Parents of Kids with ADD/ADHD Need to Rethink Risky Sports

This post was written by Daniel G. Amen, MD
Kids with ADD/ADHD at greater risk for disability from brain injury
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Research detailed in the Journal of Neurosurgery: Pediatrics indicates that children with mild traumatic brain injuries (TBI) and ADD/ADHD are more likely to have a moderate disability than children without ADD/ADHD.
Patient records of 48 children with ADD/ADHD who had sustained a mild TBI were compared to a control group of 45 age-matched patients without ADD/ADHD who had also sustained a mild TBI:
25% of the patients with ADD/ADHD demonstrated a moderate disability and 56% were completely recovered within an average follow-up period of 24.9 weeks
2% of the control group without ADD/ADHD demonstrated a moderate disability and 84% were completely recovered within an average follow-up period of 7.2 weeks.
According to these findings, children with ADD/ADHD who sustain a mild TBI experience a greater level of disability and need (on average) more than three times as long to recover.
These findings beg the question: Are rehabilitative efforts less effective for children with ADD/ADHD and TBI?
With this question in mind, the study authors make the following recommendations:
Rethink letting children with ADD/ADHD engage in sports and hobbies with increased risk of sustaining a TBI (football, soccer, hockey, boxing, cheerleading, trampolines, riding a bike without a helmet).
Physicians treating mild TBI cases in children with ADD/ADHD may need to adjust treatment plans, as more intensive treatment and longer rehabilitation may be required.
Families of children with ADD/ADHD with mild TBI should be counseled accordingly about expected outcomes.
More evidence that the brain is both delicate and resilient!
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