ADHD – Cause of Childhood Obesity?
ByI ran across some interesting statistics the other day. Whether they’re relevant facts, I’m not sure yet. The deal with weight and the child with ADHD.
Listen to these figures and you can help me decide.
According to a news article in U.S. News and World Report online, children who have an undiagnosed case of ADHD are at a 50 percent higher risk for being overweight than those taking medication for this disorder. (To read the entire article for yourself, click right here)
Now get this, those youngsters who were diagnosed with ADHD and were being treated, ran a risk of being underweight.
Is there a connection here or mere coincidence? That’s basically what the medical community is asking as it sifts through the results of this research. The study from which these conclusions were drawn, examined 63,000 children and adolescents. The children ranged in age five to 17.
The data that Molly E. Waring and Kate L. Lapane (both from the department of community health at Brown Medical School in Providence, R.I) came from the 2003-2004 U.S. National Survey of Children’s Health.
Specifically these researchers discovered that children who were not taking medication for the ADHD possessed a risk that was one and a half times higher than children who didn’t have this disorder.
Conversely, youngsters who did have ADHD and were taking medications for it ran a 1.6 times greater risk of being underweight.
Some experts, like Dr. David L. Katz, the director of the Prevention Research Center at Yale University School of Medicine, said the numbers aren’t very significant. Both conditions – ADHD and childhood obesity – are widespread. Some overlap is to be expected, he explained. He also points out that weight-loss is a side effect of Ritalin usage.
Dr. David w. Goodman, an assistant professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine agrees with his colleague. He called the results interesting, but he added he wasn’t sure they were “statistically relevant.â€
Perhaps the real bottom line here is that parents need to monitor their children’s weight.
But, what do you think?
Please share your opinion in the comments section below.
Dr. Kenny
Technorati Tags: ADHD, Obesity, Childhood Obesity
It’s quite obvious to me why medicated kids are normal or under weight, especially if they are on stimulant medication. It cuts their appetite. We all know that. Kids who are not medicated tend to be impulsive in many things including eating. My girl certainly is, hence she’s gaining too much weight. Kids who are medicated tend to have this impulsivity controlled and subdued somewhat..cb
I think it’s possible that it involves the self-control, impulsivity of adhd that could definitely cause obesity. I know I have struggled with my weight my whole life. As a child I remember being allowed as much food, candy that I wanted. However, a child with adhd has a much harder time with self-regulation and has a harder time with delayed gratification. We eat it because it taste good, and then we gain weight, then our friends make fun of us. There goes our self esteem. I remember all these terrible things as a little girl. Our children deserve to be taught self-control, it starts with us and what we model for them. I enjoyed giving up the addiction of diet coke in front of my adhd 6-year-old.
I think a sense of control would be beneficial, yet I’m sure its easier said then done. I think parents need to show their children better eating habits, to prepare them for adolescence and adulthood.
I really liked your site and I am interested in building a relationship with your site. I found your site interesting and very resourceful, too.
You can contact me back at Annina.caruso @ gmail.com.
Thanks!
Annina
Dear Dr. Handelman and bloggers,
I am actually a nineteen year old, second year university student who had previously been diagnosed with GAD. As many of you probably know, anxiety and other behavioral disorders are often co-morbid with ADHD. Thus, after giving very detailed, specific details of my difficulty with focusing, impulsive eating, and etc. my GP has revised his diagnosis as ADHD being the primary disorder. I am writing regarding this blog entry by Dr.Handelman because I have struggled with obesity since I was about six years old. Due to my determination to lose weight and the very helpful assistant of my GP, I began a dieting and exercise life style change and have lost most of my excess weight (except for about the last ten pounds). I believe that my anxious thoughts propelled me to eat when I felt nervous and this ultimately had a negative effect on my diet and weight loss goals. I have always been very hardworking and received outstanding grades in high school; some psychologists may classify my personality as Type A, despite the fact that I am not hostile. However, I struggled through the first year and a half of university with serious drops in my academic average compared to before. After being diagnosed with ADHD and receiving treatment, I am not only improving in social functioning, but also with my focus during reading, lectures, and during conversations. As a hopeful future medical practitioner and an individual, who suffered with ADHD throughout his adolescence, I hope that my story will shed some light on your situations or that of your children. Please do not ignore your children’s concerns about their difficulty with memory, focus, or hyperactivity as they may have a more serious mental health disorder that should be immediately and adequately addressed to improve their overall quality of life.
Cheers.
Alex,
Thank you so much for sharing. The thing I love most about your story is the amount of hard work and determination you have put into your success. Congrats! I believe you will do extremely well in the future