Eye Movements May Be Key Marker of ADHD
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iStock/Thinkstock(TEL AVIV, Israel) — Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is a serious behavioral disorder but as just as serious is the misdiagnosis of the condition, which can result in patients needlessly receiving the powerful stimulant Ritalin.
However, researchers from Tel Aviv University believe they have a foolproof way of knowing whether a child or adult is suffering from ADHD and that’s from observing involuntary eye movements.
Using participants diagnosed with ADHD and a control group without the disorder, the researchers had them take an ADHD diagnostic computer test.
The chief difference was that ADHD group was given the test both before and after taking Ritalin.
What Dr. Moshe Fried and his team observed was that those with ADHD were unable to suppress eye movements in anticipation of visual stimuli prior to their medication.
But once the Ritalin took effect, they could control their eye movement equally as well as the control group participants. According to Fried, “Eye movements tracked in this test are involuntary, so they constitute a sound physiological marker of ADHD,” making it a far more accurate gauge on whether someone is indeed afflicted with the disorder.
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