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Author Topic:   Overlap of Neurodivergent Conditions and Emotional Problems
Glaucus
Knowflake

Posts: 1463
From: Sacramento,California,USA
Registered: Jul 2006

posted January 25, 2008 04:13 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Glaucus     Edit/Delete Message
The overlap of neurodivergent conditions and emotional problems

Aspergers is listed as one of the conditions misdiagnosed Bipolar in the book,THE BIPOLAR CHILD by The Definitive and Reassuring Guide to Childhood's Most Misunderstood Disorder by Demitri Papolos M.D.,Janice Papolos, Janice Papolos,Janice Papolos. One of the common characteristics of bipolar children listed in the book was learning disabilities which pretty much supports my belief that a lot of learning disabled are getting diagnosed as having bipolar. One of the very common characteristics of bipolar are oversensitivity to environmental influences,and learning disabled people are highly sensitive. How many learning disabled children act out, misbehave,throw temper tantrums,lash out,pout,and/or cry because they are frustrated,stressed,angry,irritable,and overwhelmed from problems with processing information that leads to being misunderstood,teased,ridiculed,and criticized? A whole lot. I definitely was no different. Where is the common sense in regards to learning disabled children having secondary psychological symptoms? It just seems like there is very little of it. Learning disabled children grow up to be learning disabled adults,and many of them have secondary psychological problems. I definitely was no different. There is definitely a significant overlap between learning disabilities and mental health problems.

From the book, Understanding Developmental Dyspraxia by Madeleine Portwood
Social and emotional problems of Dyspraxics:
Tendency to be easily frustrated, have emotional outbursts,and to be impulsive. Difficulties with listening,especially in a large group.May find it difficult to pick up non-verbal signals and judge the tone or pitch of voice in themselves and others. Can take things too literally,be tactless,and interrupt,wanting immediate satisfaction. Can play the clown. Can be slow to adapt to new situations and to learn new skills. Can have problems with team work and have a tendency to take evasive action when they face a difficult situation. May be insomniac,stressed,depressed,anxious,and indecisive. May have phobias,fears,and obessions.

Other common difficulties facing people with dyspraxia include low self-esteem, depression, mental health problems and emotional and behavioral difficulties. Weaknesses in comprehension, information processing and listening can also contribute to the difficulties experienced by people with dyspraxia.
http://www.ncld.org/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=466

People with dyspraxia often suffer from low self-esteem. They may suffer from depression, have mental health problems and experience emotional and behavioral difficulties.
http://www.dyspraxiafoundation.org.uk/services/dys_related.php

Dyspraxia in adults can create challenges with everyday activities and expectations. Driving is often difficult. Cleaning and cooking can be demanding, as can remembering appointments. Dyspraxic adults can also have difficulty controlling the pitch and articulation of their voice and are easily misunderstood by others. Keeping a job can be one of the most taxing hurdles, which can cause great frustration and depression
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-dyspraxia.htm .

Children with learning disabilities are prone to chronic depression. Older adolescents and adults tend to become withdrawn. They may be quiet or become agitated, irritable, and angry; they may also look sad and talk about their sadness. Young children, on the other hand, tend to exhibit non-verbal clues and express their emotional struggles more by their behavior than by talking. A major depression typically lasts several weeks and may be intense. Mild chronic depression (dysthymia) may last for an extended period of time and frequently appears to be an aspect of a child's usual moods and personality. http://www.ldanatl.org/aboutld/parents/mental_health/depression.asp

Learning Disabilities Association of America

There's all sorts of research in the field to suggest and support the concomitance of learning disabilities and mental health problems. Several recent studies show that 50% of individuals diagnosed with learning disabilities have scores above the clinical range on a well known depression scale. One thing we know is that attentional problems are a common feature of both. Another study summary says, Teachers have long known and reported that students with learning disabilities at lower educational levels have similar but more, and more severe, depression, than their peers without learning disabilities. There's no reason to think this link disappears with age. In fact, it becomes more urgent. And the stakes are higher. Failure to remediate at this adult stage has more serious consequences. http://dyslexia.mtsu.edu/modules/articles/displayarticle.jsp?id=17

About 75 percent of dropouts have trouble reading, according to research conducted by Reid Lyon of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. About half of adolescents with criminal records and substance abuse histories have reading problems, according to a study published by the National Institutes of Health in 2001.

Social Skills Deficits in Learning Disabilities:The Psychiatric Comorbidity Hypothesis
http://suicideandmentalhealthassociationinternational.org/mentpsych.html

For some the humiliation becomes too much. In one study, Peck found that over 50 percent of all suicides under age fifteen in Los Angeles County had been previously diagnosed as having learning disabilities. The actual percentage of youngsters labeled "learning disabled" in most school districts in the United States is below 5 percent; therefore, it seems clear that youngsters with learning disabilities constitute a disproportionately large percentage of adolescent suicides compared with the general adolescent population.

Results from a study in the U.S.A. by the National Center for State Courts demonstrated that youths with LD were 200 percent more likely to be arrested than nondisabled peers for comparable offences. According to the U.S. Department of Education 60 percent of America's prison inmates are illiterate and 85 percent of all juvenile offenders have reading problems.
http://www.audiblox.com/learning_disabilities.htm

Social and Emotional Problems Related to Dyslexia
Depression is also a frequent complication in dyslexia. Although most dyslexics are not depressed, children with this kind of learning disability are at higher risk for intense feelings of sorrow and pain. Perhaps because of their low self-esteem, dyslexics are afraid to turn their anger toward their environment and instead turn it toward themselves.

However, depressed children and adolescents often have different symptoms than do depressed
adults. The depressed child is unlikely to be lethargic or to talk about feeling sad. Instead he or she may become more active or misbehave to cover up the painful feelings. In the case of masked depression, the child may not seem
obviously unhappy. However, both children and adults who are depressed tend to have three similar characteristics:

▪ First, they tend to have negative thoughts about themselves, i.e. a negative self-image.

▪ Second, they tend to view the world negatively. They are less likely to enjoy the positive experiences in life. This makes it difficult for them to have fun.

▪ Finally, most depressed youngsters have great trouble imagining anything positive about the future. The depressed dyslexic not only experiences great pain in his present experiences, but also foresees a life of continuing failure.
http://www.interdys.org/FactSheets.htm

Children with both dyslexia and ADD are at dramatically increased risk for substance abuse and felony convictions if they do not receive appropriate interventions.
http://www.dys-add.com/nowknow.html

Patients with schizophrenia are likely to have problems reading,
reveals a study that shows some may even have impairments similar to
those seen in patients with dyslexia.
www.patienthealthinternational.com/ncm.aspx

The ability to recognize objects is a fundamental cognitive task in
every sensory modality, e.g., for friend/foe discrimination, social
communication, reading, or hearing, and its loss or impairment is
associated with a number of neural disorders (e.g., in autism,
dyslexia, or schizophrenia).
http://neuro.georgetown.edu/faculty/riesenhuber.htm

History: Most children who develop schizophrenia have disturbances of
behavior and cognition prior to the onset of characteristic symptoms
of psychosis. Delays in speech and language and delays in acquisition
of motor milestones are noted in approximately one half of these
children. Children who develop schizophrenia have higher rates of
impaired social skills and school achievement prior to presenting
signs of schizophrenia
www.emedicine.com/ped/topic2057.htm
(Delays in Speech and language are signs of Dyslexia,Dyspraxia,and
Autism. Delays in acquisition of motor milestones are signs of
Dyspraxia. Impaired social skills are signs of Aspergers,Autistics.
Impaired school achievement is common in Dyslexics,Dyspraxics,ADHDers.)

Language Disorder In Schizophrenia As A Developmental Disorder by Ruth
Condray
Language disorder is increasingly understood to be an important
characteristic of schizophrenia. The
hypothesis advanced here is that receptive language disorder in
schizophrenia represents a learning
disorder that involves a neurodevelopmental etiology. It is argued
that receptive language disorder may
involve a preexisting developmental reading disorder for a subgroup of
schizophrenia patients. Whether the
language disorder of schizophrenia is equivalent,phenotypically and
etiologically, to the language
disorder of dyslexia is an open question. Although schizophrenia and
dyslexia are separate clinical
disorders, independent lines of evidence are suggestive of parallels
between their hallmark features,
cognitive dysfunction, and potential pathophysiology.
http://www.wpic.pitt.edu/research/biometrics/Publications/Biometrics%20Archives%20PDF/890-2005%20Condary%20Sz%20Res%20Lang%20Disord.pdf

ADHD and Antipsychotic Drugs
Studies conducted at Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn.,
suggest that the drugs are routinely prescribed for attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp

More research needed
There has been little carefully controlled, long-term research on
children taking most psychiatric drugs, including the atypical
antipsychotics. The FDA is trying to get more pediatric research on
the atypicals, says Thomas Laughren, the agency's director of the
psychiatry products division.
The FDA has asked five pharmaceutical companies that make the drugs to
test them in children with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, the
uses they're approved for in adults. Under law, they can get a
six-month extension on their patents for doing these studies.
Also, the drug companies are doing their own pediatric studies on
children with disorders as diverse as ADHD, autism, conduct disorder
and Tourette's syndrome.
Janssen LP has applied to the FDA for approval to use its atypical
antipsychotic, Risperdal, in the treatment of symptoms of autism, says
Ramy Mahmoud, vice president of medical affairs for Janssen.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2006-05-01-adult-antipsychotics-kids_x.htm

July 1, 2005 -- The antipsychotic drug Risperdal may cut aggressive
behavior in children with autism.
That effect was reported in The American Journal of Psychiatry.
Researchers including James McCracken, MD, of the University of
California at Los Angeles (UCLA), studied Risperdal and autism.
http://www.webmd.com/brain/autism/news/20050701/antipsychotic-drug-may-help-kids-with-autism

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26taurus
Knowflake

Posts: 12694
From: *
Registered: Jun 2004

posted January 26, 2008 12:10 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for 26taurus     Edit/Delete Message
wow.

Thanks again.

I'm sending all of these articles to my mother.

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