"Others have different concerns. Webb,[5] writing from her experience in Wales, in the March 2013 issue of the British Medical Journal analyzed the possibility that poverty and maltreatment are major sources of the behaviors that lead to a diagnosis of ADHD. Webb cited evidence that ADHD runs in families, suggesting that ADHD has a genetic basis. However, poor, disorganized, and abusive families are rarely recruited for such genetic studies. Living in adverse environments leads to children who are anxious, highly aroused, and who have high cortisol levels. She raised the concern that when this occurs early in childhood, it may interact with genetic risk, with the resulting changes being written permanently into the affected toddler's brain by epigenetic processes. The child becomes permanently hardwired for the phenotypic behaviors of ADHD. Hypervigilance about conflict and the consequent difficulties with attention and restlessness, which may further promote dysfunctional interactions with parents, become the basis for the label of ADHD. Such stressful early-life environments are strongly associated with poverty...."
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/806714
Note author disclosure:
Larry Culpepper, MD, has disclosed the following relevant financial relationships:
Served as an advisor or consultant for: Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Forest Laboratories, Inc.; Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; H. Lundbeck A/S; Merck & Co., Inc.; Pfizer Inc; Reckitt Benckiser Pharmaceuticals Inc.; Sunovion Pharmaceuticals Inc.; Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America, Inc.
Serve(d) as a speaker or a member of a speakers bureau for: Merck & Co., Inc.
Link to Webb article preview:
Webb, et al. (2013). "Poverty, maltreatment and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder." Archives of disease in childhood. 98(6):397-400. doi: 10.1136/archdischild-2012-303578. Abstract.
http://adc.bmj.com/content/early/2013/04/04/archdischild-2012-303578.short
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