Attention Deficit Disorder

The subject of medicating “bad” behavior is sometimes controversial. I’ve met many people in the church who believe that ADD is just an excuse for bad behavior, and that medications prescribed to treat ADD are dangerous, addictive, or damaging, and a poor substitute for good old discipline. I used to think along these lines.

ADD discussions are tied to the ongoing discussion of nature verses nurture, free will, and the dualism of body and spirit.

Let me draw your attention to a remarkable book: Healing ADD by Daniel G. Amen, M.D.

In the introduction to the book, Dr. Amen explains:

This book, I hope, will put to rest the debate over whether or not ADD is real by showing the areas of dysfunction in the brain. New brain-imaging research, conducted at my clinic, has uncovered the ADD brain. Based on our research with thousands of ADD patients using brain SPECT imaging (one of the most sophisticated functional brain-imaging studies in the world), we have been able to see where ADD resides in the brain and why it has such a negative impact on behavior. Right or wrong, humans have an innate distrust of the intangible, but seeing the ADD brain can cause the destructive myths and prejudices to fade away.
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The first of its kind, this book will give you a completely new perspective on ADD. You’ll see actual ADD brain images (many before and after treatment) and identify the six types of ADD…

Dr. Amen describes these six different kinds of ADD (Classic ADD, Inattentive ADD, Overfocused ADD, Temporal Lobe ADD, Limbic ADD, and “Ring of Fire” ADD) and what is happening in the brain for each type, including what chemicals are deficient or overabundant. Because each type is caused by different chemical problems in different parts of the brain, they have to be treated differently, and treating some types with standard remedies will make things worse, not better.

The remedies recommended by Dr. Amen go way beyond medication. In addition to medication approaches, he recommends school, work, and home strategies, sleep, nutritional and exercise approaches, vitamin and herbal supplement remedies, and more.

Dr. Amen suggests that ADD has a genetic component, but that it can also be induced by head trauma, or even by television, music, or video games, or the Internet.

One of the most interesting parts of the book, for me, was his discussion of how he has employed brain-imaging bio-feedback to teach people with ADD to make their brains work correctly. That is, by watching real time images of what is happening, chemically, in their brains as they try to concentrate, ADD patients are actually able to consciously teach their brains to release chemicals correctly.

This suggests that TV, Video Games, or Blogging might be training our brain to work in certain ways as well.

The book discusses how certain reactions and disciplinary approaches by parents influence the brain chemistry of ADD children or spouses.

As an individual, this book has had an enormous beneficial influence in my own life and for my family, and I recommend it to anyone who is interested in, or struggling with, ADD problems.

From an LDS point of view, I think that the fact that ADD patients were able to observe the bio-feedback of their own brain chemistry and make the decision to change it, a fascinating contribution to the nature vs. nurture debate, and the LDS concept of free will.

Read the book and visit the Amen Clinic website at http://www.amenclinic.com. Take the online ADD self-test here.

UPDATE: And just for some balance, read this critique of Dr. Amen’s approach by Harriet Hall, M.D.