The third global ADHD conference was recently held in Tel Aviv. The conference, initiated by the Society for Attention Deficit Disorder and led by Prof. Iris Manor, was attended by 250 leading physicians from Israel and around the world. The conference included a variety of lectures on attention deficit disorder with all the latest innovations and updates in the field.
Prof. Iris Manor, chair of the Society for Attention Deficit Disorder, addressed the effects of the corona in her lecture, entitled “Two years of the corona – the plague that shook the world.” The psychiatrist explained that “Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is one of the risk factors for contracting the coronavirus. People with medically untreated attention deficit disorder were 68% more likely to be infected with corona, compared with corona patients without ADHD. The corona plague has caused a significant challenge among caregivers of children with attention deficit disorders and as a result of the corona plague caregivers of children with attention deficit disorders have reported significantly higher levels of depression, anxiety and stress compared to caregivers of children without attention deficit disorders across the United States. “The difficulties that the caregivers encountered in managing the children’s attention disorders were clearly related to the patients’ general poor mental health condition.”
In summarizing her remarks, Prof. Manor presented a number of positive points or even advantages that the corona plague brought with it and they are: technological development, medical breakthrough and creativity in many areas.
Prof. Itai Berger, a pediatric neurologist who is one of the leaders in the field in Israel, focused his lecture on attention deficit disorder in women and is it necessary to treat attention deficit disorder differently according to gender?
He said, “In recent years, attention deficit disorder in women has become a major issue and there is a underdiagnosis in girls and women. The prevalence is 1: 10-16 between boys and girls (more boys are diagnosed), but since they did not look for ADHD in girls – did not find it! Boys are diagnosed with more hyperactivity and impulsivity while girls have academic difficulties. Women are diagnosed with more anxiety and depression – probably due to underdiagnosis of attention deficit disorder. Other criteria for boys and girls may be needed. Girls are later diagnosed with boys – even in the same family, so the criteria are not always tailored to women. Women will sometimes feel bad mothers, bad students, lazy – this is a perception that characterizes an undiagnosed attention deficit disorder. “Many times laziness, lack of motivation or lack of potential is actually an attention deficit disorder that was missed in girls / women.”
Prof. Stephen Farron, one of the leaders in the field of attention deficit disorder in the world, lectured on the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies to detect attention deficit disorder based on small changes in the genome and assess who will have ADHD in the future. “Based on this information, it will be possible to find which patient is suitable for which drugs.”