ADHD AWARENESS MONTH

October 2021

What if for a moment we took the few words that are the name of a diagnosis out of the picture?

To see if this might help to shift the frame from what fits into four words (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) to the story of the individual and their brain.

ADHD is a brain-based disorder. So, it makes sense to look beyond the symptoms that everybody sees on the outside and instead look closely at how the brain of someone with ADHD is working on the inside. Taking the time to do so, to really get to know how the brain of someone with ADHD is functioning can provide answers to important questions like – Why can I pay attention to some things but not others ? Why can’t I sit still ? Why can’t I stop myself from doing things even when I know I should be able to ? Why can’t I make simple decisions ? Why is my mind so busy ? Why can’t I control my emotions ?

So, what if we did this?

What if we took a brain-based approach to finding out more, and reframed ADHD from the inside out?

Would it change what we think about ADHD?

Would it change about how we think about options for treatments?

Let’s take a look…

Let’s put the brain in the frame and record what it does in real time.

This is - Functional neuroimaging.

QEEG.

Your ability to think, feel, and do things every day is because of the billions of tiny neurons in your brain and how they work together. This activity produces electrical waves that we can measure called brainwaves.

Your brain produces a range of brainwave activity all the time from very slow brainwaves to very fast brainwaves. A brain working at its best will produce the right type of brainwave activity for the right time and place. So, for example, it would be normal to produce more slow brainwave activity whilst drifting off to sleep, but not normal if someone is trying to stay attentive and focussed in class; and it would be normal to produce more fast brainwave activity whilst launching a rocket into space, but not if someone is trying to relax and fall asleep.

Thanks to advances in technology it’s possible to measure brainwave activity in real time using QEEG Brain Scans. These safe and non-invasive scans typically provide information about patterns of under- or over-activity in the brain by measuring brainwaves. Disturbances in the normal patterns of brainwave activity can affect how the brain works and QEEG brain scans can help to pin-point these problems in the brain and explain why someone has difficulty with specific things, like attention or learning.

It is not yet completely clear what causes ADHD but evidence continues to grow that there are often (but not always) problems with the normal function of frontal areas of the brain. These areas of the brain are key for controlling attention and impulse-control, and important also for things like; decision-making and solving problems; acting thoughtfully; organising and planning; getting started and “staying-on-track”; self-control and managing emotions.

Brain scans cannot be used to diagnose ADHD, but the information can be used to: Firstly, explain “what is going on inside” and why somebody has difficulties with attention, impulse-control and other common ADHD symptoms; Secondly to help guide drug-free therapies such as Neurofeedback (targeted brainwave training) or can even be used to help to inform and predict response to medication-based treatments. That is truly personalised medicine.

In our next article, during ADHD Awareness Month this October, we provide an ADHD A to Z. It’s an easy-to-understand list of ideas and options that could make up parts of a multimodal lifestyle, training, and treatment plan to help someone with ADHD.

It’s time to reframe.

About the author - Ms. Emily Goss (Occupational Therapist, Senior Clinician, The Perth Brain Centre).

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