THEME 4: ADHD

Question 1

What is the prevalence of ADHD?

Answer 1

2.2% - 5.2%

Question 2

What are the recognizable patterns?

Answer 2

Impulsivity, restlessness and inattentiveness

Question 3

When is it most common to be diagnosed with ADHD

Answer 3

Early school years

Question 4

Self-regulation

Answer 4

one’s own control of emotion, cognition, and behaviour refers to actions taken to achieve future goals despite conflicting desires in the past.
-Opposite of impulsivity

Question 5

Effortful control

Answer 5

-Inhibited control
Ex: less angry and more inhibited children display higher levels of effortful control.

Question 6

Experiment: Putting marshmallows in front of kids and if they don’t eat it they get a bigger reward

Answer 6

Better delay of gratification abilities are associated with immediate and long-term psychological and social benefits.

Question 7

Executive function

Answer 7

Cognitive processes that underlie goal-directed behavior are orchastrated b.
-Occurs in prefrontal cortex
-ADHD people have smaller prefrontal cortex and delayed executive function.

Question 8

How to help EF delay?

Answer 8

• scaffholding
• stimulation
  -sensitivity
  -control

Question 9

What are the core characteristics of ADHD?

Answer 9

1-Two factor model (Inattention, Hyperactivity/Impulsivity)
2-High levels of energy, creativity, out of box thinking

Question 10

What are the difficulties in school ?

Answer 10

-Problems in school work
-Upon entry to the 4th and 7th grade gets harder due to heavy school work.

Question 11

What are the difficulties in family ?

Answer 11

-ADHD kids don’t respond to most common parenting style (reasoning-scolding)
-Poor-shortened sleep

Question 12

What are the difficulties in social-life ?

Answer 12

-Social dysfunction
-interpreting ambigous information as negative
-social withdrawal and rejection

Question 13

Facts about Gender-ethnicity age?

Answer 13

• Boys get diagnosed 4-5 times more than girls
  -African-American children show more symptoms but diagnosed less than europeans.
  -Earlier diagnosis doesn’t mean more severe symptoms
  -Cognitive dysfunction, inattentive characteristics are associated with later diagnosis.

Question 14

Relation between substance abuse and ADHD?

Answer 14

People with ADHD are more likely to become addicted to substances.
-Early identification of ADHD and medication treatment is associated with lower risks of adolescent substance abuse.

Question 15

Developmental course diagnosis?

Answer 15

-Women mostşy get diagnosed adolescents or early adulthood
-ADHD doesn’t go away when grow up
-The more you grow up lower levels of hyperactivity higher levels of inattention.

Question 16

What are the early childhood precursors for ADHD?

Answer 16

1- low birth weight
2- difficult temperament, poor sleep patterns
3-on-the-go very curious

Question 17

Pre-school-limited

Answer 17

when the difficulties improve over-time and they get limited in early stages.

Question 18

Genes-Heredity-ADHD?

Answer 18

1- High heritability
2- Polygenic model of ADHD
3- Dominant effects are larger for inattention additive effects are larger for hyperactivity/impulsivity.
4-Having ADHD gene can also lead to antisocial disorder, alcoholism, depression

Question 19

Physiological factors of ADHD

Answer 19

1-Smaller brain
2-Atypical connectivity
3- later prefrontal development
4-dysfunction of neurotransmitters
5-dysfunction of dopamine related to motivational deficits, serotonin linked to delay variations.

Question 20

Psychological functions of ADHD?

Answer 20

1-The worse the EF deficit more likely to have learning disabilities.
2-Drowsiness, daydreaming, lethargy
3-higher levels of anxiety, depression, withdrawn behaviour
4-Emotional dysregulation
5-motivational deficits

Question 21

What are the intervention ways?

Answer 21

1- Stimulant medication
2-Behavioral parent training,
3- environmental interventions (classroom adaptation)

Question 22

Endophenotype

Answer 22

Heritable traits should be derived from genetics (even when the disease is not present), and be found in non-affected family members.

Question 23

Endophenotypes: neuropsychological

Answer 23

1-Inhibition: ability to suppress prepotent responses
2-Working memory: ability to manipulate information in short-term memory
3-Response variability: variability in reaction times.
4-Delay aversion: preference for a small reward rather than larger delayed reward.
5-Timing: ability to estimate units of time.

Question 24

What might be the theories of ADHD?

Answer 24

1-Inhibition Hypothesis response: central ADHD deficit poor response inhibition.
2-Delay aversion: hyperactivity, impulsivity and inattention symptoms come from escape from the negative effects of the disorder.
3-Stimulant effects dopamine
4-Low arousal: abnormally low arousal therefore seeks for more.
5-Dual pathway model: cold and hot EF function.