Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Symptoms

Symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Usually patients with attention deficit hyperactivity have difficulty in the process of performing the task, easily distracted, and it often seems that their thoughts are not focused on any real action, but are hovering somewhere in the distance. They try to avoid situations that require focusing on details and organizational skills, often lose the necessary items and generally are forgetful. Hyperactivity manifests itself as restlessness, endless running and lasagna. Patients are constantly in motion and unnecessarily talkative. With age, hyperactivity may diminish, appearing in adolescents or adults only as a feeling of inner anxiety. Impulsiveness can be manifested by impatience, lack of restraint, inability to listen to the end of the answer or wait for its turn. People with attention deficit hyperactivity often have low self-esteem, increased vulnerability to failures, intolerance, aggressiveness, inability to establish relationships with others, low learning ability. All this leads to poor academic performance, unfortunate relations with relatives and peers. The minimum age at which attention deficit hyperactivity can be diagnosed is 3 years. At this age, attention deficit hyperactivity may manifest excessive motor activity, irrepressible lasagna, aggressiveness and destructive actions.

The course of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

The presence of hyperactivity in a child of preschool age is difficult to interpret because healthy children at this age are also characterized by increased mobility. Diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity is facilitated by additional symptoms: fits of aggression, aggressive or desperate (without looking at the risk) actions. In primary school, children with attention deficit hyperactivity may not be able to cope with the program due to a lack of cognitive functions and have difficulty in establishing relationships with peers. In the adolescent period, symptoms can undergo both quantitative and qualitative changes. With age, the number of symptoms decreases, so the diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity, possible as early as adolescence, becomes more problematic as one grows up. For example, the main symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity in older people may be a feeling of inner anxiety, impatience, and not excessive motor activity. In adolescence, attention-deficit hyperactivity patients often can not cope with independent work, in addition, they are characterized by risky adventures that often end in accidents or road accidents - all of which can be regarded as additional symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity. Three possible outcomes of attention deficit hyperactivity are described:

1. In 30% of patients, symptoms decrease with age ("delayed maturation");
2. in 40% of patients the symptoms persist in adulthood (residual state);
3. In 30% of cases, the symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity are associated with more serious psychopathological manifestations, for example, drug addiction or antisocial personality disorder ("maturing regression").

Symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity may persist throughout the life of the patient, but currently the problem of attention deficit hyperactivity in adults is not well developed, and the effect of stimulants in adults is variable. In adults, a lack of attention with hyperactivity can be the cause of social maladjustment, patients are forced to write everything down so as not to miss something important, can not concentrate on any one thing and bring it to the end, leaving only unfinished projects, delay with the fulfillment of important tasks , burst out with outbursts of anger. However, apparently, only a minority of children have a deficit of attention with hyperactivity transformed into an adult variant. The diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity in adults is also hampered by frequent comorbid psychiatric disorders, in particular depression and antisocial personality disorder.

Approximately two-thirds of students in primary schools with attention deficit hyperactivity have at least one other mental disorder. In patients with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, behavioral disorder, opposition defiant disorder, learning disabilities, communicable disorders, anxiety and affective disorders, Tourette syndrome and chronic tics are diagnosed more often than the population average. In addition, patients are often unable to distinguish hints and demonstrate endurance in social situations.