Adhd Common in Children and Adults

Are you often distracted by extraneous noises or activities?   Does it ever feel like you can't seem to get anything done or keep organized?   Does daydreaming pull you away from the task at hand?   These questions and many others plague people daily who have attention disorders.   There are two types of attention disorders, Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD); both are defined as syndromes of disordered learning and disruptive behavior that is not caused by any serious underlying physical or mental disorder and has several subtypes characterized primarily by inattentiveness or by hyperactivity and impulsive behavior or by the expression of both.   Attention deficit hyperactivity disorders are the most present in children and adolescents ages 9 to 17 years old; this has affected 4.1 percent of youths.   Many factors contribute to being a person afflicted with an attention disorder; causes of the disorder, testing for the disorder, and treatments for the disorder.
To start off with, it may be helpful to conceptualize attention disorders in three aspects: sustained, divided, and alternating.   However, medical science first documented children showing signs of inattentiveness, impulsivity, and hyperactivity since 1902.   Since then, this disorder has been given numerous names, including minimal brain dysfunction, hyperkinetic reaction of childhood, and attention deficit disorder with or without hyperactivity.   Now the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, fourth edition (DSM-IV), a classification system, renamed the disorder as attention deficit disorder/attention deficit hyperactive disorder, or ADD/ADHD.   This name reflects the important characteristics of the disorder such as, inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity.  
ADD or ADHD affects many areas of the brain which include the frontal lobes, inhibitory mechanisms of the cerebral cortex, the limbic system, and the reticular activating system.   The frontal lobes... [continues]

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