Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Diagnosis and Treatment

Dr. WONG Lai Yin

Specialist in Developmental – Behavioural Paediatrics

“Dr. WONG, my daughter’s teacher said she can hardly concentrate during lesson. She keeps playing with toys without looking at her during conversation, let alone the blackboard…”

“My son started to behave differently from his sister at around 3 or 4: restless and almost unstoppable, he could keep running all day long. After he entered primary school, his teacher keeps calling us that my son could not sit still or kept disturbing other classmates during lesson, or often ran and bumped into others in the corridor during recess…”

Importance of Early Diagnosis

All of us can get distracted or act impulsively from time to time, but children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (“ADHD”) that affects their lives and studies. Boys are more prone to developing ADHD, and are often diagnosed earlier than girls. Symptoms in girls might be more subtle as they are more likely to suffer predominantly from inattention.

Symptoms of ADHD vary with age. Restlessness or trouble with concentration are the common presentations in toddlers and primary-school age children. Adolescents may present with anxiety or depression in female, or other risk-taking behaviour in male. Adult patients might suffer problem with time management and difficulties concentrating at work.

Early diagnosis and proper intervention are important to children with ADHD, while other co-existing conditions such as dyslexia, coordination problem and weak social skill could be recognised for prompt intervention.

How Can I Help My Child Overcome ADHD?

The mainstay of treatment for ADHD is medication together with behavioural therapy and medication. Stimulant medications are commonly used in ADHD treatment as research shows significant improvement in up to 70% of patients after use.

Besides medication, family acceptance, proper parenting and school support are also indispensable. ADHD is a biological condition, but children with ADHD often get common stigmas like “talking excessively”, “doing poor at homework”, or being “naughty”, “inattentive”, “dreamy at class”, etc. Some parents may ask, “Why can’t my children stay focused while doing homework? I can see they could concentrate for hours on doing things they are interested in?” Let us think about ourselves: we also tend to be more focused and motivated when we are doing things that interest us? In fact, due to abnormal neurotransmitter level in the brain, children with ADHD have problems with self-control, making them more difficult to complete the tasks that fail to interest them.

If you are worried about your children having ADHD, please arrange assessment as soon as possible. For parents with children with ADHD, try to learn more about the disease and understand the difficulties they are having. They need our acceptance, encouragement but not criticism.