ADHD Symptoms & Medication: Why It's Important To Prevent Head Trauma In Kids, Study Links Injuries To Attention Problems

A recent study published in Pediatrics has discovered that kids, who experience traumatic injuries to the head including minor injuries, are most likely to have attention problems.

According to a report by the Washington Post, VU University Amsterdam doctoral candidate, Marsh Konigs, described the impact of trauma as "very short lapses in focus, causing children to be slower."

The study involved two groups of children aged six to 13 years old. The first group of 113 kids has experienced TBI while the other group of 53 kids have not experienced TBI, only body-related injuries.

With an average period of one-and-a-half years after the injury, kids who have TBI are found to have attention and internalizing problems such as anxiety, higher than those without TBI.

Externalizing problems like aggression are also higher for kids with TBI, according to a report from Reuters.

The researchers have observed that the TBI group exhibited a marked slower response time. 

There is also a difference between effects of "mild" and "moderate to severe" TBI. Ninety-one participating kids have moderate to severe TBI -- they lost consciousness for a period of time not less than 30 minutes and have post-traumatic amnesia for at least an hour. This groups has scored lower on IQ tests and exhibited more attention lapses than those with mild TBI.

The study also notes that kids with mild TBI and extra risk factors including post-injury headache, vomiting or seizures, also have lower IQ scores and increased lapses of attention.

However, according to MedIndia, though the study findings suggest an association between TBI and lapses in attention, there is no proof of a "direct cause-and-effect relationship."

Konigs explain that prescriptions for those with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) will also benefit kids with attention deficiencies related to TBI, MedIndia further reports.

Konigs, in the Reuters report, said that it will be unlikely for the problems to resolve themselves over time. Attention problems have been seen in adults after TBI. 

According to Dr. Bradley L. Schlaggar, head of the Division of Pediatric and Developmental Neurology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, researchers have known for more than 15 years now that "secondary attention deficit hyperactivity disorder" can develop after brain injury in children.

"The kinds of daily life problems caused by attention deficits, internalizing behaviors, and externalizing behaviors are numerous and fairly self-evident," Schlaggar tells Reuters Health via email. "An impulsive child who is aggressive will have difficulty with relationships, with school performance, with participation in extracurricular activities, and so forth."