I just read an Australian web site that reported that 95% of the ADHD-I patients that they studies were girls. Of the ADHD-HI types that they studied, 75% were boys. Something hormonal or biological is amiss in the brains of these girls and boys.
Men and women react very differently to stress and relaxation. They approach tasks differently. They socialize differently. It will come as no surprise to me if the disease that primarily affects females is a similar but different disease than the disease that primarily affect males.
I could rage about the fact that the reason ADHD-I is neglected when it comes to research is because it primarily affects females but I do not believe that this sub-type has been neglected for that reason. I sincerely believe that the kid with ADHD-I is simply not as hard to parent as a kid with the combined type or ADHD-HI so fewer parents, teachers, and doctors have demanded help.
I was a therapist for 15 years, the last 5 specializing in girls with AD/HD, so tried to keep up on this research. There are a lot of girls with primarily inattentive-type being missed by parents and schools, you're right, they're not the ones in the principals office.
ReplyDeleteThere is some, not enough, gender specific work on AD/HD and hormones, which connected symptoms to stage of puberty, done by Joseph Biederman at Yale, I believe. That was in the 90s, though, and I don't know what current stuff is going on.
Thanks for the contact. I will look up the Biederman studies!!
ReplyDeletei have adhd-hiand now i understand why im so different fromnormall adhders but i can tell you it's not very plezant
ReplyDeletexxx didi
I'm a man with ADHD-HI. Don't know why more women have it. I'm not trans or anything :-). We don't study untill it's almost(!) too late and our IQ helps us just pass the tests. We under achieve, but still we achieve a bit, so we don't get noticed.
ReplyDeletePaul
Maybe the problem is that when girls are diagnosed it is because someone finally notices that they are inattentive. Maybe the ADHD-PI boys get neglected all together and never diagnosed. We know for a fact that this is the most under diagnosed subtype and maybe the boys are forgotten all together.
ReplyDeleteHa! You have it reversed, tho. The ADHD-HI would be from Mars and the ADHD-I from Venus.
ReplyDeleteI never was good at astronomy!!
ReplyDelete