My six year-old has ADHD and a speech disability. but she is smart as a tack. She is on Concerta medication. She can talk morbid and say things that I am not sure happened or not. is this normal for ADHD kids?

ADHD is NOT real!!! Teachers came up with this so they wouldn't have to teach normal/acitve/rambunctious children.
They perfer the child be medicated; causing little to no brain function and sit in a chair all day like a wet noodle.
The doctors love prescribing the medicine because they make tons of money on the prescription 'kick backs'.
Change the diet – change the behavior. NO JUNK FOODS, NO MEDICATIONS AND NO SWEETS!!!
My neighbor did this, with her son, and it works!

Elderly people suffering from conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease are being denied food and drink, while just one in five hospitals makes sure that nurses are told if their patients have such a diagnosis.

The audit, involving almost 8,000 patients with dementia, found that less than half were given basic tests to assess their brain function – and diagnose their condition, or its deterioration – when they were admitted.

Just 19 per cent of hospitals made sure staff on the wards were told if their patients were suffering from conditions like Alzheimer’s disease and less than 5 per cent of hospitals insisted that clinical staff underwent compulsory training in dementia awareness.

Although malnutrition is known to be a factor which can cause those with dementia to deteriorate, 30 per cent of patients were given no nutritional assessment – and by the time they left hospital, more than 42 per cent had lost weight, the audit by the Royal College of Psychiatrists found.

Separate statistics have shown that in 2009, more than 13,500 elderly people became malnourished while they were in hospital.

Charities say frail dementia sufferers who are too weak and confused to feed themselves are left to starve, with meal trays placed beyond reach of bedridden patients and then taken away, completely untouched.

Campaigners fear nurses are too busy to carry out basic duties of care, such as helping the most vulnerable to eat and drink.

Professor Alistair Burns, the Government’s dementia tsar, has written to NHS senior managers across the country urging them to act on the “disappointing” findings from the national independent audit.

The report says ward staff who do not realise that patients admitted for other reasons suffer from dementia can neglect their needs, leaving such patients at risk and with their dignity compromised.

Symptoms of dementia can include aggression and agitation, and when staff are unaware that a patient is suffering from the condition then they are more likely to give an “inappropriate” response to such behaviour, the report points out.

Nurses are advised not to move patients suffering dementia too often, and in particular, to try not to move such patients at night, when they are more likely to feel panicked by changes. yet the audit found that less than one in three hospitals maintained that standard.

After being admitted to a ward, 40 per cent of dementia patients were moved around the hospital, with some being transferred from one bed to another more than five times.

Patients are moved within hospitals in order to make space for new patients on particular wards, and after operations, or because of outbreaks of infections.

The report found that 12 per cent of patients with dementia were moved between two and six times during their hospital stay.

About 750,000 people suffer from dementia, and more than half of those suffer from Alzheimer’s disease. The figures are expected to double in 40 years, as the population ages.

Andrew Chidgey, head of policy at charity the Alzheimer’s Society, said the findings from the national audit had left experts feeling concerned.

He said: “We knew the situation was quite bad in some hospitals, but I think a lot of us are pretty shocked to see a national picture like this – a lot of these failings are very basic.”

Mr Chidgey said that too often, elderly people with dementia, who were admitted to hospital for other reasons, such as for a hip operation, deteriorated while they were on the ward, and were in worse physical and mental health by the time they left.

He said: “Often because staff are not aware of the dementia, the patient doesn’t get the appropriate care and becomes increasingly confused and agitated.

“They don’t get the help they need eating and drinking, they get given inappropriate medication, and by the time they leave they are malnourished, and the symptoms of their condition have worsened.”

He said giving patients with dementia the right care would save the NHS money, while failing to look after them properly meant they spent far longer in hospital than they needed to.

Katherine Murphy, from The Patients Association, said the most vulnerable patients and their families were left feeling “desperate” because of repeated and unjustifiable failings across the country.

She said: “What does it say about our society if we can’t assist elderly people who need help eating?

“These people are vulnerable and require the utmost care and attention. They deserve their humanity, they deserve to be treated with dignity,” she added.

Mrs Murphy said she was appalled at the number of times such patients were “shunted around the hospital” given that many would already feel bewildered and unsure of their surroundings”.

The charity is calling on the Government to bring in an independent matron for every hospital ward, to improve standards of care.

Paul Burstow, the care minister, said: “There can be no excuses for these shocking findings. The audit is a snapshot of the state of dementia care in our hospitals twelve months ago.

“It shines a spotlight on poor practice that demands action from the NHS.”

He said the Government had already set out ways in which hospitals must take urgent action to improve the care of people with dementia.

I have a 10 yr old dachshund and we think he has or is getting a form of dementia. He seems to forget commands, has started to bite and is anxious all the time. does anyone have any experience with this?

Just like older people older dogs can start to deteriorate mentally. However if he is starting to bite I would be concerned for your safety and would recommend getting him examined by your vet to make sure he doesn't have arthritis or bad teeth, something that could be causing him pain or a systemic disease which could be causing him to act abnormally such as liver damage. If there are no obvious causes for his behaviour other than his age there are foods available which have been formulated to help reduce the mental deterioration. they have increased levels of fatty acids and other additives to help with brain function. those might be worth a try?

Ask your vet about Vivitonin……definitely helps older dogs who are "losing the plot".

Dogs are susceptible to a form of dementia known as Canine Cognetive Dysfunction or CCD.
They are also susceptible to a range of other mental probelms, although with the older dog, CCD is a likely cause.

I would certainly consult your vet about the changes to your dogs behaviour- especially if his behaviour includes personality changes like anxiety and biting.
You dont want to risk your family, or your dog getting into trouble from biting somebody or maybe getting into a fight with another dog.

I believe there are medications avaliable to help treat this problem (although obviously this will depend upon the diagnosis) and there are also exercises and training implements you can use to help slow the progression of the Dementia (as they say- use it or lose it!)

Public release date: 18-Nov-2010 [ | E-mail | Share ] Contact: Julie Gazaillej.cordeau-gazaille@umontreal.ca514-343-6796University of Montreal

Montreal, November 18, 2010 ? Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that differs between the sexes in terms of age at onset, symptomatology, response to medication, and structural brain abnormalities. Now, a new study from the Universit? de Montr?al shows that there is gender difference between men and women’s mental ability ? with women performing better than men. These findings, published recently in, Schizophrenia Research, have implications for the more than 300 000 affected Canadians.

“We are the first to report sex differences in brain function of schizophrenics,” says Universit? de Montr?al professor, Adrianna Mendrek a researcher at the Centre de Recherche Fernand-Seguin. “We chose to study a task involving mental rotation of a three dimensional image because in healthy men and women, this consistently elicits differences in terms of reaction time and performance accuracy.”

Results opposite for control versus schizophrenics

Mendrek and her colleagues compared the brain function of healthy volunteers with schizophrenic patients that were completing the image rotation task by using magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Their findings confirmed that healthy men performed better than healthy women in this task, but found that schizophrenic women performed better than schizophrenic men.

“Sex hormones such as testosterone and estrogen may explain these results,” says Mendrek. “Findings from our other studies have shown that the testosterone level was positively correlated with activity in healthy men but not in healthy women. And conversely schizophrenic women have been shown to have higher levels of this hormone.”

Surprising result: gender differences in “resting” brains

The resting brains of healthy men and women are not the same, according to Mendrek. The area of the brain active while resting (the “default mode network”) is more active for women than men. “We are the first group to report sex differences in this network using fMRI,” says Mendrek. “The more active resting female brain may explain their reported ability to multi-task and be more introspective than men”

Previous studies have shown that the default network is perturbed in people suffering from depression, Alzheimer’s or schizophrenia. in particular, reduced default network activity has been associated with autism, and over-activity is associated with schizophrenia, more specifically with schizophrenia-positive symptoms such as hallucinations and delusions.

Partners in research

This study was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Institute of Gender and Health and the Fonds de la recherch? en sant? Qu?bec, as well as Hopital Louis-H. Lafontaine Foundation

“Disturbed sexual dimorphism of brain activation during mental rotation in schizophrenia” was authored by Jos? a. Jim?nez, Adham Mancini-Mar?e, Nadia Lakis, Melissa Rinaldi, Adrianna Mendrek from the Universit? de Montr?al and the Centre de Recherche Fernand-Seguin.

On the Web:

• Schizophrenia Research: sciencedirect.com/science/journal/09209964
• Universit? de Montr?al: umontreal.ca/english
• Centre de Recherche Fernand-Seguin: hlhl.qc.ca/recherche.html

Media contact: Julie Gazaille Press attach? University of Montreal Telephone: 514 343 6796 Email: Twitter: twitter.com/uMontreal_news

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HORMONE therapy with either estrogen or testosterone might not affect women’s thinking and memory skills in the years soon after menopause, hints a new study. The findings are the latest addition to a complicated picture of the possible link between hormones and mental functioning in women.

Some researchers think hormone therapy may help improve brain function and prevent Alzheimer’s disease after menopause. – Reuters

NOW AIN’T THAT A KICK TO THE HEAD?

According to new research, scientists doing autopsies on 12 athletes who died of brain or neurological diseases, showed a distinctive pattern of nerve damage – pointing towards some potential culprits.

"this is the first pathological evidence that repetitive head trauma experienced in collision sports might be associated with the development of a motor-neuron disease," Dr Ann McKee of Boston University School of Medicine and colleagues wrote in the report.

McKee’s team studied the donated brain and spinal cords of 11 professional football players or boxers and one hockey player. All had a newly characterised disease called chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, in which dementia set in years after repeated concussions. – Reuters

MEASLES: DON’T LET DOWN YOUR GUARD

This year, 1400 Africans, many of them children, have died of measles – a figure which Unicef fears might be due to complacency. Just as the disease looks beaten, people stop bothering with vaccination, which allows it to make a comeback.

At least 28 African countries have suffered outbreaks of measles this year. South Africa, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe were among the worst hit. Remember, even when there isn’t an outbreak, get your kids vaccinated. – Reuters

PESTICIDES AND PREGNANCY

Children whose mothers were exposed to certain types of pesticides while pregnant were more likely to have attention problems as they grew up, US researchers reported.

The study, published in Environmental Health Perspectives, adds to evidence that organophosphate pesticides, which attack insects’ nervous systems, can affect the brain.

Researchers at the University of California Berkeley tested pregnant women for evidence that organophosphate pesticides had actually been absorbed by their bodies, and then followed their children as they grew.

Women with more chemical traces of the pesticides in their urine while pregnant had children who were more likely to have symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, at age five. – Reuters