Fish Oil Reduces Symptoms of ADHD

Dealing with ADHD is a challenge for the best of parents and overwhelming for a child. The impact on a family, a school and a community cannot be overestimated in time, stress and expense. The child is the most damaged, because he cannot comprehend his situation. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) can devastate the life of a child and continue its devastating effects into adulthood. The disorder has serious social and health implications as well depending on the treatment provided. This threat to both the health of individuals and society has focused much psychiatric research on this one disorder. As a result, there is good professional capacity to treat the disorder and significantly reduce its consequences for those affected. Numerous studies have indicated that fish oils can benefit ADHD patients and give them more control over their lives. This essay will explain the impact of ADHD, the treatment regimes that are commonly used and the improvements in medications, especially the use of fish oils. The impact of fish oil supplements has been a major important in social, economic, and quality of life by all measures.
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

ADHD is a condition that inhibits focus and concentration for even the slightest mental activity. Children are especially sensitive to the disorder because it effects their development and learning. Inability to focus greatly retards learning. The lack of focus means that distraction is always present, even for adults. Distraction leads to impulsive behavior which in turn creates additional problems especially in a school environment. Hyperactivity can also be a factor. The combination of all these traits in one person complicates that person’s ability to learn and socialize. As the individual ages, ADHD characteristics can manifest in normal developmental challenges that come with puberty and adult relationships. ADHD in effect becomes even more difficult to diagnose as well as treat. For all these reasons ADHD has received considerable attention in the psychiatric community for a number of years resulting in effective courses of treatments. Treatments regimes are normally a combination of medication and psychotherapy that vary with each individual. Treatment often depends on other issues that may complicate diagnosis and influence the choice of therapies and medications.

Common conditions that include alongside ADHD are learning disabilities, oppositional defiant disorder, and conduct disorder. Learning disabilities come from imperfect understanding or imperfect reception of information that creates learning obstacles by affecting understanding. A child will comprehend something incorrectly and then apply that lesson in the learning process. This corruption degrades proper education by undermining learning. Many ADHD patients demonstrate high intelligence, but their ability to properly process information works against this inherent intelligence. Teachers not trained to deal with these issues cannot identify ADHD soon enough or react to it well enough to mitigate damage and maintain order in the classroom.

Oppositional defiance disorder is manifest with stubbornness and defiance even with adults. Patients exhibit a great deal of resistance to authority when it goes against their desires. This creates disciplinary situations in school and at home that put the recipient in jeopardy of attending school or other personal activities. In adults, this constant source of friction affects employment stability.

Conduct disorder includes acting out, lying, stealing or bullying. The obvious affront to the rules of order, place these patients in direct confrontation with rules as well as the law and in opposition with the best interests of other students or individuals. Expulsion from school is a common remedy when school authorities have exhausted other options to maintain the balance of a single student’s interests and the rest of the student body. This negative impact alone has tremendous social implications in later life.

Any of these conditions that are carried into adulthood create serious relationship issues that affect both family life and employment. The inability to learn coupled with erratic, impulsive behavior and a lack of concentration causes accidents and poor performance that makes keeping a job difficult. Personal relationships suffer from an apparent inability to balance responsibilities. Marriages often fail and parenting also suffers and perhaps propagates the issues into another generation. Further serious, accompanying disorders can include depression and other bipolar disorders with obvious serious implications, and even Tourette syndrome. Some of these disorders come from the stress and mental inadequacies of the disorder. Others come from the treatments themselves, especially the medications.

ADHD comes in three major classes: predominantly hyperactive- impulsive, predominantly inattentive, and a combination of the other two. The hyperactive-impulsive type is most disruptive to a class of students or even within the home. The ADHD patient becomes the object of attention which disrupts the good order required in a functional situation. The inattentive class is less dangerous to the social fabric, but more dangerous to the individual who does not draw attention to himself and may well be overlooked. The combination is most devastating because the individual multiplies his challenges at least twofold. The diagnosis of the extent of the disorder is an important factor in treating the disorder.

The personal, social, and psychological characteristics of the individual involved is vitally important in determining the particular treatment provided which underlines the requirements that treatment be constantly and consistently monitored by a physician. ADHD can be caused by physical, environmental and social factors that are different in every case. Medications are a major part of most treatment regimes. Currently in the United States there are more than 17 approved drugs and medications for use with ADHD cases. The strength and effects must be considered on an individual basis. Most of the medications are stimulants such as the familiar Ritalin. In some cases anti-depressants, especially in adults, are required to lessen the impact of the disorder. Needless to say, the use of these medications can have inconvenient side effects. buy vyvanse 30 mg