if i was to marry my bf.. who is an ADDer!!!... is there a chance our kids would have it????? i dont have ADD..

if so.. what percent????


thank you!!

Sara:confused:

I am not sure this could be measured, but I think this question, would get better responses, in the realationship forum.

There's a very good chance that if both parents have ADD, that the offspring of those parents would have ADD as well.

http://anthro.palomar.edu/mendel/mendel_2.htm

you can work it out.....

Ya but we don't know if the gene related to ADD is dominant or recessive. We also don't know if the domant gene have a recessive gene. Like eye color. Brown is domanant and Blue is recessices but some people with brown eyes have the recessive blue in their brown eye gene.

true - but i always heard the "guesstimate" for working it out is: with one parent, 25% of the kids will have x ("x" in this case being ADD) and with two parents it goes up to 50%.....so, with 4 kids one or two will have whatever.
In my case, my husband being non-ADD and me, the ADDer, our son is non-ADD and my daugher is ADD....yet, they looked like fraternal twins born 5 years apart right down to eye color, shape, hair color and even the same birth mark in the exact same place...spooky!

I always heard it runs in families, even if one parent has it and one doesn't. That is the way it is in my family. Of course, I am the only one who is officailly diagnoised, the rest are just from a GP doctor.

possiby of interest to those reading this thread...results of my a-googling

Many people who have family members afflicted by psychiatric disorders wonder if mental illness is inherited.

In other words, one person may have mental illness because of their nature — their genetic vulnerabilities, their neurochemical functioning. And another person may have mental illness because of nurture — an environmental cause that perhaps then alters their neurochemistry. Most of the time, however, it's probably a complex interaction of both nature and nurture********

There is a linkage between a range of brain disorders.
Earlier researchers were hoping to find one abnormal gene to explain alcoholism, or ADHD, or bipolar.
Now researchers commonly believe that there is a cluster of faulty genes causing a range of disorders.

Different family members inherit different faulty genes in the cluster, and thus the malfunctions in their brain will not be exactly like other family members.

However, everyone in the family is more at risk for inheriting one or more of the faulty genes when the family's genetic pool contains these faulty genes***

The influence of genetic factors in psychiatric disorders is highly variable. More commonly, environmental and genetic interactions influence most psychiatric conditions..

Just because an individual carries the susceptible gene does not mean they WILL develop the disorder

I could not find any specific studies related to "Is ADD inherited?" but found this regarding schizophrenia:
Genetic Link -- The probability of developing schizophrenia as the offspring of two parents, neither of whom has the disease, is 1 percent. -- The probability of developing schizophrenia as the offspring of one parent with the disease is approximately 13 percent. -- The probability of developing schizophrenia as the offspring of both parents with the disease is approximately 35 percent.

@@@ mental illness hits everyone in all walks of life -- one in five Americans have a diagnosable illness, and half of those have a serious illness that impairs their functioning
Despite any mental illness there is hope and recovery
most of us can contribute to society and live a very valuable and valued life.@@@


re: Alcoholism
It is estimated 76 percent of persons with alcoholism have a genetid disorder in metabolizing alcohol causing them to crave the substance. In addition, it has been found that alcoholism is frequently accompanied by respiratory and food allergies and nutritional deficiencies

re: eating disorders

Researchers say they are far from finding an "eating disorder gene." In fact, such a gene almost certainly does not exist. But having some gene -- or more likely some collection of genes -- greatly increases a teen girl's chances of developing an eating disorder.

Recent research has found similar patterns for just about every mental illness, and many other behavioral traits as well. Genes have been implicated in depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, homosexuality, even risk-taking**





So if 1 in 5 Americans have mental illness seems like it's pretty likely most familes carry some gene or other for some sort of mental illness and in my opinion ADD ain't that bad.

ok Add-ism is dragging me away from this subject now, hope some of the above helps your inquiry Sara.