Does Your Child Have ADHD?

When David Giwerc was a child, he was impulsive, hyperactive and "got kicked out of every school," he says.

It wasn't until he was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder at age 37 that he finally understood that his brain had "different wiring" from the other children he had known.

"When I was diagnosed, it was a blessing," said Giwerc, now 50 and the former president of the Attention Deficit Disorder Association and an ADD coach. "I understood how my brain really worked."

ADHD is a brain disorder that causes children or adults to have trouble paying attention or sitting still, impairing their ability to learn or work.

The symptoms of ADHD were accurately described as far back as 1845 in a children's poem that featured a character called "Fidgety Philip."

Some of those symptoms, like squirming while seated and making careless mistakes, can be seen quite easily in Dr. Heinrich Hoffman's verse: "See the naughty restless child, growing still more rude and wild. Till his chair falls over quite, Philip screams with all his might."

But it wasn't until the last 20 years that ADHD diagnoses have spiked, leaving many parents to wonder whether their overactive or inattentive children might have the disorder, too.

Between 1989 and 1996, youth doctor visits for ADHD increased 90 percent, according to Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York.

It's estimated that between 3 and 5 percent of children have the disorder -- approximately 2 million people in the U.S. -- according to the National Institute of Mental Health. In a classroom of 25 to 30 children, at least one is likely to have the disorder.

How do you know if your child or someone you love has ADHD? Here are some symptoms from the NIMH:

Feeling restless, often fidgeting with hands or feet or squirming while seated

Running, climbing or leaving a seat in situations where sitting or quiet behavior is expected

Blurting out answers before hearing the whole question

Having difficulty waiting in line or taking turns

Often becoming easily distracted by irrelevant sights and sounds

Often failing to pay attention to details and making careless mistakes

Rarely following instructions carefully and completely losing or forgetting items such as toys, pencils, books and tools needed for a task

Often skipping from one uncompleted activity to another

If you're an adult and you're worried that you may have ADHD, you can download and print a short test from the World Health Organization.

However, the Attention Deficit Disorder Association warns on its Web site that parents should remember that a checklist of symptoms does not determine what is causing those symptoms. Diagnosis by a trained professional is essential.

Giwerc said that once the diagnosis is given and a doctor writes a prescription for a stimulant such as Ritalin, it's only the beginning of the journey. He said it's important that patients develop extra coping skills.

"The pill doesn't give you the skill, it puts you on the right playing field," he said.

With the increase in diagnosis has come an increase in medication. During the past decade, prescriptions for ADHD drugs have more than quadrupled in many states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

About 2.5 million stimulant prescriptions are written for children and 1.5 million for adults each month, the Food and Drug Administration reports.

Stimulants prescribed by doctors for ADHD include Ritalin, Adderall, Concerta, Cylert, Dexedrine, Dextrostat, Focalin and Metadate. Another non-stimulant medication, Strattera, has been approved by the FDA for use with ADHD.

Despite their possible misuse -- a study by RTI International found that 7.3 million people have abused them to increase academic or professional performance -- University of Pennsylvania Assistant Professor Russ Ramsay said medication is often an important part of overcoming the disorder.

"They are very well researched," said Ramsay, also the associate director of university's ADHD Treatment and Research Program, of the drugs used to treat ADHD. "All of the evidence so far suggests they're safe."

He said other important ways to combat ADHD include individualized education programs and help from a mental health professional.

Evelyn Polk Green said the medications saved her son, Perry, who was diagnosed with ADHD at 7. He is now 21 and successful at college.

"If Perry had not been diagnosed, he would be in jail or dead right now," said Green, who is also vice president of the ADDA.

About seven or eight years after Perry was diagnosed, Green was diagnosed as well. So was her younger son, Robert, 14.

The awareness of the disorder is increasing, she said, but "There's still a long way to go."

There is a "stigma out there," she said. "There are a lot of kids who fall through the cracks and get in trouble because their parents don't want them labeled."