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The increasing diagnosis of ADHD and ADD in children has led to a lot of studies dealing with the effects of ADHD and ADD medication and brain development. There has been a lot of concern about medication and its affects on brain growth. This has shown to be smaller in children with ADHD or ADD.

Using high resolution digital imagery, doctors are able to look at three dimensional scans of the brain. With the use of these images, researches have been able to show that children with ADHD have significant anatomical differences when looking at certain structures of the brain. Some studies have shown that children and adolescents with ADHD have a brain mass that is 3-4 percent smaller.

Though there has been a lot of concern that ADHD medicines are causing these brain deficiencies, studies have shown that this isn’t likely. There will always be questions as to when the delay in development started, or whether the delay was caused by other factors before the medication was even given.

Although the volume of brains in people who have been diagnosed with ADHD do seem to be smaller, the overall development of the brain isn’t much affected. In fact, a study carried out over ten years was able to indicate that the size of the brain varied among all children. Most affected children undergo a normal brain development.

The findings of this study showed that in some cases, brain volumes were larger in children with the disorder when compared to children without. This study was published in the October edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Be sure to read part two of this topic in the next post.

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