Don't know if this has been posted, but its an interesting article I found today:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1684536,00.html

Further proof that too many parents are too quick to jump the gun and take their child to a psychiatrist just to get better grades instead of waiting to see how they mature.

But I guess I can't blame the parents for wanting what's best for their child. The kid's gotta conform to the school system and the system doesn't wait for a child to mature. So maybe it's the school's fault...

:DNope.

"The findings . . . may help explain why many children diagnosed with ADHD eventually grow out of it . . . More research is also needed to determine why half the kids with the disorder still have it as adults."

This is interesting:

" . . . another study the team just submitted for publication (but which has yet to be peer-reviewed) suggests that in a few key areas of the brain that relate to attention and focus, kids with ADHD hew more closely to typical development trajectories only as long as they're on the stimulants. But when they go off their meds, she says, "they fall off the normal curve."

Have you actually tried balancing on that normal curve?!?!

It's like a tightrope... BUT IT'S CURVED!!!

Perhaps medications provide that much needed balancing pole, but the day I'm considered normal will be the day the worlds gone outsane (the current general worldly insanity inverted).

:p

This is interesting:

" . . . another study the team just submitted for publication (but which has yet to be peer-reviewed) suggests that in a few key areas of the brain that relate to attention and focus, kids with ADHD hew more closely to typical development trajectories only as long as they're on the stimulants. But when they go off their meds, she says, "they fall off the normal curve."

Have you actually tried balancing on that normal curve?!?!

It's like a tightrope... BUT IT'S CURVED!!!

LOL :D

Poor them. We mess up their bell curve. We're out-liers. :eek:

Yes, my doctor refuses to give me any stimulants.. He tries to give me these drugs that will just dull my vigilance, not complement it..

If this happens to any of you, leave.

Stimulants may affect vigilance positively,
which gives ADDers the edge to get through the day in record accomplishment,
Given) other pyschosis may affect the outcome (regardless of stims)

Unfortunately, the data is being interpreted to confirm the beliefs of the experimenters, preconceived and inured to actual scientific explanation.

There is no reason given to believe that a meaningful relationship exists between the measured thickness of some landmark in a child’s brain and the child’s behavioral development. That leaves it up to our imagination, not a good thing if we’re to accept this as science.

Here’s a comparable situation: I’m certain that the ratio of head size to limb length changes dramatically over the same period; does it vary at a different rate for ADDers? I don’t know the answer, but it certainly isn’t likely to have a direct connection to functional performance that is defined logically in the brain.

Slow physical development of the limbs could be related to slow social development, which in turn might be expected to have an effect on behavioral measures, and so on. But it’s a stretch, pun intended, and the problems with trying to make practical use of such relationships are obvious.

Doesn’t anyone remember phrenology? Geeze, people, come on. By now, we should all be better than this at the critical thinking needed to filter these studies. We’ve been describing the same problems with scan based research here in the forums for several years.

It’s sad that these people actually get money to waste doing this kind of shoddy pseudo-science, but there’s nothing we can do about it, so why should we keep bothering ourselves over it?

Let’s at least wait for the first study that proposes a model for an actual causal link, the mechanism that relates whatever they’re measuring to the parameters they believe it affects. So far, we’ve seen no mention at all of any link. It’s all just hand waving, and Time should be embarrassed.

There's a difference between outgrowing ADHD and the brain adapting itself to compensate, to the point of not being able to discern if a person has ADHD.

In one case, meds likely no longer help. In the other, meds likely still help because adaptation doesn't fix the underlying cause.

There's a difference between outgrowing ADHD and the brain adapting itself to compensate, to the point of not being able to discern if a person has ADHD.

In one case, meds likely no longer help. In the other, meds likely still help because adaptation doesn't fix the underlying cause.

I agree, I don't think there is anything new here except the thickness of a certain area of the brain. I think the scientific world has a long way to go to understand all the mysteries of the brain. Any stimulus to the brain is going to cause changes to the brain, it's very possible that what they're seeing is the brain's reaction to coping skills developed by the individual.

Zach said: Have you actually tried balancing on that normal curve?!?!

It's like a tightrope... BUT IT'S CURVED!!!

A curved rope? That's insane! What happened to good, old fashioned triangular ones?

:p :D

I read it also.

The little brain pics were cute.

I read it and thought from the start that the title is misleading. I actually think this type of research is important, but until it has been time tested it once again put adults with ADHD in a light of using an excuse because it should have gone away... or am I missing something?