Health
ADHD link to early head injury studied
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Nov. 24, 2008
Head injuries in young children are not a cause of attention-deficit hyperactivity/disorder, but early injury may be associated with a subsequent diagnosis of ADHD, concludes a study published online Nov. 6 in the British Medical Journal.
Children who go on to develop ADHD may exhibit more risk-taking behaviors when young and are therefore more likely to experience early injuries, the authors suggest.
Their study included more than 62,000 children seen at 308 general practices in the U.K. between 1988 and 2003. They compared three groups of children younger than 2 -- those with medically attended head injury, those who had a medically attended burn or scald without a head injury and noninjured children.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2008/11/24/hlbf1124.htm.