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CNN Live Today

'Daily Dose'

Aired March 03, 2003 - 11:38   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: A new study says that some children diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, ADHD, may actually be getting tired because they have trouble sleeping.
Now, medical news correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is here with some details on this in our daily dose of health news this morning.

Kind of a mixed bag on this.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It is a mixed bag.

And what a lot of doctors and some parents have been concerned, they think that too many kids get diagnosed with having attention deficit hyperactivity disorder when maybe it's really something else. Maybe it's not actually ADHD.

So doctors did a study, and what they found among 5 to 7-year- olds with mild ADHD that half of them snored. And when you snore, that can lead to poor sleep quality, and a quarter had sleep apnea. Sleep apnea is when you wake up a little bit during the night, because you're breathing is actually blocked.

And they found in other studies that ADHD can get better after the sleep apnea is treated. So what does this all mean? Well, what this means is that perhaps there are some children who don't have ADHD. Perhaps they're just exhausted during the day, and because they're exhausted, they sort of act up. They kind of get fidgety during the day, they can't pay attention, simply because they didn't sleep. And maybe the reason they didn't sleep is that they were snoring. Snoring leads to poor sleep quality. Kids wake themselves up when they're snoring, or maybe they actually have a sleep apnea, and they're not breathing for short periods of time so that wakes them up.

And so the bottom line from doctors is, if your child has been diagnosed with ADHD. Watch them sleep. And if they do snore, bring them to their doctor, because they're are things they can do.

KAGAN: That's very interesting. Now let me ask you, does a doctor treat the snoring or sleep apnea with a child differently than they would with an adult, or what?

COHEN: No, some of the approaches are the same, and what a doctor would do, first of all, is they would ask the parents, do you smoke? Because the first thing that has to happen, is parents have to stop smoking, because that can help settle down some of these problems. The second thing, is if a child is overweight, they would have the child lose weight, because too many fat deposits around the neck can make it difficult for a child to sleep.

And third of all, sometimes if things are really bad, doctors will do tonsillectomies, take out the adenoids in order to help cure the sleep apnea or the snoring.

HARRIS: This may sound like a very simple question, but it's news to me, this thing about the smoking and the parents. What's the effect there?

COHEN: It just affects the child's breathing, if they're living in a house with smoke.

HARRIS: OK, got you. Now, in addition to this, with the ADHD, there's always a controversy about kids being overprescribed with Ritalin. Learning about this thing with the sleep, could this ease that problem?

COHEN: It could ease that problem, because in fact ADHD can be hard to diagnose. I mean, a lot of people disagree. Two doctors could look at one child, and one doctor could say, that child has ADHD, and the other one says, no, they don't. So many doctors think that Ritalin is overprescribed. Well, if this study turns out to be true, and that some of these kids may just be exhausted, well, they don't need Ritalin; they just need more sleep.

HARRIS: And that's easy to do.

COHEN: With some children.

HARRIS: With some children.

Not the one I got, I can tell you. Thanks, Elizabeth. Appreciate that.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired March 3, 2003 - 11:38   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: A new study says that some children diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, ADHD, may actually be getting tired because they have trouble sleeping.
Now, medical news correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is here with some details on this in our daily dose of health news this morning.

Kind of a mixed bag on this.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It is a mixed bag.

And what a lot of doctors and some parents have been concerned, they think that too many kids get diagnosed with having attention deficit hyperactivity disorder when maybe it's really something else. Maybe it's not actually ADHD.

So doctors did a study, and what they found among 5 to 7-year- olds with mild ADHD that half of them snored. And when you snore, that can lead to poor sleep quality, and a quarter had sleep apnea. Sleep apnea is when you wake up a little bit during the night, because you're breathing is actually blocked.

And they found in other studies that ADHD can get better after the sleep apnea is treated. So what does this all mean? Well, what this means is that perhaps there are some children who don't have ADHD. Perhaps they're just exhausted during the day, and because they're exhausted, they sort of act up. They kind of get fidgety during the day, they can't pay attention, simply because they didn't sleep. And maybe the reason they didn't sleep is that they were snoring. Snoring leads to poor sleep quality. Kids wake themselves up when they're snoring, or maybe they actually have a sleep apnea, and they're not breathing for short periods of time so that wakes them up.

And so the bottom line from doctors is, if your child has been diagnosed with ADHD. Watch them sleep. And if they do snore, bring them to their doctor, because they're are things they can do.

KAGAN: That's very interesting. Now let me ask you, does a doctor treat the snoring or sleep apnea with a child differently than they would with an adult, or what?

COHEN: No, some of the approaches are the same, and what a doctor would do, first of all, is they would ask the parents, do you smoke? Because the first thing that has to happen, is parents have to stop smoking, because that can help settle down some of these problems. The second thing, is if a child is overweight, they would have the child lose weight, because too many fat deposits around the neck can make it difficult for a child to sleep.

And third of all, sometimes if things are really bad, doctors will do tonsillectomies, take out the adenoids in order to help cure the sleep apnea or the snoring.

HARRIS: This may sound like a very simple question, but it's news to me, this thing about the smoking and the parents. What's the effect there?

COHEN: It just affects the child's breathing, if they're living in a house with smoke.

HARRIS: OK, got you. Now, in addition to this, with the ADHD, there's always a controversy about kids being overprescribed with Ritalin. Learning about this thing with the sleep, could this ease that problem?

COHEN: It could ease that problem, because in fact ADHD can be hard to diagnose. I mean, a lot of people disagree. Two doctors could look at one child, and one doctor could say, that child has ADHD, and the other one says, no, they don't. So many doctors think that Ritalin is overprescribed. Well, if this study turns out to be true, and that some of these kids may just be exhausted, well, they don't need Ritalin; they just need more sleep.

HARRIS: And that's easy to do.

COHEN: With some children.

HARRIS: With some children.

Not the one I got, I can tell you. Thanks, Elizabeth. Appreciate that.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com