Deborah Does Navel-Gazing

FDA Issues Warning on Controversial MS Treatment

Deborah — Fri, 11 May 2012 15:06:14 +0000

HealthDay News — Doctors and patients need to be aware of the potential risk of injuries and death associated with an experimental treatment for multiple sclerosis called liberation therapy, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said in an alert issued Thursday.Liberation therapy is used to treat chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency CCSVI — a narrowing of veins in the neck and chest — believed by some to cause multiple sclerosis MS or worsen the disease. They think it does so by impairing blood drainage from the brain and upper spinal cord.The controversial procedure uses balloon angioplasty devices or stents to widen narrowed veins in the chest and neck. But the FDA has not approved this treatment for chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency, and the agency said it has learned of deaths, strokes, damage to the treated vein, blood clots, cranial nerve damage, abdominal bleeding, and migration of stents in the body as a result of the treatment.

via FDA Issues Warning on Controversial MS Treatment.

Help Make Your ADHD Child Resistant to Teasing – Social Skills – ADHD

Deborah — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 14:20:57 +0000

All children are the target of teasing and name-calling at one point or another. Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder ADHD tend to encounter more of this than most children, due in part to their problem with interpreting social cues from other children and also as a result of some typical ADHD behavior.

Many adults will encourage a child to just “forget about it” when they encounter teasing, but its not that simple, especially for a child with ADHD. Their self-esteem may be constantly taking hits from adults who are annoyed by their behavior, so peer acceptance is probably more critical to their emotional well-being than that of a child who does not have a disorder. So its really important to get to the root of the cause for the teasing and help your child to find a constructive way to handle it.

via Help Make Your ADHD Child Resistant to Teasing – Social Skills – ADHD.

What Not to Say to the Parent of a Child with ADHD

Deborah — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 20:38:25 +0000

I was reluctant to put my son on any medication for his ADHD. In fact, I resisted the ADHD diagnosis altogether. "Couldnt it be just that hes a kinetic learner?" I asked the doctor hopefully. He stopped writing the prescription, put down his pen and said patiently, "Ms. Gray, you and your husband have ADHD and ADD respectively. You told me that your mother had ADHD and your stepson had it when he was younger. The chances of your son not having ADHD are much smaller than the chance that he does have it."

So we went ahead with medication treatment, and I have to say it's made a huge difference. It has been a useful tool in helping my son to focus and control his impulses, things that most other children don't even have to think about. He gets grades that would be awesome for a kid without ADHD and he rarely struggles with his classwork and homework. I can't remember the last time I got a call from his school or the afterschool program asking me to pick him up because he got into trouble.

via What Not to Say to the Parent of a Child with ADHD – Daily Life – ADHD.

Improving Social Skills in Children with ADHD with Social Skills Builder

Deborah — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 14:29:54 +0000

When I started to realize that my son's Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) was having an impact on his social interactions, I considered social skills group therapy as a solution. Social skills group therapy helps children with ADHD or a disorder on the autism spectrum learn and practice social skills with other children.

I live in Northern California, right next to Berkeley, so I figured it would be easy to find a group. You can't throw a stone in Berkeley without hitting a therapist of some kind. But you could have knocked me over with a feather when I realized that there were only a couple of these groups in my area, and they met too far away from us to make using them feasible.

I read a few books, which gave me some ideas such as role-playing with him, to practice the correct interactions. But unfortunately my son just found role-playing kind of dumb, maybe because he was role-playing with me instead of another child. I was beginning to run out of methods.

via Improving Social Skills in Children with ADHD – Social Skills – ADHD.

Girls Feel Sadder Than Boys When Friends Let Them Down

Deborah — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 16:37:41 +0000

(HealthDay News) — When a friend lets them down, girls may take it harder than boys do, a new study suggests.

It included 267 fourth- and fifth-grade students in North Carolina and Rhode Island who were shown 16 hypothetical stories in which a friend had violated a core expectation of friendship, such as belittling their worry over a sick pet or failing to do their part on a joint school project.

Girls were just as likely as boys to say that they would seek revenge against the friend, verbally attack the friend and threaten to end the friendship, the Duke University researchers found.

via Girls Feel Sadder Than Boys When Friends Let Them Down.

Brain Pathways Seem Disrupted in Kids With ADHD

Deborah — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 18:35:56 +0000

HealthDay News — The brains of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder ADHD show abnormalities in certain areas involved with "visual attention," new research finds.Researchers performed functional MRIs fMRIs on 19 children aged 9 to 15 diagnosed with ADHD and 19 without the disorder while the children took a test in which they were shown a set of numbers and then asked to remember whether a subsequent group of numbers matched the original.

via Brain Pathways Seem Disrupted in Kids With ADHD.

ER Visits for Energy-Drink Ills Soar in U.S.

Deborah — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 16:03:47 +0000

HealthDay News — As the popularity of non-alcoholic "energy" drinks skyrockets, so do related health problems, a new study finds.In 2009, U.S. emergency rooms treated almost 10 times more cases of reactions to beverages such as Monster and Rockstar than they did in 2005, according to a new U.S. government report released Tuesday.More than 13,000 ER visits related to the highly caffeinated drinks were reported in 2009, said researchers from the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration SAMHSA. Nearly half the emergencies occurred after the beverages were mixed with alcohol or other drugs, and young adults aged 18 to 25 accounted for more than half of those cases, the researchers found.

via ER Visits for Energy-Drink Ills Soar in U.S..

Decluttering My Desk: Avoiding ADHD Pitfalls

Deborah — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 16:06:50 +0000

So recently I decided that I couldn’t live with the clutter on my tiny desk anymore. Here’s a reminder of what my desk looks like pre-de-clutter:

The first thing I did was to take everything out and put it in a single big pile. There’s a good reason for doing it this way instead of doing one surface at a time. That way all similar items are put away in one fell swoop instead of being handled a few times.

via Decluttering My Desk: Avoiding ADHD Pitfalls – Organization at Home – ADHD.

Decluttering My Desk: How Did the Mess Get Here?

Deborah — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 16:04:12 +0000

So, I was finally fed up with not being able to find anything on my desk. I keep throwing things on it that never leave, and since I have a very small desk area, it doesn’t take much in the way of neglect to make it look like this (the bottom part is the keyboard shelf):

via Decluttering My Desk: How Did the Mess Get Here? – Organization at Home – ADHD.

Life and Depression – Symptoms

Deborah — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 15:58:50 +0000

When we’re trying to diagnose depression in ourselves or someone else, we often look at how we person feel. We feel sad, hopeless, exhausted, empty and so on. But sometimes it’s hard to pinpoint how we feel, and we’ll get more insight into our condition by looking at our actions.

via Life and Depression – Symptoms – Depression.