By: Dr. Michael L. Johnson
Attention Deficit Disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADD/ADHD) have been a widely used label since the early 1990's. It is considered a catch all diagnosis by many clinicians. Frankly, ADD/ADHD is poorly understood within the health care profession. Many clinicians have difficulty with classification of different behavior disorders, which are then lumped under the diagnosis of ADD/ADHD.
ADD/ADHD are due to biochemical imbalances in the brain. In ADD/ADHD certain chemicals, otherwise known as neurotransmitters, are not being adequately produced/processed with the brain. To stimulate the brain to cause alertness, these chemicals need to be in abundant supply. (ADD is specifically caused by to little norepinephrine production, and ADHD is linked to a decreased amount of dopamine). When norepinephrine and dopamine are in short supple, the brain essentially falls asleep. Information cannot be processed electrically and inappropriate messages will get transferred to the rest of the body. Without the correct stimulation, messages are interrupted and wrong information gets processed. The message can be sent to or interpreted in the wrong location.
Clinically, patients with ADD/ADHD have difficulty focusing on one task. They can also miss messages from the environment. They appear to have a loss of memory of have poor listening skills. Poor sleeping habits are common due to the brain's inability to shut down. Intervention strategies must address the specific areas of the brain. A specific evaluation must be done to correlate exam findings to provide strategies to maximize their full brain potential.
As a Board Eligible Chiropractic Neurologist, I take a different approach to the treatment and prevention of attention deficit disorder. After a thorough neurological examination, I determine which part of the nervous system is not functioning properly.
To stimulate brain function, pathways must have neurological activation. Left sided structural adjustments will stimulate pathways that fire to the right brain. Other effective modalities can be utilized to stimulate brain function. To stimulate the right brain, different modalities may be used. Visual stimulation (watching black and red or blue and green checkerboards) in the left vision field, auditory stimulation in one ear can be utilized at different intensities and frequencies, based on the patient need. Metronome clicks, gentle ocean, rain showers or Mozart are a few examples. Continually monitoring patient's blood pressure, respiration rate, pulse, pupillary reflex and V/A ratio are mandatory to avoid over stimulating the brain.
To truly understand ADD/ADHD, we must address attention as a global process, not only an issue of being able to attend, focus, and sustain attention to task. Attention required both cognitive and behavioral processes. How the information is utilized by the individual's brain is critical to correctly diagnose and then apply treatment.
