EEGs

[HooDunnit]

Has anyone heard of the use of EEGs in evaluating brain activity while on a stimulant medication (such as Ritalin) as opposed to a placebo?

Thanks

[HooDunnit]

I was talking to a nurse the other day, whose child was diagnosed with ADHD at about age 6. She was very leary of giving him Ritalin, and would not do so for a couple of years. Finally, she had an outside evaluation (she didn't want anything in the school files). Then she began her son on a low dose of Ritalin, short-acting, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. She said that it helps him overall. I asked her if it would be mostly placebo effect by now, and she said, "Not at all!!" When I asked her how she could rule that out, she said that she has switched him from time to time to a placebo and had EEGs done. She said that on the low-dosage of Ritalin, even after a couple of years, the EEG still shows increased brain activity, and a different type of activity than when he is on a placebo. The theory, of course, is that the stimulants will increase the activity of inhibitory neurons to the frontal lobes, leading to less distractibility and impulsivity, etc.

[buttercup]

I was on another board (for depression) and someone asked if EEGs are used to help diagnose ADHD. I actually had one in high school (about 1980) for some seizure-like symptoms. They said I didn't have epilepsy, but said that they did observe some unusual patterns and didn't know what to make of it basically. ADHD wasn't a term I had heard of back then, but is that what they could have been seeing? What are the differences between a "normal" brain and an ADHD brain in an EEG?

Is there another thread about this somwhere on this board? Or, does anyone have any other information?