Post #6: Caffeine and ADHD

This week I found an article discussing the effects of the caffeine in tea on Adult ADHD. WARNING: THIS IS ONLY A HYPOTHESIS AND HAS NOT BEEN TESTED. It is called Tea Consumption maybe an effective active treatment for adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and it was published in the Mental Health Center of West China Hospital at Sichuan University in Chengdu, PR China. Tea is a stimulant (because of its caffeine) that can increase people’s motivation, alertness, concentration, and cognitive performance. This report suggests that drinking tea may be an effective treatment for ADHD.

The report states that the biggest problem seen in adult patients is trouble organizing and completing necessary tasks related to either higher education or employment. Adult patients with ADHD have higher rates of car accidents and increased rates of divorce, and also a higher prevalence of anxiety, depression, drug abuse and antisocial behaviors than the general population. “1-36% of adults who met the criteria for ADHD as children will continue to manifest symptoms into adulthood.”

Usual treatment for ADHD involves medication and therapy. The most effective medications for ADHD are stimulants. Stimulants improve symptoms like short attention span, impulsiveness, and hyperactivity. A different study that is referenced in this study demonstrated that methylphenidate can be beneficial to certain aspects of driving. Because the chemistry of everybody’s body is different, it can be very difficult for find the correct drug, never mind the correct dose of a drug that causes the least amount of side effects. This leaves many adults still suffering.

It has been proven in many studies that caffeine has a positive effect on endurance and fatigue. “Caffeine improves mood and enhances psychomotor and cognitive performance in healthy volunteers, particularly on tasks measuring typing speed, simple reaction time, sustained attention, memory and logical reasoning, as well as simulated driving.” It is a known fact that ADHD is in large part caused by an energetic dysfunction. Stimulants help to regulate the arousal level in children with adhd. In a study done on rats with memory deficits, it was shown that caffeine prevents the deficits in memory performance. “The research indicated that caffeine in low dosage when added to methylphenidate was superior to all other treatment conditions.”  Caffeine is useful for manipulating arousal.

Tea, unless it is decaf, contains caffeine. Normal tea contains more caffeine than coffee when in dry form. Tea contains “two caffeine metabolites: theophylline, which is a stronger stimulant than caffeine, and theobromine, which is slightly weaker than caffeine.” “The caffeine in tea can increase the excitability of the CNS, so to help people boost morale, improve thinking and memory, increase attention, eliminate fatigue and improve work efficiency.”

An ointment based on green tea was added to the “Prescription Drug Product List” by NDA in 2006.

http://www.sciencedirect.com.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/science/article/pii/S0306987710003531