ADHD in Today's NYT

            The lead article in today’s Review section of the NY  Times is by Richard Friedman, who is a professor of clinical psychiatry at the Weill Cornell Medical College.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/02/opinion/sunday/a-natural-fix-for-adhd.html?_r=0

            For a short piece he gives a good over-all look at what ADHD is and isn’t.  What I was most impressed with is the wide range of factors he cites, as well as all the new machines that are used in these studies.

            The studies he cites use things that were not available twenty, ten and in some cases even two years ago.  These include PET scans and fMris to look at brains, but also macines to examine genetic differences.

            Dr(?) Friedman also puts ADHD in a social and cultural context.  He talks about how schools now demand greater concentration and conformity.  He also mentions that video games are so stimulating and can seem so exciting compared to sitting in a class, trying to listen. You shouldn't blame or stigmatize a kid for something he can't do.

            With all of this new machinery we can now see differences in brains and genes that we couldn’t even imagine ten years ago.  But a different brain is not necessarily a bad brain. Differences can show the world how to improve and differences are what help humans evolve and adapt.

            But still, it’s not fun to have your four year-old rip apart everything in his room and throw his toys out the window.  There are multiple causes for that kind of behavior, not just fewer dopamine receptors.