Evidence That ADHD Is a Genetic Disorder • Hacker News Board

Re: Evidence That ADHD Is a Genetic Disorder

#51

Post by Rexatron » Fri, Aug 12, 2011, 6:32 PM UTC

roel_v wrote: post #26

Rexatron wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your experience is yours. How long have you been on medication? What medication specifically? I've heard that some new meds are not stimulant. They might be good. But the old Ritalin/Adderall stimulants have quite possibly caused the psychotic symptoms you are talking about. That's what they do. Are you familiar with street meth? Ritlain/Adderall are pharma grade long duration forms of that. They have made me crazy b…

"Are you familiar with street meth? Ritlain/Adderall are pharma grade long duration forms of that." No they're not, you apparently don't have a clue about the pharmacological aspects of Ritalin. To all intelligent readers: please ignore the trolls in this thread, there is a small but vocal group of opponents who build careers out of applying to parents' feelings of fear of medications and the guild of having their ch…

Dextroamphetamine is a psychostimulant drug which is known to produce increased wakefulness and focus in association with decreased fatigue and decreased appetite. Drugs with similar psychoactive properties can be referred to or described as "amphetamine analogues", "amphetamine-like", or having "amphetaminergic" effects. Enantiomerically pure dextroamphetamine is more potent than racemic amphetamine and has stimulant properties similar to racemic methamphetamine, though it is less potent and has not been shown to cause neurotoxicity, which is associated with methamphetamine use.

Wikipedia.

And I work in IT.

Re: Evidence That ADHD Is a Genetic Disorder

#52

Post by jason23 » Fri, Aug 12, 2011, 6:33 PM UTC

"ADHD" is not a medical condition. It is the level of activity deemed excessive by whichever "expert" is making the diagnosis. It was voted into existence by a show of hands.

Re: Evidence That ADHD Is a Genetic Disorder

#53

Post by JimboOmega » Fri, Aug 12, 2011, 7:42 PM UTC

_delirium wrote: post #7

jriddycuz wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm glad to hear this as well, and even more glad to hear it today. Despite being medicated, I still struggle to focus on activities which are not intrinsically interesting to me. Even though I want to focus, paying attention to work that is not intrinsically interesting to me requires extreme levels of self-control and leaves me feeling mentally and emotionally drained. And just yesterday, when I was unable to acces…

I also have that problem, inability to concentrate on non-intrinsically-interesting mental activities combined with huge emotional/energy drain when I force myself to. I'm curious how normal it is for humans to be able to concentrate on non-intrinsically-interesting mental work, though. I can believe that there's a range of skill in it, but can't seem to find data on the range. From what I can tell in academia, very…

The standard workplace expects you to concentrate on work for 8 hours a day. Barring the occasional firedrill (which provides enough stimulation) I struggle with it too. Does nobody else surf the internet when they should be working? Do people actually work for a solid 8 hours (not just be at work, but actually working?)

I think the idea of it as a bell curve is a good one - ADHD is supposed to be the poor bottom end. But I do wonder what average really looks like.

Re: Evidence That ADHD Is a Genetic Disorder

#54

Post by jason23 » Fri, Aug 12, 2011, 7:59 PM UTC

The term ADHD is meaningless. It is simply the level of activity deemed excessive by the "expert" making the diagnosis.

Re: Evidence That ADHD Is a Genetic Disorder

#55

Post by jason23 » Fri, Aug 12, 2011, 8:01 PM UTC

The term ADHD is meaningless. It is simply the level of activity deemed excessive by the "expert" making the diagnosis.

Re: Evidence That ADHD Is a Genetic Disorder

#56

Post by mattdeboard » Fri, Aug 12, 2011, 8:16 PM UTC

mcantor wrote: post #35

I'm 26, and I was diagnosed with ADD last year, at the suggestion of my dad, who was not diagnosed until his 40's. It took me almost a year to start actively researching ADD, because I grew up in an upper-middle-class community where it was primarily over-diagnosed in unmotivated kids whose parents were convinced that brain dysfunction was the only thing that could possibly keep their children from being A students.…

I literally double-checked to see if this was copy/pasted from an old post of mine. Getting treatment for ADHD changed my life for the better immediately and dramatically, as well. And I've even used the, "It's like putting on glasses for the first time" metaphor.

Re: Evidence That ADHD Is a Genetic Disorder

#57

Post by watmough » Fri, Aug 12, 2011, 8:18 PM UTC

Rexatron wrote: post #51

roel_v wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Are you familiar with street meth? Ritlain/Adderall are pharma grade long duration forms of that." No they're not, you apparently don't have a clue about the pharmacological aspects of Ritalin. To all intelligent readers: please ignore the trolls in this thread, there is a small but vocal group of opponents who build careers out of applying to parents' feelings of fear of medications and the guild of having their ch…

Dextroamphetamine is a psychostimulant drug which is known to produce increased wakefulness and focus in association with decreased fatigue and decreased appetite. Drugs with similar psychoactive properties can be referred to or described as "amphetamine analogues", "amphetamine-like", or having "amphetaminergic" effects. Enantiomerically pure dextroamphetamine is more potent than racemic amphetamine and has stimulan…

In this case the weasel words are "has not been shown to" which of course is not the same as doesn't.

Re: Evidence That ADHD Is a Genetic Disorder

#58

Post by JunkDNA » Fri, Aug 12, 2011, 8:19 PM UTC

This study is nearly a year old. Even at that, it is not an example of the first eidence that ADHD is a genetic disorder. There's at least one other study from 2009 (http://www.research.chop.edu/publications/press/?ID=475) that had similar evidence.

Re: Evidence That ADHD Is a Genetic Disorder

#59

Post by JunkDNA » Fri, Aug 12, 2011, 8:23 PM UTC

bugsy wrote: post #48

> Children with ADHD have a significantly higher rate of missing or duplicated DNA segments compared to other children The problem with this study is they looked at kids who had been diagnosed and were on long term drug therapy. This is similar to studies that show that ADHD diagnosees on long term drug therapy have "brain damage", which matches the brain damage of long term stimulant users. The findings are not an i…

This is not at all similar. It would be highly surprising to me to find that long-term exposure to ritalin leads to deletions and copy number variations in someone's DNA. Furthermore, it is improbable that a drug causing DNA changes would cause the same changes across a population in a statistically significant way. Can you point me to any research that shows this to be the case?

Re: Evidence That ADHD Is a Genetic Disorder

#60

Post by mcantor » Fri, Aug 12, 2011, 8:24 PM UTC

mattdeboard wrote: post #56

mcantor wrote: post #35

I'm 26, and I was diagnosed with ADD last year, at the suggestion of my dad, who was not diagnosed until his 40's. It took me almost a year to start actively researching ADD, because I grew up in an upper-middle-class community where it was primarily over-diagnosed in unmotivated kids whose parents were convinced that brain dysfunction was the only thing that could possibly keep their children from being A students.…

I literally double-checked to see if this was copy/pasted from an old post of mine. Getting treatment for ADHD changed my life for the better immediately and dramatically, as well. And I've even used the, "It's like putting on glasses for the first time" metaphor.

Glad to know my post resonated with someone! I still struggle almost daily with ADD-related complications, but getting on the treatment bandwagon was a huge step forward.