Immune System Gene Tied to ADHD By Adam Marcus (HealthScoutNews) - Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD comments on late-breaking research on the invented, fraudulent “disease” ADHD.

 Tuesday January 08 02:47 AM EST
 Immune System Gene Tied to ADHD
 By Adam Marcus
 HealthScoutNews Reporter

 MONDAY, Jan. 7 (HealthScoutNews) -- Scientists hunting for genetic links to
 attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) say they've found a novel
 lead: A variation in an immune system gene may be tied to the behavior
 problem.

[Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
as always ADHD "researchers"--"scientists" announce they have found an
abnormal gene--the abnormal genotype--the say causes the abnormal
"phenotype" they say is ADHD. This does not square with the 11/98 testimony
of Professor William Carey at the NIH Consensus conference,who, finding no
proof of a physical or chemical abnormality (same thing as abnormal
phenotype) concluded:

  "...common assumptions about ADHD include that it is clearly
   distinguishable from normal behavior, constitutes a neurodevelopmental
   disability, is relatively uninfluenced by the environment... All of these
   assumptions...must be challenged because of the weakness of empirical
   (research) support and the strength of contrary evidence...What is now
   most often described as ADHD in the United States appears to be a set of
   normal behavioral variations... This discrepancy leaves the validity of
   the construct in doubt..."

Nor has proof that the children (adults too) are other than normal
yet been found, not stopping them one bit, however, from drugging each
and every one--by court order if need be.]

 The discovery by Israeli researchers centers on molecules that block a
 substance called interleukin-1 (IL-1), a key actor in the adult brain. It
 protects neurons as they age, and guards against various non-immune
 stresses. The protein also appears to be involved in setting up the
 development of neurons early in life, encouraging the healthy growth of
 brain cells that secrete and respond to dopamine -- a vital brain chemical
 implicated in ADHD.

[Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
this is a classic shell game: while they regale you with talk of a
cause or causes, not found, or just found, or almost found, what they
fail to tell you all the while is that they have yet to find an
abnormality (abnormality = disease) and that without an abnormality
their is no disease, the child, the child's phenotype (adult, adult's
phenotype) is normal. No physical abnormality]

 Earlier studies have pointed to other genes that regulate brain activity in
 ADHD, which affects between 3 percent and 5 percent of American
 schoolchildren. However, the latest study, which appears in the January
 issue of Molecular Psychiatry, is the first to suggest that the immune
 system may play a role.

 Russell Barkley, an ADHD expert at the University of Massachusetts in
 Worcester, says the link is plausible. Mounting evidence shows that children
 with the disorder are more prone to allergies and autoimmune ailments,
 Barkley says.

[Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
Making Barkley an "expert" in a disease that does not exist. Ever
since the invention of ADD in 1980 for the DSM III, evidence of its
existence has been "mounting," "converging lines of evidence" have been
suggesting, this that and the other thing about ADHD and all the while
proof of its existence has never been presented--not in a single one of
the 6 million normal US children said to have it. The pharmaceutical
industry, psychiatry and all organized medicine (lead by medical
academia) and agents and agencies of the US Government have conspired to
make unending millions believe they have "diseases" mental " diseases"
to make "patients" out of them. ]

 Moreover, because ADHD is at least partly due to problems with
 dopamine, an immune gene flaw that interrupts that messaging system connects
 two dots.

 "It's all very tentative, but their results are not farfetched," he says.
 To date, the most compelling genetic link to ADHD has been the association
 between a dopamine gene mutation and the behavior disorder. Barkley says he
 knows of at least 16 labs that are exploring the molecular genetics of ADHD.

 "There are many sub-types [of ADHD], and it's likely that different genes
 are going to be related to different variations of the disorder," he says.
 In the latest study, Ronen Segman, a psychiatrist at Hadassah-Hebrew
 University Medical Center in Jerusalem, and his colleagues looked for genes
 tied to ADHD in 86 children with the condition and their parents. They saw
 that a particular gene variation in IL-1 receptor antagonists (IL-1Ra) --
 molecules that prevent brain cells from interacting with interleukin -- was
 commonly transmitted to affected children.

 They also saw that children with ADHD were less likely to inherit a
 different form of the receptor-blocker gene, suggesting that gene might have
 a protective effect.

 Dr. Julio Lucinio, a psychiatrist at the University of California in Los
 Angeles, discovered in 1991 that the brain produced its own interleukin
 antagonists, leading him to speculate that the substances might play a role
 in mental disorders.

 Lucinio, who now edits Molecular Psychiatry, says the Israeli discovery
 could lead to new therapies for ADHD, although it may be the case that once
 the mutation occurs, damage to the brain's interleukin system is
 irreversible. On the other hand, he says, ADHD is marked by spurts of
 disruptive behavior and it might be possible to even those out with a drug
 that compensates for the gene variations.

 The Israeli researchers looked only at how frequently these genes were
 passed from parent to child, not how common they are in the general
 population. So it's impossible to know what percentage of patients with ADHD
 carry the suspect variation. "I think that future work should try to look at
 what is the contribution of this variation to ADHD," Lucinio says.
 Dr. Pierandrea Muglia, a University of Toronto psychiatrist who specializes
 in the genetics of mental and behavioral disorders, says the Israeli work
 underscores the importance of taking a broad view of the origins of ADHD.
 
 "The brain is wired in a very complicated way, so every system might be
 implicated in some way," Muglia says. However, he adds that the study's
 relatively small size and the likely modest effect of the gene variations on
 the risk of ADHD dilute the strength of its conclusions.

 What To Do

 ADHD can persist into adulthood if untreated. To learn more about the
 condition, visit Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity
 Disorder