Though scientists and medical professionals continue to make significant strides in their understanding of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, one piece of information remains unknown: the cause of the disorder.

According to a June 25 HealthDay News article, one of the reasons that experts have had trouble pinpointing the cause of ADHD may be that the disorder is the result of literally hundreds of genetic variations:

[Dr. Josephine Elia, a psychiatrist and ADHD expert at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia] and her colleagues analyzed genomes from 335 ADHD patients and their families, and compared them to more than 2,000 children without ADHD.

The hundreds of gene variations were found to occur more often in children with ADHD than in normal children. ...

"There may be hundreds of genes involved, only some of which are changed in each person. But if those genes act on similar pathways, you may end up with a similar result -- ADHD. This may also help to explain why children with ADHD often present clinically with slightly different symptoms," [study co-leader Peter S. White] said.

"When we began this study in 2003, we expected to find a handful of genes that predispose a child to ADHD," White said in the HealthDay article.

Labels: causes, genetics, research

Two new studies have shed some additional light on the genetic basis of autism.

Autism, a developmental disorder that affects one in 150 American children, could be similar to Down Syndrome in that the risk for developing the disorder increases with the age of the parents when the child is born.

• The first study, which was led by Dr. Maureen Durkin of the University of Wisconsin, analyzed data on 300,000 U.S. births and 1,200 cases of autism. Dr. Durkin's team found an increased risk of autism among older parents and first-borns.
  
  The autism risk was found to increase by 20 percent for every ten year's increase in parental ages. The ages of the mother and father both mattered.
  
  First-born children were also at increased risk, perhaps because some families stop having children after they find out their first child has special needs. Dr. Durkin also speculated that first-born children might be exposed to more toxins from their mothers' bodies, which can put them at a higher risk for autism.
  
  If a mother is over 35 and a father over 40, their first-born is at triple the risk for autism.
• The second study was from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Dr. John Constantino, M.D., and his colleagues identified two regions of DNA associated with autism.
  
  Dr. Constantino believes that the genetic basis of autism is complex, with many genes and genetic variations contributing to the syndrome.
  
  "Genetic factors tend to interact with one another," he said. "One gene might increase risk by 10 percent, but two genes in proper combination increases it by ten-fold."

Dr. Constantino's study appeared in Biological Psychiatry.

Labels: autism, genetics, parents

A Swedish study found a link between bipolar disorder and older fathers. The risk of having a bipolar child began to increase once a father was 40 years old. Fathers over 55 years were 37 percent more likely to have a bipolar child than were fathers in their 20s.

Between one and four percent of children have bipolar disorder, which is characterized by mood swings ranging from deep depression to euphoric mania.

Previous studies linked schizophrenia and autism to older fathers, with the age of mothers not being a factor.

Researchers from the Karolinska Institute analyzed data from 13,428 people with bipolar disorder who had been born between 1932 and 1991.

This study appears in the Archives of General Psychiatry.

Labels: bipolar_disorder, fathers, genetics

It was an unintentional but beneficial discovery. A team of researchers at Darby Children's Research Institute discovered a gene mutation that plays a direct role in the effectiveness of Ritalin when treating ADHD. The discovery could make it possible to pre-test patients and determine whether certain medications will work.

"Imagine the relief a patient or parent of a treated child might feel, having access to advance testing to be sure that they can adequately metabolize this medication and avoid adverse effects..."

Though the mutated gene was discovered because of its adverse effect on Ritalin, researchers believe it may affect other medications as well. Source: Medical News Today

Labels: genetics, medications, treatment

A new study from the University of North Carolina links psychiatric problems to having children with autism.

Mothers with histories of depression and personality disorders, and parents of both sexes who had been hospitalized for psychiatric disorders or who had schizophrenia, had twice the risk of having a child with autism.

Researchers used the records of 1,237 children diagnosed with autism before age 10, along with the records of 31,000 children as their controls. This study appears in Pediatrics.

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Labels: autism, genetics, mental_health

Fragile X Syndrome (FXS) is a hereditary form of mental retardation that often includes an ADHD disorder. Previously, stimulant medications like Ritalin were found to produce side effects like increased irritability. Now, a new study has found that a certain amino acid (called L-acetyl carnitine or LAC) can reduce ADHD symptoms without side effects.

"Those treated with LAC demonstrated reduced hyperactive behavior and increased attention. No side effects were exhibited, confirming that LAC is a safe alternative to stimulants... The patients treated with LAC also had significantly improved social ability compared to the placebo-treated group."

The authors of the study concluded that LAC should be proposed as a viable alternative treatment for children with FXS who also display ADHD symptoms. Read more at MedicalNewsToday.com.

Labels: genetics, mental_health, symtoms

Researchers at Cambridge University found that the brains of people who have obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) have abnormalities similar to healthy family members, indicating that the disorder may be genetic.

OCD is a disorder characterized by recurrent thoughts and ritualistic behaviors such as hand-washing, lining possessions up in a certain order, checking to see if doors are locked, etc.

Dr. Lara Menzies from the Brain Mapping Unit at Cambridge and others used magnetic resonance imagining (MRIs) to examine the brains of 31 people with OCD and 31 healthy close relatives such as siblings, and 31 others in a control. The OCD group and their family members had less gray matter in the area of their brains associated with suppressing responses compared to the control group.

OCD runs in families, and this new research may contribute to the theory that it is a genetic disorder.

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Labels: brain_activity, genetics, ocd

Scientists at the National Institute of Health have conducted a study which found a genetic link to ADHD and promises improvement over time. The gene, called DRD4, seems to increase the risk for ADHD in younger children by causing brain areas that control attention to be thinner. However, as the children get older, this gene appears to be associated with a normal thickening of the same areas of the brain.

"Although this particular gene version increased risk for ADHD, it also predicted better clinical outcomes and higher IQ than two other common versions of the same gene in youth with ADHD."

The DRD4 gene appears to account for about 30 percent of the genetic risk for ADHD. Read more at MedicalNewsToday.com.

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Labels: brain_activity, genetics, intelligence

Children with Attention Deficit Disorder/Hyperactivity are at risk for alcoholism or drug dependence as teens and adults, according to a new study by the University of Pittsburgh. If their parents are alcoholics, the likelihood increases even more.

Dr. Brooke Molina and her colleagues interviewed 142 adolescents diagnosed with childhood ADHD and 100 demographically matched others without the disorder. The team also interviewed another group of 364 children with ADHD as adolescents ages 11 to 17 years and then again as young adults ages 18 to 28.

Their two studies showed a link between ADHD and alcoholism.

"Alcoholism and ADHD tend to run together in families," Dr. Molina said. "We found that parental alcoholism predicted heavy problem drinking among teenagers, that the association was partly explained by higher rates of stress in those families, and these connections were stronger when the adolescent had ADHD in childhood."

About 14% of the 15 to 17-year-old adolescents with childhood ADHD were diagnosed with alcohol abuse or dependence compared to none of the 15 to 17-year-olds in the control group without ADHD. The ADHD group reported being drunk 14 times the previous year compared to 1.8 times in the control group.

"It is important to recognize that not all children with ADHD will have problems with alcoholism" Dr. Molina said.

This study appears in the April 2007 issue of

Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research

.

Labels: alcohol, alcoholism, genetics