ADHD

[blingcherries]

My daughter has been diagnosed with OCD and ADHD. I've noticed (frankly since she was a baby) that in the evenings she doesn't wind down...she charges up. She is relatively even-keeled through the day, but when evening comes she begins getting 'wired.' It feels as if she has built up a static charge all day and in the evening she is overwhelmed and can't discharge it. She pretty much bounces off the walls, talks fast, calls names, acts impulsively. The older she gets, the more problematic these behaviors become. She also can't get to sleep which just snowballs the problem into the next day. For awhile we gave her melatonin and she had really nice evenings...she was happy (not manic) and fell asleep easily. We had to discontinue that because it interfered with her OCD med. Now we've been directed to give her benadryl to help her sleep. So she's wired (manic) until we give her the benadryl. Does this sound familiar to anyone, or do we have a unique case here? Any suggestions will be appreciated. Thanks.

[UroDoc]

The benadryl sounds like a good idea, good luck

[htoomim]

I have been studying just this topic with very interesting results.

It seems there is a chain of connections in the brain that results in uncontrollable activity. It starts at a point in the midline of the forehead at the hair line (the control point) and proceeds through the basal ganglia to the subthalamic nucleus to the thalamus. The route is shown in a Single Photon Computed Tomography (SPECT) picture. SPECT is a study of blood flow in the brain showing more than normal brain blood flow in this chain of a child with this disorder. It is probably treatable with exercise of the treatment point mentioned above to inhibit the thalamic over activity.

[blingcherries]

Thanks for the tip. It gives me a direction to investigate. joan

[blingcherries]

BTW, what do you mean by "exercise of the treatment point to decrease thalamic overactivity"? Thanks, joan

[htoomim]

Overactivation of the thalamus is a common cause of hyperactivity, inability to focus on a desiredobjective, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, unstoppable thought cascades and panic disorder.

In the brain these disorders are caused by failure of the basal ganglia to quiet the thalamus. this can be corrected by brain exercise of an area on the forehead known to coincide with Brodmann's area 9.

Such exercises use a little known but commonly used mental capability to increase blood flow to the chosen part of the brain. Every time we think, feel, move or sense any activity, we automaticcally increase the blood flow to some brain modules. This happens automatically without the brain giving us any sense of the processes involved.

It is possible to see brain activation and concomitant blood flow increases with a noninvasive instrument, a spectrophotometer. The unexpectred result of this vision is discovery that you can increase the blood flow at will. This process is known as "Hemoencephalography" (See Google for references).

Voluntary increase of blood flow is an exercise that leads to strengthening of the brain modules exercised. The brain responds to such use much like a muscle. You have undoubetedly heard "Use it of lose it" applied to any part of your body. Your brain is no exception. It grows stronger and more efficient with these exercises.