Does anyone know Is ADHD heredity?

Heredity is the most common cause of ADHD. Most of our information about the heritability of ADHD comes from family studies, adoption studies, twin studies and molecular genetic research.

Family Studies: If a trait has a genetic basis we would expect the rate of occurrence to be higher with the biological family members (e.g., brown-eyed people tend to have family members with brown eyes). Dr. Joseph Biederman (1990) and his colleagues at the Massachusetts General Hospital have studied families of children with ADHD. They have learned that ADHD runs in families. They found that over 25% of the first-degree relatives of the families of ADHD children also had ADHD, whereas this rate was only about 5% in each of the control groups. Therefore, if a child has ADHD there is a five-fold increase in the risk to other family members.

It really depends on whether the person you ask leans towards the nature or nurture argument in psychology. Either way, there is an increased chance, just like their is an increased risk of the child having ADHD/ADD if the child is male.

Carol -

This is a great question, and I am sorry you are getting such mixed feedback. While someone has correctly pointed out that we do NOT yet know the cause of ADHD, we are quite knowledgeable about the condition in a general sense.

To answer your question, from the research literature, there is a 77% chance that a child will have ADD / ADHD if one parent has the condition.

Although we can not predict whether a child will inherit the condition, we do know that it is in fact hereditary. If you ask about the remaining 23%, we don't know what happens there. If you ask about other conditions contributing to the cause of ADD / ADHD, it's true we do not know.

There is much debate about whether ADD / ADHD is caused from environmental factors such as pesticides, toxins, or whether it is more naturally caused from smoking during pregnancy, etc...

The cause of ADD / ADHD is a great mystery that fuels the ongoing debate and controversy whether it is a real condition.

Hope this helps.

Rory

Rory F. Stern, PsyD

Author, Help Your Child [With ADHD] Succeed

http://www.helpyouradhdchild.com/

Get Your Free ADHD Essentials Audio Course

http://www.adhdessentialskit.com/

Here's some other info I found on the web from a trust source:

Heredity is the most common cause of ADHD. Most of our information about the heritability of ADHD comes from family studies, adoption studies, twin studies and molecular genetic research.

Family Studies: If a trait has a genetic basis we would expect the rate of occurrence to be higher with the biological family members (e.g., brown-eyed people tend to have family members with brown eyes). Dr. Joseph Biederman (1990) and his colleagues at the Massachusetts General Hospital have studied families of children with ADHD. They have learned that ADHD runs in families. They found that over 25% of the first-degree relatives of the families of ADHD children also had ADHD, whereas this rate was only about 5% in each of the control groups. Therefore, if a child has ADHD there is a five-fold increase in the risk to other family members.

Adoption Studies: If a trait is genetic, adopted children should resemble their biological relatives more closely than they do their adoptive relatives. Studies conducted by psychiatrist Dr. Dennis Cantwell compared adoptive children with hyperactivity to their adoptive and biological parents. Hyperactive children resembled their biological parents more than they did their adoptive parents with respect to hyperactivity.

Twin Studies: Another way to determine if there is a genetic basis for a disorder is by studying large groups of identical and non-identical twins. Identical twins have the exact same genetic information while non-identical twins do not. Therefore, if a disorder is transmitted genetically, both identical twins should be affected in the same way and the concordance rate—the probability of them both being affected—should be higher than that found in non-identical twins. There have been several major twin studies in the past few years that provide strong evidence that ADHD is highly heritable. They have had remarkably consistent results in spite of the fact that they were done by different researchers in different parts of the world. In one such study, Dr. Florence Levy and her colleagues studied 1,938 families with twins and siblings in Australia. They found that ADHD has an exceptionally high heritability as compared to other behavioral disorders. They reported an 82 percent concordance rate for ADHD in identical twins as compared to a 38 percent concordance rate for ADHD in non-identical twins.

Molecular Genetic Research: Twins studies support the hypothesis of the important contribution that genes play in causing ADHD, but these studies do not identify specific genes linked to the disorder. Genetic research in ADHD has taken off in the past five years. This research has focused on specific genes that may be involved in the transmission of ADHD. Dopamine genes have been the starting point for investigation. Two dopamine genes, DAT1 and DRD4 have been reported to be associated with ADHD by a number of scientists. Genetic studies revealed promising results, and we should look for more information about this soon.

It is not heredity. I am the only one in my family that has it. My Mother nor my father never had it. Just me. It just happens. So if either you or the father has it you will not pass it on to the baby.

Yes, there is a possibility that your child can receive ADHD from a parent. My daughter has it, she's super hyper and needs medication to keep her calm so she can focus. Her dad has it, from child through adulthood.

It is not herdeitary.

There is not known cause of ADHD.

I know that stupidity is inherited. 100 % sure.