ADHD is a developmental problem characterised by excessive activity, impulsive behaviour and inattention.
The mental health condition affects up to one in twenty.
The mental health condition affects up to one in twenty.
Leonardo da Vinci — one of the world’s greatest polymaths — may have had ADHD, research concludes.
Da Vinci displayed many of the symptoms of Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), including:
These are some of the classic symptoms of ADHD, a disorder involving restlessness of mind and body, including constant mind wandering.
Part of da Vinci’s prodigious output in many areas of art and science could have been down partly to his ADHD.
Incredibly, though, da Vinci considered himself a failure — perhaps a symptom of depression and anxiety that can go along with ADHD.
The study’s authors write:
“According to his first biographer Giorgio Vasari, Leonardo died lamenting ‘that he had offended God and mankind in not having worked at his art as he should have done.”
Professor Marco Catani, the study’s first author, said:
“While impossible to make a post-mortem diagnosis for someone who lived 500 years ago, I am confident that ADHD is the most convincing and scientifically plausible hypothesis to explain Leonardo’s difficulty in finishing his works.
Historical records show Leonardo spent excessive time planning projects but lacked perseverance.
ADHD could explain aspects of Leonardo’s temperament and his strange mercurial genius.”
These is also evidence da Vinci’s brain was wired differently.
He was left-handed and probably dyslexic, with language localised to the right side of the brain (language is localised to the left side of the brain in most people).
All these are common in people with ADHD.
Mind wandering probably fuelled da Vinci’s creativity at the early stages of creativity, although it likely hampered his ability to get projects finished.
Professor Catani, who treats conditions including autism and ADHD, said:
“There is a prevailing misconception that ADHD is typical of misbehaving children with low intelligence, destined for a troubled life.
On the contrary, most of the adults I see in my clinic report having been bright, intuitive children but develop symptoms of anxiety and depression later in life for having failed to achieve their potential.
It is incredible that Leonardo considered himself as someone who had failed in life.
I hope that the case of Leonardo shows that ADHD is not linked to low IQ or lack of creativity but rather the difficulty of capitalising on natural talents.
I hope that Leonardo’s legacy can help us to change some of the stigma around ADHD.”
The study was published in the journal Brain (Catani & Mazzarello, 2019).
People may become aggressive because they are seeking more of this food.
ADHD is one of the most common mental health problems in children.
The common supplement reduces symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Typical symptoms of ADHD include disorganisation, impulsiveness and a lack of tolerance for frustration.
Physical evidence in the brain found for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Physical evidence in the brain for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.
People who have ADHD have slightly smaller brains than average, new research finds.
There was also evidence in the brains of those with ADHD for delayed development.
Dr Martine Hoogman, the study’s first author, said:
“The results from our study confirm that people with ADHD have differences in their brain structure and therefore suggest that ADHD is a disorder of the brain.
We hope that this will help to reduce stigma that ADHD is ‘just a label’ for difficult children or caused by poor parenting.”
The research compared the brains of 1,713 people with ADHD with 1,529 normal controls.
ADHD is characterised by:
Many children continue to experience the symptoms of ADHD into adulthood.
The study found that in ADHD the overall brain volume was slightly lower, as was the volume in certain key areas of the brain.
Dr Hoogman explained:
“These differences are very small—in the range of a few percent—so the unprecedented size of our study was crucial to help identify these.
Similar differences in brain volume are also seen in other psychiatric disorders, especially major depressive disorder.”
The study was published in The Lancet Psychiatry (Hoogman et al., 2017).
Shiny brain image from Shutterstock
Study overturns long-held belief about how to treat kids with ADHD.
Study overturns long-held belief about how to treat kids with ADHD.
Excessive movement helps the learning of children with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), a new study finds.
Kids with ADHD often tap their feet, swing their legs and generally move around a lot.
This has often been considered behaviour that needs to be curbed.
New research finds, though, that excessive movement is key to their memory and helps them work on difficult cognitive tasks.
This suggests that traditional approaches to ADHD may be misguided.
Professor Mark Rapport, head of the Children’s Learning Clinic at the University of Central Florida, and one of the study’s authors, said:
“The typical interventions target reducing hyperactivity.
It’s exactly the opposite of what we should be doing for a majority of children with ADHD.
The message isn’t ‘Let them run around the room,’ but you need to be able to facilitate their movement so they can maintain the level of alertness necessary for cognitive activities.”
The study involved 52 boys, 29 of whom were diagnosed with ADHD.
All were asked to perform a series of tasks to check their working memory.
Working memory is vital to how we reason, learn and understand the world.
For example, the children had to sort out a series of letters and numbers.
While they performed the task, the children were observed and taped.
Professor Rapport explained that children with ADHD performed better when they moved around:
“What we’ve found is that when they’re moving the most, the majority of them perform better.
They have to move to maintain alertness.”
In contrast, children without ADHD performed worse when they moved around more.
The results tie in with a previous study finding that the excessive movement of hyperactive children is linked to their thinking.
When they are not thinking hard, they don’t move around so much.
The new study was published in the Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology (Sarver et al., 2015).
Jumping child image from Shutterstock
Exposure to environmental factor increased children’s chances of developing attention problems by five times.
Exposure to environmental factor increased children’s chances of developing attention problems by five times.
Rising air pollution in urban areas could be linked to the rapid increase in diagnosis in ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), a new study suggests.
The research, published in the journal PLOS ONE, finds that prenatal exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), a component of air pollution, increases the chances of children developing ADHD by five times (Perera et al., 2014).
ADHD is thought to affect 1 in 10 children and is often characterised by a distracted nature, a propensity to daydream and an inability to concentrate and complete tasks.
The new study followed 233 pregnant women in New York City over 9 years as their children grew up.
The women were all Dominican and African-American, living in and around the South Bronx, Harlem and Washington Heights areas of New York City.
The results showed that greater exposure to PAH was associated with symptoms of ADHD as the children got older.
PAH is mostly produced by the burning of fossil fuels: so it comes from many sources, including traffic, domestic boilers and some power stations.
Dr. Frederica Perera, the study’s lead author, said:
“This study suggests that exposure to PAH encountered in New York City air may play a role in childhood ADHD.
The findings are concerning because attention problems are known to impact school performance, social relationships, and occupational performance.”
It’s not yet known exactly what the link is between PAH and ADHD, although it may be related to DNA damage or disruption of the endocrine system.
This study is not the first to suggest a link between pollution and mental health problems.
Previous studies by The Centers for Disease Control have found that PAH exposure may cause lower IQ, increased anxiety and depression and even developmental delays.
This is the first study, though, to find a link between air pollution and ADHD.
Image credit: amenclinicphotos ac
ADHD is most often associated with children which is where the research has concentrated up until now. The evidence suggests that many people continue to be haunted by the condition as adults. As a result reserach is starting to address its effects on adults.
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