Guanfacine and ADHD

Attention Deficit/Hyperactive Disorder affects at least one in thirty students in America. Children diagnosed with this condition often experience symptoms that interfere with their ability to be successful in school and at home. Relationships are often lacking for these children because of their impulsive behavior. And, sadly, this can cause feelings of low self-worth and a sense of separation from those around them.

There is no cure for ADHD and children with ADHD will carry their condition on into adulthood. While adults do learn to cope with their disorder and can often cover it, symptoms are still present, particularly when certain situations are unavoidable, like loud or distracting places.

Treatment during both childhood and adulthood can help decrease ADHD symptoms. This can help increase social, academic, and employment functionality. With other treatment options like counseling, children who have ADHD can grow into successful adults that understand their condtion.

What is Guanfacine?

Guanfacine, also known as Tenex and Intuniv, is a norepinephrine receptor subtype. Its chemical make-up can help to improve attention problems in individuals with ADHD by modulating specific receptors in the brain. However, this is not the primary use of Guanfacine.

Originally, Guanfacine was manufactured and marketed as a cardiovascular drug that helped to lower cholesterol in patients that have hypertension. It has helped patients manage their high cholesterol in both short term and long term studies.

The lack of a stimulant quickly made Guanfacine a popular choice among some parents and individuals for the treatment of ADHD. Because stimulants are very addictive and can be easily abused, many parents and individuals are hesitant to use them for the treatment of ADHD, despite the fact that they are often safe and effective for ADHD sufferers.

Benefits to Using Guanfacine for ADHD

Guanfacine actually strengthens the prefrontal cortical network connections, which helps to regulate behavior and attention span. It can help patients sleep better at night, which is a common side-effect experienced with ADHD stimulant medications. In animal testing, Guanfacine seemed to decrease distractibility, improve response inhibition, improve working memory, and increase attention control. These benefits have also been observed in humans that have used the drug to treat ADHD. The drug has also been shown to work as an effective treatment for other psychiatric disorders, such as PTSD and anxiety.

Guanfacine Side Effects

Just like most drugs, there are some side-effects that can accompany ADHD treatment with Guanfacine. The most common symptoms experienced by those taking Guanfacine were drowsiness, gas pain, loss of appetite, dizziness, headache, depression, diarrhea, fatigue, and nasal congestion. These symptoms are often mild to moderate.

Rare side-effect can include more serious conditions like shortness of breath, chest pains, blurred vision, swelling in the hands or feet, skin rash, or yellowing of the skin or eyes. These conditions should be discussed immediately with your doctor if they occur.

Other side effects that can take place include tingling in the hands or feet, impotence, vision changes, ringing in the ears, mental and mood changes, dry mouth, decreased sexual desire, changes in taste, and leg cramps. Tachycardia or bradycardia can also occur in some patients, particularly those that have certain cardiovascular conditions. If any cardiovascular symptoms are experienced, it is important to talk to your doctor immediately.

When Guanfacine Isn’t Enough

In some cases, Guanfacine is not enough for proper treatment of ADHD. It must be paired with a stimulant to help increase the efficacy. It should also be noted that the medication should be paired with other forms of non-medication treatment. Counseling or similar types of treatment can help a child cope with their disorder and learn how to deal with their condition in the future.

Exercise can also help with ADHD treatment. In the brain of a person with ADHD, dopamine levels, a chemical in the brain, is lower than that of a person without ADHD. Exercise helps to increase this chemical, helping the individual naturally decrease their ADHD symptoms.

Diet may also play a role in ADHD treatment. In some studies, certain foods have shown that that they may help decrease or cause an increase in ADHD symptoms. If you think that diet could play a part in your ADHD treatment, discuss diet options with your physician.

Is Guanfacine the Right Choice?

Only your doctor can really decide which type of medication is right for you or your child. However, you need to be sure that you share your past medical history with your doctor. This can help your doctor choose the best treatment options and avoid any options that may be unsafe. In most cases, Guanfacine is much safer than other ADHD drugs, particularly stimulants. However, this is not always the case and your doctor can only make the right choice based upon the information you provide.

Causes of ADHD

Today, ADHD is one of the most commonly diagnosed neurological disorders in children. Actual diagnosis of the problem has only existed since the 1980s. Essentially, this has left much unknown when it comes to the disorder, especially in the way of causes of ADHD. However, as medicine continues to advance and studies continue to be performed on those with ADHD doctors are starting to understand the disorder a little more.

Since there is no known cure for ADHD, only treatment, people may wonder what the point in knowing the causes is. They may question if knowing the causes can really help with anything. This concern can be a little difficult to address at times. However, the truth is that, by understanding the causes of ADHD, doctors can work towards a cure. Additionally, knowing the causes can help the parents of children diagnosed with ADHD to know when their child might be at higher risk. This can lead to earlier detection and screening in children that might have gone undiagnosed throughout the childhood years. There are even possible causes of ADHD that parents, particularly future mothers, can avoid, decreasing the risk of their child developing ADHD. So, as you can see, there really is reasoning behind knowing the causes of ADHD, despite the fact that there is no cure at this time.

Genetic Tendency

At this time, it is not known exactly what causes ADHD. However, medical research has shown that there are inherited genetic factors that may be responsible for the presence of ADHD in most cases. Research is still focusing on identifying the actual genes that create the presence of ADHD. However, there have been no definitive answers at this time.

Researchers have discovered, however, that children with two or more close family members with ADHD are at a higher risk. If a child has one or more parents with ADHD, the child is at an even higher risk. The genetic tendency also seems to be very strong in male genes. More than one-third of the men diagnosed with ADHD have children who are also eventually diagnosed with the condition.

There are a number of cases in which there is no genetic tendency for ADHD. This has led researchers to search out other possible causes. Once again, there still are no definitive answers. However, researchers do know more now than they did when the condition was first discovered.

Other Possible Causes

While genetics are said to be the biggest contributing factor to ADHD, researchers have also singled out a few other possible causes. Studies have suggested that the use of cigarettes, alcohol, or other drugs could increase the risk for ADHD. All of these factors can be completely eliminated during pregnancy, therefore reducing the risk of ADHD. This can be especially important if the mother or father of the child already have a genetic tendency for ADHD.

Low birth weight babies may also be more susceptible to developing ADHD later in life. So may children that have experienced head injuries during childhood. Other studies have also indicated that exposure to lead in children could cause ADHD symptoms.

Lead, for the most part, has been eliminated from most paints and products. However, there are certain professions that may still work with lead. This lead can come home on clothing or skin. Be aware of the materials in your home and materials that you work with so that you can prevent this item in your home.

Items That Do Not Cause ADHD

Some parents worry that certain foods can cause ADHD in their children. However, there is no evidence indicating that this is true. Comprehensive studies have shown, however, that children who are diagnosed with ADHD can see a decline in symptoms through the use of a restrictive diet in about 5% of children. These studies are not conclusive, however. There are other studies that have not shown that there is any significant correlation between ADHD symptoms and food, dyes, or sugars.

How ADHD Affects the Brain

The way that the brain works has told researchers a lot about ADHD and its causes. Special imaging tests have been used to study the brain of those that have been diagnosed with ADHD. According to researchers, there may be a link between ADHD and the structure of the brain. Certain areas in the brain that are responsible for impulse control and attentiveness seem to develop differently in children with ADHD.

Additionally, the chemical in the brain, dopamine, seems to be lower in those diagnosed with ADHD. This chemical is responsible for carrying signals between the nerves and the brain.
This is the chemical that is thought to be stimulated through the use of stimulators, like Ritalin, for the treatment of ADHD. This is also the chemical that is stimulated in the brain during the use of cocaine and nicotine. It is thought that this may explain the greater risk of drug abuse that adult ADHD sufferers have.