Adults with ADHD show decreased function in brain dopamine reward pathway (2010) • Hacker News Board

Re: Adults with ADHD show decreased function in brain dopamine reward pathway (2010)

#131

Post by aidenn0 » Sat, Oct 03, 2020, 6:32 PM UTC

topicseed wrote: post #109

aidenn0 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which "more modern" medication are you on, out of curiosity? Ritalin causes side effects for me as soon as I start to hit the therapeutic dose when titrating. Adderall is terrible for me. My youngest daughter is undoubtedly ADHD, and the insurance company requires you to try the first two before they will approve a third...

Not OP, but I believe some people with ADHD seem to be helped with Modafinil (Provigil). It is normally used for severe lethargy and narcolepsy but has been working for ADHD, too.

My psychiatrist was disinclined to try that one with me seeing that both Methylphenidate (Ritalin) and Adderal caused sleep issues for me.

Re: Adults with ADHD show decreased function in brain dopamine reward pathway (2010)

#132

Post by monkpit » Sat, Oct 03, 2020, 6:36 PM UTC

didibus wrote: post #114

dr_dshiv wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know what's totally nuts? Taking Amphetamine daily for years in reasonable doses essentially has no long term negative effects. In that way, similar to coffee. When I think about that, it's kind of mind blowing. For that matter, it is also crazy that we don't start giving children coffee at younger ages to help focus — since there are no known negative effects. It's just a cultural trope that it stunts growth, et…

Some children are given coke, pepsi, mountain due or other soda drinks with high caffeine content.

> Most

Ok

Re: Adults with ADHD show decreased function in brain dopamine reward pathway (2010)

#133

Post by kossTKR » Sat, Oct 03, 2020, 6:41 PM UTC

TheLegace wrote: post #45

cbluth wrote: post #3

i have severe ADD, and i dont have the patience with myself to read enough of this article to benefit my understanding of it.

Take a look at this new treatment(neurofeedback)[1]. It changed my life. Instead of changing brain chemically you can change the structure of your brain. It's not ADHD that's the problem, its the focus networks in the brain not being trained properly. ADHD becomes a gift when you can focus and the brain just naturally learns, and memorizes very well. I went from being incapable of anything to being really great at an…

I am very interested in this but am currently located in Scandinavia. What does the training practically entail?

Is it some kind of device on the head that you then learn to use with an on-screen app where you can get feedback on your "state" like meditation but with an interface?

I remember reading about this years ago and wondering when the tech would be available for use in-home.

Do you need to go to a professional clinic?

Re: Adults with ADHD show decreased function in brain dopamine reward pathway (2010)

#134

Post by costcopizza » Sat, Oct 03, 2020, 6:42 PM UTC

aantix wrote: post #125

_dibly wrote: post #7

This was an interesting read but, as an adult with ADHD, all I get out of this is that medication is even more of a benefit to those with real difficulties coping with their ADHD. I've always been one to 'just deal with it' but after a few years of working through school and seeing my younger brothers go through the same thing with medication, I realized that I was essentially just handicapping myself. Now I take med…

Curious if you've ever done a hair follicle mineral test to check for mineral deficiencies? We've been working through the book, "Finally Focused", to help our son. Magnesium supplementation is recommendation #1, Iron supplementation (if deficient as demonstrated by the test) and then the over-the-counter, lithium orotate. We haven't gotten further than chapter 3, yet.

I like this idea. Do you have a source for a company that will do this? Or does it require a doctors office visit?

Re: Adults with ADHD show decreased function in brain dopamine reward pathway (2010)

#135

Post by ergwwrt » Sat, Oct 03, 2020, 6:43 PM UTC

Michael Phelps. ADHD. 28 Olympic Medals. That is all you have to know about ADHA..

Re: Adults with ADHD show decreased function in brain dopamine reward pathway (2010)

#136

Post by stevefan1999 » Sat, Oct 03, 2020, 6:46 PM UTC

I'm an ADD adult and this especially hits me when I'm participating competitions, be it leetcode coding competition or examination. I just hate to do it and every other bits of attention source will got me seeked on, like a notification from my phone, or someone dropped a pen to the ground.

That's how fast I lost focus. But on the other hand sometimes I can be extra-focused, with a prerequisite it's something I enjoyed -- where I truly focus on one single task nonstop, like I finally got the ebb and flow in a tranced out state. This resulted me in one case coding straight for 7 hours. It's not until my body started to crave for food or I don't know how long will this loose cannon shoot.

ADD is both a blessing and a curse to me. This is how I accquired coding and various IT skills since 13, all self-taught. But this also fucked me over exams, and my so life experience is greatly impacted. I also tried to play rhythm games to control focus, only to see it ultimately failed. The only thing I had to deal with it slightly is my Ritalin...only so slightly I can "normally" focus for an hour. I just hope things go right in the rest of my life.

Re: Adults with ADHD show decreased function in brain dopamine reward pathway (2010)

#137

Post by wwwater » Sat, Oct 03, 2020, 6:46 PM UTC

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #50

oriolid wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you share some of your assumedly true understanding?

It's a massive topic to cover in the scope of HN comments. ADHD also tends to be a touchy subject on HN. For a less heated parallel, consider reading up on how the "chemical imbalance" narrative has been harmful for public perception of psychiatry: https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/debunking-two-chemical... . People consume a lot of medication ads (in the US) and bite-sized, reductionist narratives about neurotra…

Thank you very much for writing this! It's very well formulated and expressed. I especially liked

> Unfortunately, it's very difficult to convince suffering patients that they have some control over their situation without also implying personal blame for their problems

I also see it as a big part of the problem, that it's difficult to convince people that they do have control over their lives. In many psychotherapy books, when therapists describe various cases, this is a corner stone of a therapy success: a patient understanding that they do have control over their situation. That it's not the outer world that is so demanding that it leaves them no choice, but them choosing to cope in a particular way, and that there are other ways to react and cope.

Re: Adults with ADHD show decreased function in brain dopamine reward pathway (2010)

#138

Post by Techbrunch » Sat, Oct 03, 2020, 6:50 PM UTC

scns wrote: post #70

I recommend this book to anyone suffering from ADD. The author did over 80.000 brainscans. not affiliated https://www.amazon.com/Healing-ADD-Revised-Breakthrough-Prog... A 80 minute video about ADD by the author: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWnJ4wjVu9k

FYI before you watch an 80 minute video (which I did):

"Amen has built a profitable business around the use of SPECT (single photon emission computed tomography) imaging for purported diagnostic purposes.[6] His marketing of SPECT scans and much of what he says about the brain and health in his books, media appearances, and marketing of his clinics has been condemned by scientists and doctors as lacking scientific validity and as being unethical, especially since the way SPECT is used in his clinics exposes people to harmful radiation with no clear benefit."

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Amen

Re: Adults with ADHD show decreased function in brain dopamine reward pathway (2010)

#139

Post by ravedave5 » Sat, Oct 03, 2020, 6:51 PM UTC

Hewlberno wrote: post #80

I have adhd myself, and I built a NLP tool around working out how well medication is working for me. I'm launching the mvp of it in the next few days if anyone is keen! https://moodmap.app

I tried to get emailed for when it opens and it sent me to a sign up page. The sign up page didn't do anything. No console errors.

Re: Adults with ADHD show decreased function in brain dopamine reward pathway (2010)

#140

Post by n4gN1 » Sat, Oct 03, 2020, 6:51 PM UTC

burtonator wrote: post #52

_dibly wrote: post #7

This was an interesting read but, as an adult with ADHD, all I get out of this is that medication is even more of a benefit to those with real difficulties coping with their ADHD. I've always been one to 'just deal with it' but after a few years of working through school and seeing my younger brothers go through the same thing with medication, I realized that I was essentially just handicapping myself. Now I take med…

I've been on Adderall for 5 years ... I'm 43 right now. It really HAS changed my life. What I've found is that over the long term you're able to perform much much better. By the time I was in my 30s I had developed coping skills which worked for the most part but I would find myself getting demotivated and defocused sometimes on long term priorities and sometimes unable to recommit to them. Adderall totally changed t…

Do you take the XR version or do you take regular adderall? I've taken regular adderall on and off for the last 10 years. It helped me so much in the past but I started to feel very fatigued by it. These days I have an extremely difficult time focusing and have been contemplating going back on it.