This week, the Centre for ADD/ADHD Advocacy Canada is promoting an awareness campaign for ADD and ADHD in Canada.

The goal is to increase awareness of ADD and ADHD in Canada, and help to advocate for appropriate services.

In most Canadian provinces, the school boards do not recognize ADD/ADHD as a disorder which will allow for special educational services or educational acommodations. To get these, a student must meet criteria for a learning disability, or a behavior disorder.

To read more about CADDAC’s campaign, view this press release, or visit their website.

Share This

When it comes to ADD and ADHD medication, there have been a number of new warnings that have come out in the past two years. I would suggest that one of the most serious is the concern that ADHD medication can cause heart attacks, strokes, or sudden death.

Ultimately, the current warnings reflect the fact that if someone has a congenital heart defect (i.e. they were born with a physical problem with their heart), have high blood pressure, a family history of sudden cardiac death, etc. then ADHD medications may provide an increased risk, and should either not be used, or should be used with the advice of a cardiologist.

The FDA (US Food and Drug Administration) announced that it will conduct the largest study to date on the cardiac safety of ADHD medications. It will pair up with the AHRQ (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality). They have a database with over 500,000 children, and adults who have taken ADHD medications. This study will help to establish whether there are measurable cardiovascular risks in people taking ADHD medication. The results will likely take approximately two years to become available.

To read more about this study, click here.

When referring to the ADHD medications, these include: Adderall, Adderall XR, Vyvanse, Ritalin, Ritalin LA, Concerta, Metadate, Daytrana, Methylin, Dexedrine, Focalin, and others.

What should you do about this information? If you have any concerns, contact your doctor, and discuss them. And appreciate the fact that we will know more about the safety of these medications in a couple of years.

Dr. Kenny

Technorati Tags: ADHD Medication, FDA, Vyvanse

Share This

The Learning Disabilities Association of Ontario, London Ontario Chapter, has invited me to present at their ADHD Conference on Friday October 12, 2007.

Dr. Tim Bilkey, expert in Adult ADHD, will teach for the morning on Adult ADHD.

I will teach in the afternoon about ADHD in children and teens.

It promises to be a great day, and a chance for you to learn a lot about ADD and ADHD.

If you do come to the event, and you are a subscriber of mine, please come up and say hello -it will be great to meet you in person.

I hope to see you there,

Dr. Kenny

Share This

A new US survey looked at knowledge in several ethnic groups, including the Hispanic community.

The results clearly show that the Hispanic community in the US is struggling with getting enough information about ADD and ADHD, particularly in their own language. They are less likely to know where to get help, they are more likely to have concerns about stigma and cost of treatment.

Hopefully these results will lead to better information being made available to the Hispanic community to help with the education and treatment of ADD and ADHD.

To view the results of this study (in English), click here.

Dr. Kenny

Share This

Although this blog is all about ADD and ADHD, as a blogger, there are issues and trends that I occasionally feel that I need to report on. If you are a blogger - this post is important to you.

Podcast and new media expert Paul Colligan recently had his content stolen and posted on Myspace news. This story was detailed on Techcrunch.

How can Myspace justify taking other people’s content?

And how can Google justify indexing Myspace’s plagiarism in their search results?

I find this to be a disturbing trend… That two of the web’s biggest sites would be collaborating to take your (or my) blog content. That just doesn’t seem right.

What do you think?

Dr. Kenny

Share This

As a child psychiatrist, I know that most teens with ADD or ADHD do their best school work while listening to their music.

I often have to convince parents and teachers to allow their ADD/ADHD kids and students the privelage of listening to music while they work.

Now, there is a study which has proven that this is the case. Well, it has actually proven that ‘white noise‘ in the background can increase the concentration for people with ADD or ADHD.

What is your experience?

Does white noise, or music help you to pay attention?

Please share your experiences by typing them into the comments box below.

Dr. Kenny

Share This

A new study has come out of Europe which has demonstrated that Pycnogenol has helped to reduce the symptoms of ADD and ADHD in children.

Pycnogenol is an antioxidant plant extract from the bark of the French maritime pine tree. It was used in this study of 57 children who took either a placebo, or pycnogenol. Pycnogenol was found to reduce stress hormones in the children, and this led to a reduction in ADD/ADHD symptoms.

The results of this study will be published in the journal: Nutritional Neuroscience in the coming months.

To learn more about this study, visit here.

To learn more about Pycnogenol, visit here.

Please note - while these results may be encouraging, this does not mean that Pycnogenol has been proven to work fully for ADD or ADHD. I am not encouraging you to stop medication for ADD or ADHD, and start pycnogenol. My role is to inform you of the newest research developments so that you are ‘up to date’ on ADD and ADHD. Please keep this new study in context.

Dr. Kenny

Share This

Sometimes children who are very intelligent (referred to as gifted) can be diagnosed incorrectly with ADD or ADHD.

How could this happen?

A gifted child may be under challenged and bored in the classroom. When not stimulated enough, they can feel that it’s not worth paying attention and applying themselves.

It is generally best for kids and teens with the ADD or ADHD diagnosis to get a full psychoeducational assessment. This is testing for intelligence (IQ) as well as academic achievement. This would show if in fact your child is gifted or not.

Sorting out this issue can be complicated, and a new book has come out which discusses this in detail. If you are concerned that this situation may apply to you or your child, consider this great resource.

Dr. Kenny

Share This

Recently, I posted to this blog about food additives causing hyperactivity.

I know that this is an area of significant interest and concern amongst my readers on this blog.

I wanted to share another article on the topic with you - by Time magazine. I hope this helps you to further your understanding of this topic.

Dr. Kenny

Share This

The New Zealand Herald reports that Pharmac is looking to change its rule that everyone on Ritalin has to switch to Rubifen.

This policy will allow for 1% of people to take Ritalin (instead of the cheaper Rubifen) and have it covered under Pharmac. The policy likely won’t be retroactive - i.e. if you are already paying out of pocket for your ritalin, you may still have to.

This doesn’t seem ideal - but it does show that the government is willing to move on this issue. I commend the parents who have advocated for this change - your work is making a difference. Now is the time to be sure to be vocal - so that as the government shapes this new policy - your voice will be heard.

This is great news for our New Zealand readers - please share your thoughts in the comments below - especially because we’d like to know what’s really going on from you.

Dr. Kenny

Share This