What is the causes ADHD?

Experts believe ADHD is partly due to an imbalance of chemicals that transmit messages to the brain and partly because the areas of the brain that affect behaviour aren’t working properly.

The main factors are:

1. The child’s temperament, which affects attitude and personality.
2. A genetic link - recent studies show that 80-90 per cent of the risk for ADHD is genetic. This is why ADHD tends to run in families.
3. Brain injury, either pre-birth or due to trauma during birth (this is a small percentage of cases).

Certain aspects of the family environment are found more often in children with ADHD, eg family stress. It isn’t clear if these factors can cause ADHD. They may just increase the likelihood that ADHD will develop in a child who is already genetically prone to it.

ADHD is not caused by:

Poor parenting. Parenting styles can affect your child’s behaviour though and, in turn, can affect your ability to manage difficult behaviour.
Diet, although dietary supplements such as fish oil may help.