Pay attention to your children's symptoms

Abu Dhabi: Nearly half of children with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) continue to have the condition in their adult life, says a local neurologist.

Dr Yousuf Abu Al Laban, a certified psychiatrist and neurologist, said ADHD is a mainly childhood neurological condition that makes spontaneous responses, including movement, speech, and attentiveness difficult. However, if the disorder is not recognised and treated, it may continue into adulthood.

"Out of an estimated 600,000 students in the UAE, the number affected by ADHD would range from 48,000 to 72,000. Prevalence among adults is 4.4 per cent. With a population of four million adults in the UAE, the number affected by ADHD should be around 176,000," said Al Laban.

It isn't that children with ADHD can't pay attention, he said. "When they're doing things they enjoy or hear about topics in which they're interested, they have no trouble focusing and staying on task. The hard part may be pulling them away to the next activity. But if a child with ADHD isn't completely engaged by an activity, the attention of that child will quickly seek out a different activity or something else to think about."

Some symptoms include: being easily distracted from a task, lesson, or conversation; difficulty keeping the mind on any one thing; getting bored with a task before it's completed; skipping over details; making careless mistakes; difficulty in listening when directly addressed; difficulty in following instructions or finishing tasks and disorganisation and forgetfulness.

"Children with ADHD often bounce from task to task without completing any of them, or skipping necessary steps in procedures. They often have difficulty learning new material and organising their school work," he said.

The condition affects not only schoolwork but relationships with family members and peers.

"Children with ADHD may be mentally running a video game while the teacher is explaining how to structure a five-paragraph essay, As a result, the essay is a mess, and everyone's exasperated and frustrated," he said.

ADHD gets in the way of learning and impairs the brain areas responsible for executive function, said the doctor. Executive functioning includes the abilities to plan, prioritise, organise, persist, multi-task, move toward a goal, delay gratification, and monitor one's own behaviour. Instructions like "Be patient" and "Just wait a little while" are twice as hard for children with ADHD to follow as they are for other youngsters.

Mental health: Treatment for disorder

Treatment exists for some psychiatric conditions, including Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), said Dr Yousuf Abu Al Laban, certified in psychiatry and neurology.

The symptoms may disappear through a combination of medication and/or therapy. Some will be cured and the condition may never come back, but others may not be fully cured and the condition may return.

How are children with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) treated? Al Laban said there are two kinds of treatment: therapy and medication. The most common type of therapy is Behavioural Therapy. There are over 10 medications available to treat ADHD worldwide, with three of them available in the UAE.