Autism and Adhd - Overlapping and Discriminating Symptoms

Autism and ADHD: Overlapping and discriminating symptoms

This article demonstrates that there are differences between children that suffer from ADHD and those that are Autistic. The study documented in this article was done on 847 children between the ages of 2-16yrs old. A checklist for Autism Spectrum Disorders of 30 symptoms was compared against the symptoms of a child with ADHD. The tests showed that a child with autism had more than 15 symptoms versus a child with ADHD

Reference:

Susan Dickerson Mayes, Susan L. Calhoun, Rebecca D. Mayes, Sarah Molitoris, Autism and ADHD: Overlapping and discriminating symptoms, Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, Volume 6, Issue 1, January-March 2012, Pages 277-285, ISSN 1750-9467, 10.1016/j.rasd.2011.05.009.

(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1750946711001036)

Keywords: Autism; ADHD; Differential diagnosis

ADHD drugs do not cause sudden death, The New Scientist, Volume 212, Issue 2837, 5 November 2011, Page 4, ISSN 0262-4079, 10.1016/S0262-4079(11)626845.(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0262407911626845)

Research paper topic: Attention Deficit Hyper-Active Disorder (ADHD)

The topic I've chosen for my research paper is Attention Deficit Hyper-Active Disorder. I located this topic in our reading for week 2. I've chosen this topic because my desire after completing all my necessary degrees to become a psychologist is to concentrate on child psychology. It's widely known that children are often diagnosed with ADHD after exhibiting certain types of behaviors. It's also widely suspected that some children are misdiagnosed with ADHD and medicated unnecessarily. My desire to research ADHD is to learn more about the disease, what are the sign and symptoms and diagnosis. I'm also interested in alternatives to medication. Though my focus will be in children, I want to also include adult ADHD in my research because it's not something I've heard much about.

The other reason I've selected this topic is because we will cover it early in the class which will help me to get a head start on my research and a good foundation. I think to pick something discussed later in the class would make it harder to do the paper because it wouldn't have been covered yet, and to wait wouldn't give me ample time.