Exercise May Reduce Distractibility in Children with ADHD

A new study from Dr. Pontifex of Michigan State University, published in the Journal of Pediatrics has found some potential good news for parents of children with ADHD. Especially parents wanting to help their children with as little medication as possible. Dr. Pontifex and his research team had a group of 40 children between the ages of 8 and 10 years old (20 with ADHD, 20 without), participate in one of two different activities (20 minutes of reading while at rest, or 20 minutes of aerobic exercise on a treadmill). After completing the experiment in a way to make sure the only thing that could create the differences observed was related to the exercise, they found that all children (with and without ADHD) performed better on reading and math tasks, including greater accuracy of responses. While the study sample was small and would need to be replicated with a much larger sample to ensure the consistency of the results, the information and results provide some interesting possibilities. Based on these results, 20 minutes of aerobic exercise before tasks that require focus and sustained effort may help children with ADHD perform better and more accurately. Some questions still remain however, for instance, how long after the aerobic exercise can these results be expected to last?

Of other particular interest, not reported elsewhere that I can find, while most other variables examined in this study showed expected statistical significance, one variable that was tested, IQ, showed no significant differences between the two groups. In other words, children in this study with ADHD and without ADHD had similar enough IQ scores that the based on statistical standards they are considered "the same". Again, this sample is so small that more advanced exploration is needed. However the results also point out an important aspect of children with ADHD, they are just as intelligent (on statistical average) as children without ADHD.

What are your thoughts about these study results?

Single Motherhood NOT to Blame!

I just read an article from USA Today with the headline, "Nancy Lanza had authority over Conn. shooter Adam Lanza". The title intrigued me. Was the author implying that Nancy had "authority and therefor is to blame" for the shootings? Or were they stating, "she knew her son was dangerous and needed help?" After reading through the article I couldn't help but get the feeling that the author, possibly well intentioned or just simply looking for more to the story, was blaming divorce for the tragedy. The article details the divorce filings of Nancy and her ex-husband. I could find no good reason that this should be plastered on national news as it really had little to do with the tragedy. So to clear up any confusion of other readers of this article: Divorce, or more appropriately - Single motherhood is NOT to blame for this tragedy. Sure, many problems can arise from divorce, and some children of single PARENTS have problems, but I find it hard to understand why this aspect of their lives was highlighted. From all accounts I have been able to read, Adam was disturbed, possibly had some mental health issues, and was clearly not thinking appropriately. But the last thing I want to hear is a single mother being blamed for something so horrendous. Single parents, the majority of them mothers, have difficult struggles already without putting the fear that their child will turn out like this kid did. Let's put the focus back where it needs to be, with the families of those who are suffering and struggling as a result. With the teachers and administrators struggling now across the country, trying to provide a safe, secure environment for their students to learn. And rightly with the family of this man who made decisions that will impact the lives of hundreds if not thousands throughout the years to come. They too, will live with doubt and second guessing of their actions. On a side note, I'm reposting possibly the best news story I have seen yet related to this tragedy:

http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/16/us/connecticut-emilie-parker/index.html?iref=allsearch

If John Gottman says it, its gone mainstream!

For quite some time religious communities have been sounding the alarm against "pornography addiction", while most of the mental health communities have largely stated it is not really a problem. However, it seems that more mainstream mental health professionals are starting to see pornography addiction as a problem. For instance, recently I discovered that world renowned marriage therapy scholar, John Gottman, just barely published a new book. The title of his new book, published September of this year is "What makes love last? How to build trust and avoid betrayal". This book includes a whole chapter on how pornography abuse and addiction can impact couple relationships. Even though I have only begun reading the book (I will provide a more in depth review later on) I found the title of chapter 4, "Men, Porn, and Sex Drives", interesting enough to skip to and read first. After reading through this chapter, I was pleased to find that Dr. Gottman explains how pornography use in relationships causes a number of problems. He specifically states that the chemicals released during a couples intimate encounters provide an attachment to the partner. If these chemicals are released during pornography use, that attachment is transferred from the partner to an impersonal image, leading to less sexual interest in the partner. There is some other very good information in the rest of the chapter related to porn use and porn addiction, but I don't want to spoil the whole chapter for you. So far the book is great, and I highly recommend it.

What are your thoughts about this new stance on pornography addiction?

To drug or not to drug... That is the question!

Recently, I have seen about three different major news agencies highlighting a very dangerous trend in the treatment of ADHD and the prescription of ADHD medications. To read the context of these articles and understand my concern related to them please take a look at this article written in Forbes. I understand the desire to help kids get an edge and be given every chance in the world to succeed in school and in life. I want my children to have as much advantages as they can in order to be the kind of person they want to be in life. However, I am not willing to cheat or risk my child's health for them to have those added advantages. A few years ago there was a lot of attention given to college students misusing Adderall in order to study better and get better grades, even when they didn't have ADHD. I was shocked to hear that this trend has migrated to school age children. I am even more alarmed to hear that some doctors are complicit in this "doping" of children. I know my words are harsh, but I don't think this is any different from athletes taking drugs to give them an extra edge to perform. We (as a society) think that this is not fair and we rail against athletes. When we find out that they have been "doping" we slap them with regulations and sanctions. Just see what happened to Lance Armstrong and Barry Bonds when they were found to have been using "performance enhancing drugs". So, what are we teaching our children, when parents, teachers and doctors are okay with giving them "performance enhancing drugs" so they can perform on par with their classmates despite their lack of diagnosis. I think we are telling them that it's okay to use drugs to perform better. It doesn't matter if you "really" need it or not. We as parents, teachers, therapists and doctors need to take a moral stand, that this is not okay to teach to our children. If we continue this behavior, we are setting ourselves up for more "doping" in places other than just in sports.

What are your thoughts?

Girls with ADHD are More Likely to Cause Self-Harm!

A recent study (published August 13, 2012 in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology) by Hinshaw and Colleagues found that girls who were diagnosed early with ADHD had significantly higher rates of suicide attempts and self-harming behaviors.

Psychological Abuse of Children

Today, the American Academy of Pediatrics released a clinical report detailing the potential harms of psychological abuse on children. It was clearly stated that while psychological abuse is often hard to detect and rarely leaves physical indicators, it is just as damaging as physical abuse on children. I wanted to quickly go over some points stated in the report on what psychological abuse is and how to detect it.

Guest Post on "Notes on Parenting"

Today I wrote a post on the blog Notes on Parenting. In this post I detailed the research on how the emotional availability of parents at bedtime increases the quality of a child's sleep through the night. I gave suggestions on how to apply these research findings in everyday life and asked for comments from readers about whether they think doing these suggestions will work. Please visit this blog and take a look at this post. It may prove helpful for many parents.

Does your child NEED a cell phone?

I was 17 years old when I got my first cell phone. That was back when cell phones were mostly symbols of being rich or a drug dealer. I was neither. It was a cheap pay by the minute phone that I used for maybe a month and got tired of the "newness" of having it and never bought another minute for it. The second time I ever thought I would like a cell phone was when I was 21 years old. I was at an amusement park with some friends and we needed a ride back home. None of us had a cell phone. None of us had enough change for the pay phone. Using our student bus passes we took the bus home.

Free Play: Where has it Gone?

Just the other day I was overwhelmed with stress and anxiety from the many things I needed to get done. So stressed out that when I was preparing to go to the gym for a much needed workout, I threw up my arms and told my wife, "forget it, I'm not going. I need to get this and that done, I don't have time to work out!" She very patiently reminded me to "Sharpen the Ax". I did end up going and felt rejuvenated and relaxed as a result. When I go home I was able to get much more done and more quickly than I was getting done fretting about all I needed to do. You may be asking yourself, "how does his exercising have anything to do with an 'ax' let along free play?"

Guest Post on Notes on Parenting

Today I wrote a post on the blog Notes on Parenting. In this post I detailed the benefits of child centered play, along with some suggestions on how to implement child centered play in your own family. I highlighted two studies that show how child centered play has increased academic performance and decreased child behavior problems in children. Please visit this blog and take a look at this post. It may prove helpful for many parents.

Early School Attendance May Lead to ADHD Diagnosis.

While I do not want to add to the belief and outcry that AD/HD is over or mis-diagnosed, I found this recent article very interesting and the findings are very much worth consideration. The findings of this study are very interesting. The authors used a government healthcare database (Canada) that included about 96% of the population in the provinces they investigated. To be more sure that their findings were not due to the increased popularity of the AD/HD diagnosis, they analyzed the data of children born between 1997 and 2008. They found that children who were born closer to the cuttoff date for school (December 31 in Canada) were 30% (boys) and 70% (girls) more likely to be diagnosed with AD/HD than those born in January (oldest children in the classroom). While they found that the incidence of AD/HD diagnosis did increase over the decade they analyzed (1997-2008), the "Relative Risk of Diagnosis" did NOT differ statistically significantly (a fancy way of saying that the slight differences that did take place did not matter) from year to year.

Q & A: Twin Tantrums

Question - A father of twins writes:  "I need some help to deal with tantrums that my twins throw. I've heard it said to just ignore them; but with two of them honestly sometimes I feel like I am going to loose my mind. What do you think? What could be a good start? Thanks for any help."