Thyroid Disorders: ADHD/Bipolar Copycat

In my first several posts I explored the new treatment regimes for ADD/ADHD and Bipolar diagnoses in children. If you haven't read those posts, please take a moment to read posts named
"Medicating Children for Behaviors" of June, 2009. In those posts, I discussed the new multi-medication treatments for ADD/ADHD and how this diagnosis is frequently evolving into a new diagnosis of Bipolar Disorder. Today, powerful antidepressant medications and antipsychotic medications seem to be regularly added to the prescribed stimulant medications in effort to combat symptoms of ADD/ADHD and Bipolar. All these medications I have seen prescribed regularly in children under the age of 6!

Something that you as parents should be aware of before any medications are prescribed is that the thyroid hormone plays a powerful role in emotions, thought and behavior. The thyroid gland is located in the front of the neck at the "adams apple". Every cell in the body depends upon thyroid hormones for regulation of their metabolism. Too much thyroid hormone is called hyperthyroidism; too little thyroid hormone is called hypothyroidism.

According to the Thyroid Foundation of Canada, hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism have symptoms that appear to look like mental illness. People with too much thyroid hormone may be anxious, impatient and irritable, and emotionally explosive. They may also be easily distracted, over active, sensitive to noise, have problems with sleep and appetite. In extreme cases,
they may appear schizophrenic, losing touch with reality and becoming delirious or hallucinating.

The Thyroid Foundation of Canada states that people with too little thyroid show slowing of mental processes, poor memory, loss of interest in activity, depression and paranoia, and eventually, if not treated, dementia and permanent harmful effects on the brain.

For each condition, people have been wrongly diagnosed and treated unsuccessfully for mental illness. Please review these symptoms again; note that symptoms of hyperthyroidism are very close if not exactly the symptoms of ADD/ADHD. Note also that the symptoms of hypothyroidism could easily be the symptoms of depression, and depending upon the activity level or effects on the brain, the symptoms of Bipolar Disorder.

Imagine the young child treated with a multitude of stimulants, antipsychotics and antidepressants when the undiagnosed problem is actually Thyroid disorder. Please keep this in mind if you are seeking medical help for a child with behavior difficulties.

Source: http://www.cchr.org/media/pdfs/The_Thyroid_and_the_Mind_and_Emotions_by_Awad_Professor_of_psychiatry.pdf