Snoring may be a tip-off for attention deficit/hyperactivity
disorder (ADHD) in children, one study suggests. A separate study found
that prenatal exposure to cigarettes, drugs and alcohol could double a
child's risk of developing ADHD. Children who snore are twice as likely
to suffer from ADHD, and boys under age 8 who snore are three times as
likely to be hyperactive as non-snorers, according to researchers at the
University of Michigan. The study examined 866 children between the ages of
two and 16.
Lead researcher Kenneth Pituch, M.D., wants to
determine whether doctors can stave off ADHD by treating sleep disorders,
or vice versa: "If a pediatrician encounters kids who have
attention-deficit problems and sleep disorders, then we may have
alternative means of treating these children, rather than with
drugs."
Harvard Medical School researchers also report that children with
ADHD are twice as likely to have had mothers who smoked while pregnant
and two-and-a-half times more likely to have been exposed to alcohol in
utero.
ADHD affects as many as 7.5 percent of school-age children,
according to figures from the Mayo Clinic. Estimates of children
with ADHD range from one to 20 percent, partly due to scanty evidence
provided by inadequate surveys.
But there's no argument that drug prescriptions to combat ADHD are
soaring. Prescriptions for central-nervous-system stimulants such as
Ritalin and Adderall have rose some 30 percent over the years.
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