Comorbid Disoders

                          About 50% of AD/HD-C and AD/HD-I people will have some comorbid condition or another. These could be Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Conduct Disorder, Depression, Anxiety, Tourette’s, some Learning Disability or Dyslexia. It is rare for those with AD/HD-I to have either Oppositional Defiant Disorder or Conduct Disorder.

Most medical professionals when diagnosing a person with AD/HD will examine for any comorbid disorder. Thus the medical professional can find themselves treating two disorders or allowing for two disorders. A comorbid disorder could also make the diagnosis of AD/HD a bit more difficult, Depression and Bi-Polar in particular.

It is also possible for AD/HD to co-exist with Bipolar Disorder, Aspergers and General Mental Retardation. It can be associated with Autism. However, these incidences are rare.

OPPOSITIONAL DEFIANCE DISORDER

                           Oppositional Defiancey can show itself with the child being angry (this includes self anger), losing their temper, defying those in authority, they will claim that those in authority did not know what they are talking about, they will deliberately annoy people and blame others for their mistakes or misbehavior. They can become closed-minded. A child who is oppositional defiant is not a happy child.

Treating an AD/HD-C child who is also Oppositional Defiant can be a very tenuous affair. This treatment involves behavior therapy. One of the problems is the child does not believe they are at fault, they don’t trust adults and therefore treatment is not always successful.

An Oppositional Defiant child needs to be given room to move, allowed to save face and requires a lot of love, attention and needs to be shown they are indeed needed and wanted by the family. Oppositional Defiancey can unfortunately come about due to the family’s mishandling of the child’s AD/HD-C symptoms. However the family environment is not responsible in any way at all for the child’s AD/HD-C, to think so, to say so, is just incorrect.

CONDUCT DISORDER

                           One thing, which really needs to be said, and that is, those out of control children we can see on some "popular" current affairs programs are not, behaving poorly because of their AD/HD. They are behaving that way because they are suffering from Conduct Disorder. Conduct Disorder is a Disorder in its own right and not a symptom of AD/HD. It is just not true what the general media are implying or stating outright, that the poor behavior in the examples  given is due soley to AD/HD.

Children or adolescents with Conduct Disorder have problems following rules and behaving in a socially acceptable manner. They can be given labels of bad or delinquent. Should the child or adolescent demonstrate this anti social behavior repeatedly for some time (six to twelve months), then it is a good possibility that this child or adolescent is suffering from Conduct Disorder.

A child with conduct disorder does not take into consideration the rights of others, in fact will violate the rights of others and act aggressively against them. They will bully, start fights, are physically cruel to animals and people. Use weapons, steal, destroy other’s property, stay away from school and run away.

Conduct Disorder maybe caused by other comorbid conditions. Such as learning difficulties, anxiety, and Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome.

It is very important that a child with Conduct Disorder be recognized and receive treatment early. The child’s family may also need to be included. Some children with Conduct Disorder can come from homes where they are abused or their homes are economically deficient. Or their Conduct Disorder could be related to school failure, or possibly brain damage.

However due to their natural distrust of adults they are difficult to treat. If not treated successfully they can become adults who harm others, break laws and spend time in jail. They will have problems holding down a job and problems in their relationships with others.

A child with Conduct Disorder and this includes one with AD/HD-C should not be ignored, but treated and treated early.

DEPRESSION

                           While most people can suffer from depression on the odd occasion, it is usually short-lived. A person needs to show certain symptoms for at least six months or more, before they are regarded as being clinically depressed.

Depression can have physical and psychological symptoms. Females are fifty percent more likely to suffer depression than males.

A depressed person will show decreased interest, lack of energy, they can take to their bed, have difficulty making decisions, sleep problems, they are sad, they are pessimistic, change their usual eating habits, feel guilty, are restless, are irritable or they can feel hopeless and can be suicidal. Depression is the main cause of suicide. The physical symptoms could possibly be headaches, stomach upsets and chronic pain.

Sometimes the person suffering from depression may not be fully aware of their depression, or they may attempt to hide the symptoms.

The usual treatment is an SSRI’s or TCA’s. Drugs such as Norpramin or Celexa may be prescribed if SSRI’s are not effective. Rarely would MAO’s be prescribed. SSRI’s, TCA’s and MAO’s are explained in the Solutions page.

In most cases it is necessary for the person to have some type of therapy, such as Behavior Therapy or Psychoanalysis.

Anxiety

                          Like depression, most people experience anxiety at various times in their life. If people did not get anxious at times, they would find themselves injured or killed, say by a car as they try to cross a road.

There is every likelihood that a person with AD/HD will at some time in their life suffering from anxiety in the clinical sense. It seems to go with either Combined or Inattentive AD/HD. In fact a higher percentage of AD/HD people (this includes children) suffer from anxiety than the general population. Quite often there is a family history of anxiety.

There are five basic types of anxiety: Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Panic Disorder, Phobias, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Anxiety affects the person both physically and emotionally. It is a complex set of emotions, which include fear, worry, apprehension, or there is an expectation of danger or that something is sure to go wrong. The suffer’s blood pressure could increase, they could start sweating, experience chest pain, nausea, a tightening of the stomach muscles or feel just generally physically stressed.

The symptoms of anxiety are most often controlled with drugs belonging to the benzodiazepine group of drugs. They usually work well, however, as they are addictive they should not be used for long periods of time. Sometimes SSRIs are used but they are not always successful. Buspar is prescribed sometimes.

However, cognitive therapy is almost essential, as long as the anxious person  really wants to come to terms with their particular anxiety so that it will no longer be ruling their life.

TOURETTE’S SYNDROME (Gilles de la Tourette’s Syndrome)

                           Tourette’s Syndrome is a condition where suffers have, what are usually rapid involuntary movements or vocalizations. These movements or vocalizations may be repetitive. These movements or vocalizations are called tics. There are two types; simple or complex tics. It usually starts between the ages of 2 and 21.

Again due to media coverage, it is assumed that those with vocalization tics say socially unacceptable words, this is not the case generally. It could be any word or words or sound at all.

Tourette suffers have varying levels of control over their symptoms. Some can delay the tic, however they still have the impulse and when the tic is finally allowed to manifest itself, it is more severe than if the suffer had reacted straight away to the impulse.

If the Tourette’s suffer is under tension or stress then their tics will increase. If they are relaxed and concentrating, then their tics are likely to be reduced in number.

Dyxlexia

                          Dyslexia is a specific learning disability off a neurological origin (possibly the area of the brain to do with language). Dyslexia is most likely inherited. It appears to effect boys and girls equally. The Dyslexic person has difficulty in their reading, writing, spelling abilities in spite of being of normal intelligence and with normal sensory abilities. There can also be problems with processing spoken language, poor awareness of sound and short-term memory problems such as remembering a list of words, which they have heard.

Some will have problems with associating the written word with the sound of the word. Some say that making a dyslexic child more aware of the breakup of words into syllables is the way to teach a dyslexic child to read. This helps them to overcome their problem by being aware of and remembering the way the different syllables sound. Some and particularly those with AD/HD-C do not necessarily agree with this. They are too impatient to take such a slow tact in actually finding out what the word is.

Learning Difficulties - Disabilities

                          A person with AD/HD or any person for that matter can have a learning disability. Learning disabilities are related to short-term memory problems, cognitive processing problems, short-term concentration span, the ability to comprehend and understand, or brain injury to name a few causes.

Learning difficulties can come about as a result of social matters, the economic environment, or emotional problems. If a child’s learning difficulties are not treated, then they are functioning at a level lower than that of their peers and lower than what they themselves are capable of. Those with learning difficulties are not necessarily backward of retarded at all.