Against ADHD, an early diagnosis
The premature abandonment of studies is increasingly frequent among young people under 19, many of them driven by suffering what is known as Attention Deficit Disorder with or without hyperactivity (ADHD). Given this, researchers advise the early diagnostic of ADHD with the aim of reducing school failure and the possible appearance of psychological disorders in adults.
What is ADHD?
Attention Deficit Disorder with or without hyperactivity (ADHD) is a chronic neurobiological disorder that is usually of genetic transmission. The symptoms vary depending on the age of the child, although they are also usually present in Adulthood. It is a failure in the brain circuits from which part of the inhibition and self-control that are necessary for perform any task, hence, this disorder affects especially in the school and academic field, although it is also present in the family. Currently, only 2.5% of the 7% of children suffering from Attention Deficit Disorder is diagnosed.
What are the symptoms of ADHD?
1. Lack of attention to organize and develop school tasks
2. Avoid tasks that require mental effort
3. Are distracted with irrelevant stimuli, they do not pay attention to instructions and lose or neglect the elements they need to perform tasks.
4. Having a hard time sitting A lot of time somewhere, they get up frequently and constantly move their hands or feet.
5. They talk in excess and express their emotions more intensely.
6. Act without thinking and they easily lose patience.
7. They speak at inopportune moments and interrupts others in conversations, games and explanations.
The first cure for ADHD: the diagnosis
A correct and timely diagnosis is the first step necessary for an effective treatment of ADHD. Children suffering from this syndrome They are restless, clueless, impulsive ... In the event of suspicion, parents, teachers or pediatricians must submit the child to a clinical evaluation by means of the appropriate professionals to obtain a correct diagnosis according to the corresponding clinical report.
Dr. Manuel Fernández, coordinator of the ADHD Study Group, believes it is essential to make an early diagnosis of this problem, an opinion that is supported by research published in Research in Developmental Disabilities "Early intervention in the lack of child care could compensate for school dysfunction in late childhood and adolescence."
New measures to diagnose ADHD
The European Society of Pediatric Neurology has brought together researchers from ADHD to share proposals aimed at alleviating this irregularity suffered by more and more children in Spain. Among these proposals, Dr. Fernández has presented the results of the Andalusian Pediatric Neurology Institute of a diagnostic aid test based on virtual reality. It's about measuring attention performance, impulsivity, response speed and hyperactivity through a computer program that recreates a school classroom with its own distractors.
This study, known as Aula Nesplora, has been carried out with 1300 children between 6 and 16 years to obtain the standards with which the clinical population will be evaluated, and such have been the results that the Classroom study has already been adopted by five hospital centers and more than a hundred clinics, thanks also to the development of this system by Spanish scientists in collaboration with the University Clinic of Navarra.
The objective of these new systems is to get the percentage of patients diagnosed increase to ensure that all children with ADHD have a quality of life equal to that of others.
Ana Vázquez Recio
