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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP here -- since we're talking about studies, has anyone read the studies (albeit small sample size) of brain iron levels?  The brain iron levels of the never-medicated children was shown to be significantly less than the children taking medication and the children without ADHD.

Apparently, brain iron facilitates dopamine production- insufficient dopamine is the underlying cause of ADHD. This study worries me because long term iron deficiency can cause brain damage-- although I don't know if that is the case with brain iron. Additionally, low brain iron in these cases may be unresponsive to iron supplements because it appears to be an uptake issue- not a diet issue. All of this if I've interpreted the studies correctly. NIH is still out on this, but I saw the study in several reputable spots.

The researchers are looking for a bio marker for ADHD (to prevent misdiagnosis) and this one is looking promising. [/quote]

I'm the previous NIH poster. I just read some of these abstracts and they seem pretty interesting. It especially strikes me because my non-ADHD child had other issues that seemed to be related to deficient iron in some pathway level. While blood tests revealed normal iron, my child had a problem that scientific literature seemed to feel was somehow  related to poor iron absorption despite normal levels--and that supplementation of therapeutic iron helped. Despite our do for knowing nothing about this (as is often the case with lesser known studies), we started iron supplementation and the symptoms resolved. Again, this wasn't for ADHD, but it wouldn't shock me if deficient iron uptake from the blood was involved.[/quote]

OP here- agreed. I tried to sort through the blood iron, ferritin levels, and brain iron. NIH essentially said that blood and ferritin iron differences between non medicated (stimulant naive) children with ADHD are insignificant, but they are leaving the door open on the brain iron connection. The researchers apparently used an enhanced scan that picked up the brain levels. If this study is replicable, it may be the thing that would change my mind about giving stimulant medication now rather than later.

Anyway, this thread has been 99.9% civil and thoughtful, and I can't thank everyone enough. In the next few months, I may post the brain iron study as a point of interest. [/quote]

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