ADHD-High IQ ADHD

  In 2010, I was a master’s student in child psychiatry in Changsha, and my graduation project was on the comprehensive treatment of ADHD in children. We worked with a neighboring elementary school to screen children with hyperactivity and emotional problems in the school and then provide further intervention.  That day I went to the teacher’s office with the school’s director to collect questionnaires and saw a boy standing in the office with a stern, angry face, and the teacher seemed to be doing some thinking with him. I understood from their conversation that this boy was sent to the class teacher’s office because he was fighting with his classmates and when a teacher came to pull him he threw a tantrum, kicked things around and said he wanted to jump down from the building.  After collecting the questionnaires, we analyzed and tallied the data, screened out the children who might have behavior problems, and then went to the school to conduct one-on-one interviews with these children. During the interview, I saw him again. The screening results showed that he might have hyperactivity and emotional problems, and I conducted a DAWBA interview with him to get a general idea of his situation.  His name is C. He is nine years old, in the fourth grade, and lives with his mom, dad, and grandmother. c is very talkative, speaks quickly and with precision, and tells things very clearly. When he spoke, he gestured a lot and got up from his chair from time to time. In between answering my questions, he told me a lot about himself with great interest: he told me that only one side of his eyebrows could move because he slipped in the bathroom when he was a child and got a cut on the top of one eye, and if he had been a little more off, his eye might have been blind; he did well in his studies and thought he was quite popular; he liked to play computer games The results of the interview showed that he had some separation anxiety, hyperactivity and irritability, and his language skills showed that he had very good intelligence.  Because C was again acting out of school and talking about suicide during his tantrums, his teacher suggested that his parents bring him to our hospital, and after our evaluation, C was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. His hyperactivity was very obvious: he talked a lot and always rushed to answer before I finished asking questions; he could not sit quietly during the conversation, jumped up and down in the consultation room, and danced around when talking about games; his teachers reported that he did not pay attention to lectures, was not interested in learning, and was easily distracted in class; he was more adventurous, so he was prone to accidents; he was very impulsive, stubborn when losing his temper, did not listen to persuasion, and often said he wanted to C’s family environment also has some problems: C has a lot of confrontational behavior towards his father, and his grandmother always helps him to confront his father together, making it difficult for his father to manage. At the same time, we found that C also has strengths and advantages: his IQ is 130, which is very good, and he has good language skills; he does not lose his temper is very reasonable, and he has a good relationship with his classmates; his evaluation of his classmates is basically positive; he likes knowledge of science and technology, and he knows a lot in this area; he sings very well and is studying professional voice, and he hopes to become a singer in the future.  After the diagnosis, we treated C with a comprehensive treatment, on the one hand, systematic medication. C’s parents had many concerns about the medication and worried about the side effects; C did experience a loss of appetite while taking the medication, but it was not serious. The interesting thing is that C himself insisted on taking the medication and he thought it would help him. On the other hand, we gave talks about ADHD at school and gave books on ADHD to school teachers to give them some knowledge on how to manage children with ADHD; we also gave some guidance to parents, but no systematic behavioral treatment was done because his parents were not actively involved.  C made progress with a combination of school, family and hospital interventions, parents and teachers were happy and C himself saw his progress, unfortunately soon I graduated and left Changsha.  A few days ago I saw an essay contest on the website: Me and my little ADHD friend. I thought of him again. This bright and lively child left a deep impact on me, so I called his teachers and parents to find out how he was doing. Unfortunately, his treatment was interrupted after he entered the fifth grade. His teachers reported that he was still unable to study seriously, and his grades were at an intermediate level because the curriculum of the upper grades included more things that needed to be memorized, and he often had difficulty completing them, which affected his grades; his temper improved, but he still sometimes lost his temper, and when he lost his temper, he still acted outwardly and was very impulsive. However, his parents were satisfied with his situation and thought that he had made great progress, and his tantrums were significantly less frequent, and they were also satisfied with his grades.  It is indeed a matter of regret that children with high IQs can also have ADHD, which often limits the development of these children, who could have developed very well. A comprehensive intervention with school, family, and hospital cooperation will undoubtedly yield the best results.