More Bad News — ADD Tip o the Day 385

Those of us with ADD or ADHD are more likely than average to have RLS, restless legs syndrome, and/or paroxysmal abnormal leg movements.  These uncontrollable urges to move our legs, or these uncontrollable jerks of the legs, tend to happen just as we are trying to go to sleep. They are important because they keep us awake, and good sleep is important for ADD or ADHD.

The symptoms may happen occasionally at other times and not only in the legs.  There are treatments for them.  My guess is that like ADD, it’s related to the basal ganglia.

Next, 20-40% of people with bipolar disorder also have ADD or ADHD, higher than the 4% of us in the average population.  That doesn’t translate backwards; not so many of us with ADD or ADHD also have bipolar, which is about 1% in the general population.  I couldn’t find out the percent of bipolar in the ADD/HD population, but obviously it’s significant.

This is somewhat controversial, but the increased incidence of ADD or ADHD in the bipolar population seems pretty clear.  All of this is treatable too, but with some difficulty.

It is important to carefully make the correct diagnoses.

doug

story of misdiagnosis    clik     

Look for the silver lining.