Is It Really ADHD?

Your child can be labeled “ADHD” based on a certain list of behaviors. Yet, how can you be sure that your child really has a permanent, incurable brain disorder? Could the symptoms of ADHD indicate something else?

"But Doctor, my child doesn't sleep well. He stays busy all the time, one minute he's happy, the next he's crying. He still has some bedwetting problems, complains about headaches and stomach pains. He's a finicky eater. His teacher at school says he's restless and doesn't concentrate well, particularly after lunch. When the other students are ready to take their nap, he's just buzzing all over the place and rather unruly."

If we are to believe what we are being told by the "experts" in child behavior and mental illness, this child obviously has a brain chemical imbalance, which causes Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, or ADHD.More...

Unfortunately, the "experts" would be wrong, and in some cases dead wrong. This is a child with food allergies or sensitivities described by Dr. Anthony Kane, M.D., and author of "How to Help The Child You Love". Dr. Kane sites hard facts about treatable conditions that mimic ADHD and what to do about it. One of those real deficiencies, unlike the neurotransmitter theory being touted as facts yet unproven as yet, is iron deficiency. Dr. Kane explains, "Iron deficiency has also been implicated in a number of psychiatric and neurological conditions, including learning disabilities and ADHD". He later stated that iron deficient teenage girls, treated for their deficiency, performed better on verbal learning and memory test then those who did not get their iron deficiency corrected. In another one of his articles, most all available by internet browsing of his name, states, "A large number of ADHD children may be having a negative response to food, and this response may be the primary cause of their ADHD".

As a nurse of 29 years, I have had to develop my craft in observing what my patients are manifesting as symptoms of disease. I observe subtle changes in skin color, respiratory pattern, and mental status. Sometimes the mere fact that an elderly patient doesn't remember what day of the week it is, even though they were quite lucid and oriented a few hours ago, is the only sign that an impending urinary tract infection is about to manifest. Quick onset of confusion or behavior change is a well-known symptom of an infection to us working in the nursing home settings. It's common knowledge to all of us. While we do respond to these symptoms, we don't just medicate without real evidence of what is happening with our patient. Lab test are done to confirm our suspicions and the correct antibiotic is prescribed AFTER testing is done and confirmed specific for that organism.

It is appalling to me that a child can be prescribed mind-altering, behavior changing amphetamine like medications for symptoms that can usually be traced by simple, available medical test or food allergy test as described above. Apparently the practice of psychiatry is outside the science of medicine. They don't need substantiated test to prescribe their treatments.

CNN reports that the sales of ADHD treating drugs soared to $3.1 billion dollars in 2004, according to IMS Health, a pharmaceutical information and consulting company. Despite ever increasing deaths in children and adults taking these drugs, a continuing willingness to put children on drugs that gloss over undiagnosed medical and nutritional conditions is tantamount to my reporting to my physicians that patient X is exhibiting signs of anxiety and needs Xanax because he or she is restless and calling out confused. But the patient will now be chemically controlled and quiet and not upsetting to the others around them. Apparently, we can ignore the fact that in very short time this patient will be near death with a raging infection progressing to life threatening blood infection.

According to the most recent version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders- (DSM-IV-TR), there are three patterns of behavior that indicate ADHD. People with ADHD may show several signs of being consistently inattentive. They may have a pattern of being hyperactive and impulsive far more than others of their age. Or they may show all three types of behavior.

Viral infections and common bacterial infections of a child's inner ear can cause dizziness and disorientation which can be confused with "failure to concentrate or focus" in class and seem "distracted easily", common symptoms touted as ADHD.

Particularly in the school ages, children are prone to cavities and fillings. Mercury poisoning from the amalgams used for fillings has been identified for years as a source for symptoms of mercury poisoning such as irritability, fits of anger, anxiety, lack of attention and low self-control. A study in 1994 in the European Journal of Pediatrics showed that mercury from dental amalgams present in mothers during pregnancy do produce detectable mercury levels in their infants up to 15 months after birth. Another study by Kenny S. Crump and others (1998) in New Zealand demonstrated that scholastic and psychological tests were adversely affected by the presence of mercury in children in the 6-7 year old range. Why isn't this at least considered when a fidgety child who is having trouble concentrating in school before we shove them on Ritalin? Why do we only observe the outward behavior and label ADHD before thorough testing for such poisonings or infections?

It's my opinion that another type of poisoning is present amongst our teachers, parents and general public. Pharmaceutical advertisements regarding brain chemical imbalances and falsely "proved" neurotransmitter studies cause us to have false hope that we can correct a child's attention deficit and hyperactivity when in essence we may be adding a new problem with Ritalin, Adderall and Concerta on top of underlying, real treatable physical problems.