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The title of this
year’s conference shows an emphasis on finding out what makes the
prognosis of this disorder good and what can be done towards that goal
More than one thousand persons attended this year’s
conference, many of them from foreign countries —beeing as usual
quite diverse—:mostly ADHD persons’ parents and professionals from
the many areas that deal with this disorder. This review, by
necessity, will be limited to the activities in which
Beatriz Duda —APDA’s president— and myself participated.
Among the
Special
Training for Professionals’ sessions on Wednesday 26, there was a
workshop on Skills for coaching adults with AD/HD, held by Jodi
Sleeper-Triplett and Sandy Maynard, which dealt with how to motivate
adults with this disorder, for coaching to be effective. There were also
interesting half-day conferences
on Neuropsychological research and clinical best practices
in the assessment of AD/HD and on Advanced
treatment of AD/HD —both of them across the lifespan—, given
by CHADD President Anne Teeter Ellison, Margaret
Semrud-Clikeman and Sam Goldstein.
In the half-day
Pre-conference Institutes —in the morning of Thursday 27—, Arthur
Robin gave an excellent lecture on Helping adults with AD/HD
succeed in marriage and
parenting; he talked about the day-to-day problems in families
with one or more AD/HD members, and what strategies are useful for
success. Stephen Pliszka gave a well balanced view of AD/HD and
comorbid disorders: diagnosis and treatment.
On Thursday afternoon the
Iberoamerican Forum was held. Orlando Villegas lectured on Opositional
defiant disorder and Conduct disorder. I presented the results of
a study on AD/HD teaching in medical school in Peru (www.deficitdeatencionperu.org/estudioperu.htm). María Teresa Hill —the reelected president of
the Forum— and Gabriela Delgado Paulsen presented the project of a
suvey on how much teachers in Iberoamerica know about AD/HD; the study
will produce a guide for teachers.
The opening keynote address
—with massive attendance— was on Thurday evening on The bully,
the bullied and the bystander, given by Barbara Coloroso, a
well-known lecturer and author of books on education.
In the morning of Friday 28
—in the main conference room— James Swanson lectured on the
molecular aspects of AD/HD; among other aspects, he talked about a
seven repeat mutation of the D4 dopamine receptor, which is present in
many people with AD/HD and seems to confer an evolutionary advantge.
Among other lecturers, he made fun of Tom Cruise, who is well known
for his ridiculous comments on Ritalin, AD/HD and related issues.
On
Friday afternoon, Glen Elliott handled in a very neat way the drug
treatment for the core symptoms of AD/HD.
Sam Goldstein —despite not having technical equipment for this lecture— presented a good review on what can be done to
encourage resiliency, the master key for success for those who have
AD/HD (resilience, a concept borrowed from Physics, is the ability to
overcome adversity).
In
the evening, the Networking sessions by track (Interest group)
were held; we attended the Spanish language and
culture/International, facilitated by José Bauermeister, which
had a remarkable attendance —mostly by iberoamericans— where
common interest subjets for our countries were discussed. Concern was
expressed about the declarations by fake experts who question the
scientific facts on the diagnosis and treatmento of AD/HD and hereby
uselessly confuse and alarm people who are not well informed
In the morning of Saturday
29 —in the main conference room— Sam Goldstein, a remarkable
lecturer, presented testimonies of people who have succeeded through
resilience; he also mentioned that beside them, many failed to do so.
In the Research symposium, Marshalyn Yeargin-Allsopp announced
the National Children’s Study —in which AD/HD will also be
studied— with the participation of 100,000 pregnat women and
children, which will be followed-up
until age 21 years, whose
preliminary results will be known in the years 2010-2011; the cost
of the study will be 2.7 billion dollars of federal funds. The morinig
research session concluded with Regina Bussing’s study which showed
that women and ethnic minorities have fewer chances of having a correct
diagnosis and treatment for their AD/HD.
On Saturday afternoon, Thomas
Brown lectured —with his well-known ability— on the Dilemmas in
the treatment of complicated cases of AD/HD, and Chris Zeigler
Dendy handled, with great efficiency, Developing an educational
plan to address executive function deficits.
CHADD's 18th Annual
International Conference on AD/HD State of the Art: Science and
Research in Practice
was annouced, which will be held
on October 25-28, 2006, in Chicago. U.S.A.
CHADD’s conferences,
besides offering up-to-date knowledge, make possible to meet people from all over the
world —especially
from Iberoamerica in our case—, with affinity and comon interests.
We were pleased to meet Isabel Rubió, president of ADANA,
and to see again Ernestina Pergolini, president of Fundación
TDAH from Argentina, Doris Ryffel, and Norma Echavarría; we are
thankful to the latter for the article of AD/HD in women, which she
has sent us for our December newsletter. We were sorry that Michael
Finkel and Rubén Scandar could not attend the conference.
Link to a review of
CHADD’s 2004 conference (in Spanish): http://www.deficitdeatencionperu.org/Chadd.htm
* Founding advisor
neurologilst to the Peruvian Association for Attention Deficit (APDA).
The original Spanish text ot
this review may be read at: http://www.deficitdeatencionperu.org/Chadd2005.htm
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