional displays or immaturity.
• Problems in social relationships.

What causes ADHD?

Dr. Barkley explained that the evidence for the hereditary or genetic basis of ADHD is now overwhelming and irrefutable. It is now believed that genetics probably accounts for 65-75% of all clinical cases.

Other, arguable causes may include social circumstances, the consumption of food additives, preservatives, or sugar, and individuals with seizures or epilepsy.

ADHD treatments

There is no cure to ADHD in present time. However, there are medical and behavioural treatments that reduce the symptoms and minimise the ADHD impact in the sufferers’ life.

There are also other treatments with no strong evidence in their effectiveness in treating ADHD, such as dietary management, long-term psychotherapy, chiropractic skull manipulation, sensory integration training or other physical movement-based programs such as metronome therapy or DORE clinic exercises, visual perspective training, and cognitive therapy or self-instruction training.

Biofeedback with EEG techniques (neurotherapy), cognitive training of working memory (CogMed), and training in meditation techniques remain experimental treatments at this time.

If you are interested in learning more on ADHD, make sure you visit Dr. Barkley’s knol.