ILLNESS

Illness

[Name of the Institute]

Illness

Introduction

ADHD or Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder is a developmental disorder and children of school going age are very commonly affected by it. According to the Fourth Revision of The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, there are three subcategories of Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (Zinke, 2010). These are listed hereunder.

predominantly inattentive

predominantly hyperactive/impulsive

combined

The diagnosis of the disease is carried out only through critical assessment as there are no medical procedures available for differentiating between children that have ADHD and those who do not. The most common methods used for this differentiation between the two groups of children are the electrophysiological procedures, functional neuroimaging or the morphometric testing. These tests aim at testing the working memory of children, their executive functions and their alertness. In spite of the fact that these tests are widely used, they have been largely criticized for their lack of specificity and sensitivity. To get precise results on the prevalence of ADHD, the medial professionals have to rely on the child's history, his performance in school and at home both academic and social, and behaviour of the child while he is under examination and the behaviour of the family from which the child comes.

Discussion

ADHD is marked by a low academic performance by the child, the need for the child to be placed in special classes, the need of tutoring for the child, neuropsychological performance which is essentially impaired and others. Although, all of the above may not be present in a single child, any of the above symptoms calls for the attention of the child's parents, caregiver and the school where the child is enrolled. It is these problems that become the fertile soil for social and psychological problems in people who were diagnosed with ADHD as a child (Rowe, 2009).

In his research Intellectual Performance and School Failure in Children With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and in Their Siblings, Faraone and Biederman (1993) aimed at establishing a relationship between the major elements of the disorder, that is, familial aggregation and psychiatric comorbidity with below average or even poor academic and social performance, in some cases, by children suffering from the disorder. He studied a group of 140 children and tried to remain as unbiased as possible. This was done by eliminating any children that belonged to socioeconomic class C or lower since the behavioural problems may be the result of their economic background (Faraone & Biederman, 1993). The behavioural problems associated with ADHD are a product of frustration, depression and anxiety that is related with the disorder. Hence, the ADHD and the aforementioned behavioural problems coexist. Hence, the establishment of a sound correlation becomes a challenge in that the relationship with one may be correct but the other may be nothing by erroneous (Tresco, 2010). Conduct, anxiety and depression are the three disorders that are associated with ADHD and are very conveniently but the problem is that they are also related to an intellectual disability. Hence, the psychiatric syndrome that is assumed to be present in ...