Dria Fearn quickly typed away at her computer screen on what
would have otherwise been a lazy Sunday afternoon during Memorial
Day weekend. In addition to studying for finals and serving on
several committees, Fearn recently had to get retested for
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder ““ a condition she
was diagnosed with in grade school ““ because she will be
taking the LSAT examination soon. People generally have to get
retested before taking a standardized test to safeguard against
people who take advantage of the system to get more time. Fearn,
the president of the Disabled Students Union, is one of 131
students at UCLA with ADHD or the related condition, Attention
Deficit Disorder, according to the Office for Students with
Disabilities 2001-2002 Annual Report. Though symptoms differ from
person to person, people with AD/HD are typically easily
distracted, impulsive and restless. After repeated behavior
problems before the first grade ““ her kindergarten teacher
told her she would fail her for her behavior ““ Fearn went to
get tested for AD/HD. Fearn said early intervention, which included
taking ritalin, a common drug used to treat AD/HD, enabled her and
her family to treat her condition effectively. Ritalin is usually a
valuable medicine when it is used as prescribed, but it
doesn’t always help everyone. “Most people who take
ritalin get some improvement, but it’s not a perfect drug by
any means ““ some people don’t respond or get any
improvement,” said Stanley Nelson, a human genetics professor
working on the genetic components of AD/HD. But the answers for who
can benefit the most from ritalin can come from reading the
genes.
Nelson is working under the theory that if someone has
disruptive behavior that is causing problems, there have to be
genes that causes that behavior. By studying the genes, researchers
can differentiate between the people who would benefit from taking
ritalin and the people who would be better off without medication.
In addition, studying the genetics behind AD/HD would help
researchers define the disorder better. A standard test for AD/HD
compares a person’s inattentiveness or hyperactivity with the
rest of the population. “Exactly where we would draw the line
is slightly arbitrary,” Nelson said. “How you diagnose
it is clearly spelled out. How the criteria is drawn out is
arbitrary.” Nelson said he thinks more work should be done on
defining AD/HD and says all the clues can be found in the genetic
components. Nelson’s work tries to determine the genetic
variations in genes would make some people predisposed to
developing AD/HD. For example, though we all have the same genes,
those genes can appear with different sequences. Some of these
variants cause different eye colors. Other variants underlie a
susceptibility to develop diabetes or, as Nelson hypothe-
sizes, AD/HD. Additionally, with a condition as complicated as
AD/HD, which includes several factors, researchers have to look for
all the traits associated with the disorder when they are studying
the genes, said Human Genetics Professor Rita Cantor, who is also
looking at the genetics behind AD/HD. “AD/HD is a cultural
issue,” she said. “What would be a disorder in one
society might not be a disorder in another society,” Cantor
continued, adding that she doesn’t think AD/HD is a disorder.
Nevertheless, she is still confident that she will find the genes
she is looking for. But the task is large. There are about 40,000
genes in the human genome ““ Nelson’s team has reduced
the possible areas to about 400 genes. “I am completely
confident that we are going to find it; it is a matter of time and
resources that we can focus on the problem,” Nelson said.