ADD and Risk of Prison

   “Although this statement will probably invite challenge, we strongly contend that our jails, prisons, and juvenile detention centers are full of ADD adolescents and adults.  After all, we are talking about risk takers, individuals who have no fear but who cannot foresee consequences.  It is easy to see that there is a recipe for disaster in that cluster of behaviors.  The child who is prone to get in trouble and prone to accidents because of taking risks is now a late adolescent or adult who takes a different risk.  The adult risks are bigger and the consequences greater.     There are not as many good follow-up studies as we would like to see, but the ones that are available are consistent in their findings. Brown and Borden did a study in 1986 which indicated that between 22 and 30 percent of hyperactive people engage in antisocial behavior.  That could mean five or six million, or even more, adolescents acting out in antisocial ways, and the best prediction for future behavior is past behavior.  Girtelman and colleagues found that antisocial behavior may be present in 20 to 45 percent of ADHD (attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. ADD with hyperactivity) children by the time they reach adulthood.  That study indicates that as many as 25 percent of adults with ADD or ADHD would meet the criteria for a psychiatric diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder.  The DSM-IV states “the  essential feature of Antisocial Personality Disorder is a pervasive pattern of disregard for,  and violation of, the rights of others that begins in childhood or early adolescence and continues into adulthood.”  Behaviors of this disorder include lying, stealing, impulsivity, aggression, recklessness, and lack of remorse.  From Getting Rid of Ritalin by Robert Hill, Ph.D. and Eduardo Castro, M.D.     Ideally, the ADD/ADHD personality receives neurofeedback training as a child, but many adults make great  behavioral mprovement with more training.  Drs. Kelsey