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Show — AAG _TheSaltLake Tribune OPINION Sunday, November 25, 2001 Sowell Distorts Real Dangerof Attention Deficit Disorder. Disorder. Someof this research has shown us that brain scans of children with ADHD aredifferent from normal children (National Academyof Scienc es.) Research published in Pediatrics in 1999 showed an 85 percent reduction in risk of substance abuse in pharmacoly treated ADHD en vs. untreated ADHD children. Last year, Clinical Psychiatry, News reported a BYMICHAELA. KALM Thomas Sowell’s OpEd piece published in The Salt Lake Tribune (Oct. 17) made a few good points, but unfortu nately contained so much in flammatory distortion as to risk frightening parents from getting needed help for their children. First the good points. Sowell is correct in emphasizingthat Attention Deficit Disorder study from the University of Maryland that Cerebral blood (ADHD) needs to be diagnosed flow in adults with ADHD differs from normal adults. and treated by trained medical personnel. He is also correct in Sowell raises the questionof citing research that there are how ADHD differs from normal signs of boredomandrestless: ness. Certainly there are simi. larities. This is true in all of medicine. It is normal to have a significant gender differences between boys and girls. Fur- thermorehe is correct in deerying any calls to ban such research With Sowell’s stated support miss decade: the real biol is known as tention Deficit the clinical significance of the 43 percent of untreated aggressive ADHD boyswill be arrested for criminal behavior duringtheir lifetimes. 75 percent of the prison population in one study had either ADHD or a learning different degrees of what could disability. be normal signsvs. clinical pathology, and that is as true with Run-ins with police are twice as common in ADHD ADHD as any. other medical condition. Sowell talks about Albert Einstein, who is a classic example of an individual with untreated ADHD who notonly managed to cope with his disorder, but also used it and his coping mechanisms to produce world-class greatness. Einstein is notalonein this. There are a few others who were ableto turn adversity into temperature. It is abnormal to triumph. Sadly, research shows usthat these few stellar ence is only.a few degrees.It is normal to have blood glucose, ¢ but a disorder to have too much, i.e.diabetes.It is normal to‘ have a heartbeat, even a shows us happensstatistically havea fever, evenif the differ- f research into al disorderthat raised heartbeat with exercise and excitement. But if the heartbeat is too high, it can mean very serious cardiac problems. Of course,it takes a medica} professional to assess are in a tiny minority. Here is what the research with untreated ADHD: boys than non-ADHD boys. @ Substance abuse is twoto three times more frequent in ADHDboys than non-ADHD boys. 50 percent of ADHD adults abuse substances. Untreated teen-agers. with ADHDhavethree to four times more car accidents than their peers. 60 percentoffamilies with an ADHDchild have marital problems, with a higher frequency of separations and divorces. 30 percentto 35 percent of ADHD children never finish high school. @Upto 50 percent of ADHD Chronic school failure, poor children are retained at least once (held back a grade). 25 percent of ADHD children will be suspended from self-esteem, school for conduct problems. grim.To take a chance that an @ 20 percent of ADHD teens will start college vs. 45 percent of the general population. 5 percent of ADHD individuals will graduate from college vs. 25 percentofthe general population. 50 percent or more of ADHDchildrenwill experience difficulty in making and keeping friends. 50 percent of individuals with -ADHD will have sleep untreated ADHD child will become an Einstein is like plan- Byall means,support a suspicion of ADHD with a qualified medical assessment, but do not make the possibly dangerous mistake of dismissing a scientifically researched biological disorder, as “Boyswill be boys.” problems. 25 percentto 50 percentof ADHD children may have a learning disability. these learning disabilities are not diagnosed and addressed, the consequences are often: Michael A. 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