Family Therapists Kendal

By  Supernanny Team 14/11/2007

New research from America appears to show that the brains of children suffering from ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) develop like other children, but with a delay of up to three years. The delays are most pronounced in the regions of the brain most important for controlling thought, attention and planning – something which won’t surprise parents of children with the disorder.

Dr Philip Shaw, whose study appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science , looked at the brains of 223 children and teenagers with ADHD, and the same number of those without it. He discovered that the cortex in the brain of a child with ADHD reached its peak of thickness on average three years later. This suggests that children may actually grow out of ADHD.

"The sequence in which different parts of the brain matured in the kids with ADHD was exactly the same as in healthy kids. It's just that everything was delayed by a couple of years," said Dr Shaw.

But he added that his study did not suggest that there was a simple answer to ADHD.

What I wouldn't take away from this study is: 'Just sit and wait three years and your kid will be OK.’ We know ADHD is a real problem for children and their families and the schools, and it does need treatment.

Around 500,000 children in the UK are thought to be suffering from ADHD, and this new study came hot on the heels of another one. It suggested that drugs such as Ritalin can be no better than therapy when it comes to treating the disorder.

The findings, which were released by the Multimodal Treatment Study of Children with ADHD (which also took place in the US), suggested that long-term use of the drugs could stunt children’s growth, and that the benefits of using them were not as clear-cut as previously thought.

“We had thought that children medicated longer would have better outcomes,” said the report’s co-author, Professor William Pelham of the University of Buffalo. “That didn't happen to be the case. There's no indication that medication's better than nothing in the long run."

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