What Are The Causes Of Attention Deficit Disorder?

Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) is a psychological disorder more frequently found in male child and starts showing symptoms when the child is in the age group of two to three years. Some of the children suffering from this disorder show signs of hyperactivity, and need to be treated when the first sign appears. In some of the cases this disorder gets treated, however in vast number of cases it continues throughout the life.

Extensive research has been done on causes of attention deficient disorder and it has shown that environmental and chemical exposure can cause damage to the brain growth processes even to the unborn child during pregnancy, thereby causing learning disabilities, attention deficit disorder, hyperactivity and other behaviour defects found in different children. Due to increased use of harmful chemicals in homes, offices or factories and consumer products, the chances of exposure increase rapidly resulting in more and more newly born children effected.

Research studies have found that children with attention deficit disorder exhibit any of the several types of damage to the brain structure, which can be as follows:

• In an important brain areas which help the learning process there are lesser number of cells or the size of brain cells is small.

• It has been found that in some cases the brain cells which are to be found at a particular place in the brain migrate and settle down at a wrong place.

• Due to some body disorder the blood flow to the brain may be low or lesser energy is being provided to brain due to lower than needed conversion of sugar into energy.

These symptoms can provide a cue to the medical expert to ascertain what has happened or why has this disorder happened.

In real life a child is exposed to a large number of chemicals may be when in existence in the world or when he is in the womb of the mother. The chemicals to which the child is exposed includes those originating from dyes used in clothes, or fruits and vegetables being exposed to pesticides and fertilizers, cosmetics and perfumes, plastic material etc being used despite of government ban or restrictions. These chemicals called neurotoxic chemicals cause damage to brain even in unborn child.

During fourth week onwards of pregnancy brain cells multiply at over 4,000 cells per second. Exposure to chemicals reduces the growth and consequent ADD. It is not only the exposure of the mother carrying a child which can cause the disorder, but exposure of father to the harmful chemicals at any time during 65 days prior to conception may increase risk of the foetus developing brain related disorders in the child.