Hyperactivity

What is Hyperactivity?

Hyperactivity is a State of excessive energy, which can be motor (physical, muscular)or mental (intense flow of thoughts). If an organ or gland of the body are working too much, say he is hyperactive (as in the case of the thyroid gland in hyperthyroidism). Hyperactivity is also synonymous with increased and/or excessive activity; Hyperkinetic behavior (hyper = very; cinesia = movement).

The symptom "hyperactivity" by itself, little says the expert, once being a nonspecific symptom, can occur in multiple situations of the everyday life of children and normal adults without causing any kind of problem. However, often, hyperactivity can be difficult to assess the degree of commitment, especially in younger children. Thenthere is the demand of a careful evaluation of hyperactivity and its modus operandisin all contexts of the life of the child or adult as well as the observation of the degree of suffering, injury and commitments arising from the hyperactive behavior of the child, the family and the quality of life of the family system as a whole.

In general the hyperactive is inattentive, does not have a good performance at school and tends to have problems with reading and other academic tasks. Often this disorder may be accompanied by other delays in development as a difficulty in speechand lack of skill (dyspraxia). In the presence of impairment in multiple sectors and presence of suffering and damage, hyperactivity will be classified as pathological.

Symptoms of Hyperactivity

Hyperactivity is a State of excessive motor activity that can manifest itself by symptoms of restlessness, nervousness and excessive movements where the kids are always running, jumping and hopping around instead of walking. It is common to see themrunning into each other on people or on the furniture, tripping, falling and getting hurt, because almost always putting yourself in dangerous places. Not infrequently, even to eat and watch TV or do it standing up, walking across the House. Sleep is often agitated, speak a lot and even sleeping turn body in bed, possibly shaking and shaking your leg to sleep.

All this excessive behavior often accompanies a difficulty in concentrating and maintaining focus to pay attention in class, perform the tasks, reading, doing homework and even to play a calm and safe with colleagues. The line is excessive, and may be disorganized by the "rush to speak", and sometimes it's very accelerated like who willstutter. They have great difficulty in remain quiet at home, at school, in the park or anywhere.

Still, it is important to distinguish the real active and impulsive behaviors of hyperactivity displayed by normal children. Hyperactivity, being one dimensional, symptom intensity varies within a spectrum, which can leave you subject the relativization of the observer. That is, the same behavior may look more hyperactive or excessive or even normal, depending on the conditions of the observer, usually the parents or teachers. But truth be told, some children are clearly more active than others in the eyes of anyone. Cases like this are much more subject to problems at school and in socialand many hyperactive children are very unhappy and anxious, being the target of bullying and all manner of rejection and punishment at home and in school. The hyperactive behavior may decrease in teens and even disappear in adulthood, although it is very common to persistence of scars left.

The main symptoms of hyperactivity in children are:

Always be uneasy

Always be moving (feet and hands) and Pattering fingers

Always get up when it comes to sitting

Running, wandering and talking excessively

Have difficulty participating in quiet jokes

The main symptoms of hyperactivity in adults are:

Internal restlessness and anxiety

Difficulty of sitting in meetings

A tendency to be a workaholic, IE, workaholic

Talking excessively

Smoking or drinking too much

Symptoms such as feeling daytime sleepiness and avoid "classic" games and agitated (as soccer and dodgeball) are less observed in everyday life of these children, but they can happen. Some hyperactive children retreated on the own hyperactivity, for example. On football: often such is hyperactivity that they always lose to defend balls, cut down the other children during the game, lose some good moves and are rejected by the Group; Dodgeball, are always burned, fall more, are clumsy, suffer morebullying and also tend to be left aside by colleagues. So some hyperactive children can choose to play alone, some even with ' more ' protective and that won't hurt them.

Despite the most notorious symptoms of hyperactivity are the responsibility of thebrain, other parts of the human body also play an important role in hyperactivity. Neck, spine, immune system, digestive and urinary system are involved in ADHD. That's why many children and adults with ADHD have:

Respiratory problems like bronchitis and asthma

Bad physical posture

A floor uncoordinated or clumsy

Tendency to stumble, go against things, falls and accidents

Little ability to work or manual activities

To wet the bed with an old age, often with 8 and 9 years.

Types

There are two types of ADHD:

Motor hyperactivity: Basically in children, ADHD is linked to movements, movements. Is the child, not to quiet a second, with bicho Carpenter, as people say.

Mental hyperactivity: profusion of thoughts so disorganized, in excess, hurting the child, as well as reasoning tend to leave her inattentive, anxious, angry or aggressive.

Causes

The most common causes are genetic and environmental (a genetic susceptibility indirect interaction with environmental factors).

In children, there may be the following causes of hyperactivity:

ADHD or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Use of alcohol, tobacco, psychoactive substances by the mother during pregnancy

Complications in pregnancy, such as fetal injury, brain injury

Premature birth and low birth weight of the baby (PIG)

Complications in childbirth, such as hypoxia, prolonged and traumatic births to baby

Ma stressed, malnourished or undernourished mother

Disorganized, chaotic family environment, unstructured

Mistreatment and abuse

Situational problems as family crises (bereavement, parental separation and other) leading to hyperactivity reactive frames

Learning disorders

Intellectual disabilities

Invasive diseases of neurodevelopment, like autism, for example

Genetic diseases and other diseases, such as viral pós-encefalites, among others.

Among adults, the most common causes for hyperactivity are:

ADHD or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Other psychiatric disorders, such as bipolar disorder, mania, among others

Other physiological disorders such as hyperthyroidism and fecromocitoma

Brain vascular diseases and other diseases of the central nervous system

Poisoning by lead, mercury and other heavy metals

Overuse of stimulant medications, drugs (cocaine), caffeine, tobacco

Drug withdrawal syndrome

Exposure to pesticides and fertilizers and agricultural/chemicals

Exposure to household products with active ingredient very strong as paint thinner,ammonia or varnish

Middle chaotic, disorganized family, aggressive Dynamics

Emotional disorders, instability in employment and relationships.

Risk factors

Among the risk factors for ADHD, found mainly genetic factors and environmental factors, such as:

Premature birth

Low birth weight

Smoking in pregnancy

Family maladjustment

Young maternal age

History of antisocial behavior

Maternal Depression.

                                 

Seeking medical help

The diagnosis is essentially clinical, performed by professional (preferably a psychiatrist) who knows the subject and which necessarily discard other diseases and disorders, to then indicate the best treatment.

Hyperactivity is a type of conduct unnecessary, disorganized and chaotic, characterized by the combination of anxiety and lack of attention at a level inappropriate to the child's age. For the Neuropsychologist Sam Goldstein is essential to understand the behavior of hyperactive child, seeing the world through the eyes of this child andto distinguish between behavior that results from lack of ability and behavior that results from willful disobedience. All those (parents, friends or professionals) dealingwith hyperactive children, also know the other side of the coin, that is, how big is the suffering that they feel. Who live with these children is that you know how hard it is to deal with them, because they do not cooperate, do not stop quiet, are always moving, manipulating objects or like dream of a different world than the one in whichnow live.

That is, whenever there is a persistent hyperactivity, along the desatencionais frames, impulsiveness, leading to social rejection and drop in school performance, this is the time to get a seasoned professional in the subject.

Diagnosis of Hyperactivity

The diagnosis before the age of four or five years is rarely done, because the behavior of children at that age is very variable and is not so required as the attention of older children. Even so, some children develop the disorder at a early age. Hyperactive children only respond in an appropriate manner the specific guidance of the teachers and the proposed syllabus in class as well as the regular physical activities, the inverse of children afflicted with a hyperactivity disorder, since they will also present difficulty to follow rules and boundaries and to control their impulses.

Usually only the parents are called in the first query. In it, will be obtained detailed history of the child, in other words, your entire life history from conception. The analysis is also made of the history of life of parents and siblings and biological family members, including all historical data, historical analysis pregresso pathological and school environment (academic), professional, social, marital, family, System Dynamicsand always, watching if parents and brothers get or are able to take advantage of allthe performance capacity in life.

Reports on the child are requested from the school. Specific scales are made with parents and sent to the school to be filled too. Are required blood tests, image and specific assessments (by the ophthalmologist, ENT, speech therapist, psychologist etc.) according to each case.

It is important to rigorously detail the hyperactivity, with questions like those listedbelow:

Since when they noticed that the child was hyperactive?

Hyperactivity is stable or is increasing or decreasing over time? Specify?

What are the symptoms that bother more at home and at school?

What other symptoms the child presents?

What are the complaints of a teacher?

He is so in places and people?

It presents a situation which causes hyperactivity?

How is he in relation to other children the same age?

In a second query, the child is evaluated physically and emotionally. If the expert finds necessary, may request a neuropsychological assessment.

All the purely clinical diagnosis is and will be joined on a regular basis from data ofparents and teachers. There are works that show differences in areas of the brain in children with ADHD, compared with a group of children without the disease. However, it is important to emphasise that the diagnosis is mainly clinical, based on the complaints of the person and his life story. Radiological exams, x-rays, CT scans or EEG(examination requested often) does not help clarify the diagnosis in children in adults.

Medicines for Hyperactivity

Hyperactivity can have several causes, so that treatment varies according to the diagnosis established by the physician. Therefore, only a trained specialist can tell you what the medication right for your case, as well as the correct dosage and duration of treatment. The most common medications for the treatment of ADHD are:

Depakote

Front

Ritalin

Always follow strictly the guidelines of your doctor and NEVER self-medicate. Do not discontinue use of the medication without consulting a doctor before and, if you take it more than once or in quantities much greater than the prescribed, follow the instructions on the package leaflet.

Evelyn Vinocur, psychiatrist and psychotherapist specializing in behavioral cognitiveMental health of children and adolescents by the Santa Casa de Misericordia of Rio de Janeiro, SCMRJ. Associate member of the ABP-Brazilian Association of Psychiatry and ABDA-Brazilian Association of attention (CRM-RJ: 303,514)