Feature: Taking a genetic view of ADHD
1 Oct, 2010
Blocks used to assess children in the ADHD tests
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common mental health problem that severely disrupts people’s lives. It is poorly understood and is often dismissed as bad behaviour or laziness.
It has recently been discovered that children with ADHD are more likely to have pieces of their DNA duplicated or missing than other children.
I spoke with Professor Anita Thapar, from the Cardiff University School of Medicine, about the importance of showing that there is a genetic basis to ADHD, and how this might help us understand its biological causes.
Read the full feature article on the Wellcome Trust website.
You can also watch a short film about the discovery on the Trust website.
Image credit: Anita Thapar
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Thank you to Wellcome for supporting this research.
Congratulations to Dr Nigel Williams and Prof Anita Thapar and their teams involved in this study.
So many welcome this compelling evidence, that there’s a genuine underlying cause behind the problems many of us endure. We do not disclose the fact that we suffer this disorder and never use the label ADHD. We have not told our parents, siblings, friends, or even our son’s teacher. The stigmatisation is too great and the negative repercussions are too risky.
When our precious son developed anxiety at 4 yrs of age (when he started preschool) and then depressive symptoms at 6 (during his 2nd year at school), our belief that it would be “safe” for us to have a child as long as we provided a nurturing yet stimulating environment was proved wrong. We believed our own problems had stemmed from our upbringing, pure laziness and poor choices. But the chronic working memory deficit and the faulty reward-motivation feedback slowly became evident in our son. Psychologists and doctors thought I was “unhinged” when I suggested that my son suffered ADHD and that I believed that this was the specific problem underlying the development of the psychological issues my son suffered.
As it turns out, my son is very bright and was acutely aware that he was strangely unable to perform as he should and as people told him he could “if he tried hard enough”, and subsequently he became increasingly anxious. He eventually came to the conclusion that he was simply “bad” because he couldn’t do what everyone told him he could, then helplessness ensued. A placid, happy baby and outgoing, contented toddler gradually transformed into an almost unrecognisable, anxious and timid little boy. It was heartbreaking. So I gave up work to dedicate myself to resolving the mystery.
Thankfully, I learned of a developmental paediatrician who was part of a team undertaking groundbreaking research using EEGs as a diagnostic tool. I suspected the inattentive type of ADHD but for 2 years I was repeatedly told that our son suffered chronic anxiety, not ADHD. Innately I knew that the anxiety was simply symptomatic of the ADHD.
It seems that my son’s intelligence masked the ADHD. He was ahead of his peers in basic literacy skills and, when tested one-on-one, none of the DSM symptoms for diagnosis of ADHD were apparent. But I knew in group settings, such as in the classroom, it was very apparent. My own and my husband’s very negative experiences at school prevented us from involving the school in any way. When the dev.paed. finally provided a definitive diagnosis, thanks to the qEEG and the medication test, the relief was enormous.
My 10yo son and I both take medication now and are reaping the benefits. My son’s anxiety is rarely an issue now and the depressive symptoms have vanished. He attends a selective school for bright children and has wonderful friends. The future looks brighter now thanks to the medication. Things are still challenging though, especially when the meds have worn off. But incomparably better than they were.
At school I was noticed as being brighter than average, yet I struggled with motivation, slow processing and writing output issues. My performance was extremely erratic, which seemed to almost enrage the teachers. They couldn’t understand why such a bright girl would want to waste her ability. I suffered chronic depression as a result. I managed to graduate to university to study my love of languages, but the depression was crippling and I dropped out.
Now I am back at university studying Science this time, and I’m enjoying it so much. I grieve for lost opportunities, but am thankful my son will have more of a chance to have an engaging career and avoid the mental illness that I struggled with and the addictive tendencies my husband has fought all his life.
Thank you so much for funding this research, and deeming ADHD a worthy cause.
I am disappointed that Dr Thapar has not mentioned a major role for refined vegetable oils in causing ADHD prenatally. I have sent her full details several times, and she has never bothered to reply, which reflects on her scientific integrity. Genome-wide studies in ADHD have not previously shown any proof of a major gene for ADHD, while these copy number variations clearly do not cause ADHD on their own, as shown in the control children bearing such variations. These latest variations may have more to do with autistic tendencies than with typical ADHD, that is, the link may may be more with ADD without the “hyper”, which US expert Dr Russell Barkley believes is a separate disorder. In Australia and New Zealand, retired primary teachers I have met over the years do not recall any ADHD children until the 1960s, which was when refined vegetable seed oils first became common in those two countries. Such oils, which are now linked with Alzheimer’s disease as well, are partly vitamin E depleted during refining: they cause lipid peroxidation and memory deficits in rats. ADHD children in Scotland and Durham exhale ethane gas, a known marker of lipid peroxidation. In 1995, I noted a high frequency of ADHD kids in young families consuming refined seed oils, and I went on to discover that in 80 cases, 78 of the pregnancies involved regular seed oil consumption, compared with no such maternal exposure in 80 control pregnancies. I got very good results in these kids, by switching the families to olive oil, and by supplementing the affected child’s diet with fish oil. All of the mothers of ADHD kids had “Seed Oil Syndrome”–memory faults, glare sensitivity and night blindness–symptoms that Dr Thapar would be hard put to explain. Government action to correct low vitamin E levels in refined polyunsaturated seed oils will eliminate both ADHD and Alzheimer’s. Forget about these minor genetic influences–the age of Brain Nutrition is fast approaching!