Studies have shown that almost 85 percent of prisoners suffer from Attention Deficit /Hyperactivity Disorder according to a visiting internationally renowned expert.

Dr. John Ratey is a practitioner in the field of child psychiatry and specialises in diagnosis and treatment of AD/HD.

He and his wife Nancy gave a presentation yesterday at the Ace Global Headquarters as guests of Learning Disabilities Association of Bermuda (LDAB), Bermuda Overcoming Learning Difficulties (BOLD) and the Bermuda Counsellors Association (BCA).

Dr. Ratey is also the author of ?A User?s Guide to the Brain?, and co-author of ?Driven to Distraction: Recognising and Coping with Attention Deficit Disorder from Childhood Through Adulthood?.

Dr. Ratey said most people with AD/HD would sit at one extreme of the social strata or the other.

?So people who are mavericks and do things their own way either end up being entrepreneurs, bringing in new ideas or they end up in jail,? said Dr. Ratey.

?Back in the 50s the first big studies were done in Pennsylvania and they found that 85 percent of the prisoners had a history consistent with what we would call ADD today, and what was known back then as Minimal Brain Disorder, or dyslexia or some kind of learning problem.?

Dr. Ratey was speaking with local expert Dr. Bente Lundh and both agreed on diet, modular and drug treatments.

The signs of ADD are distractibility, impulsivety, snapping and being hyperactive. Some sufferers are mainly just distracted and they tend to have what is called inattentive type of ADD.

?They are now being diagnosed a lot more in the United States, inattention not being able to stay focused not being able to stop yourself from noticing other things in the environment,? said Dr. Ratey.

?Certainly the classic is the child who can?t sit still in his chair and he can cause a lot of trouble that is another off shoot.?

Dr. Ratey compared modern times to when people lived on the plains.

He said: ?It was high energy, always moving, always changing your focus, and you survived better because you were a better hunter, that?s what we call ADD people and the none ADD people were the farmers who kept time and kept records.

?Our culture has changed and the environment has radically changed in the past 20 to 30 years, with the cyber world coming along.?

Dr. Ratey recommended fish oils and protein rather than carbohydrates for breakfast.

He also suggested exercise as it creates the same activity in the brain that the drugs do when treating AD/HD.

He and Dr. Lundh both said that the disorder was discovered in adults when they were diagnosing children.

Dr. Lundh said: ?As a paediatrician I have often had the parent say that someone else in the family has similar issues.

?You will get comments like they aren?t living up to their potential and often a parent would say ? ??I think they are talking about me?,? she said.

They said the treatment for adults is the same as for children except they are usually easier to treat.

Both doctors wanted to dispel the myth that if your child is medicated they would become a robotic automaton or move on to illegal substances.

Dr. Ratey said: ?In fact what the medicine does is to allow the brain to be more in control of the situation.

?You don?t want that and we don?t want that most of the kids are not automatons, not robots, they are usually much more productive and they focus longer and they can engage in a lot more meaningful learning and activities and less in the wasted trouble kinds of things.?

Dr. Lundh said drugs are not the first line of treatment.

?We refer to multi-module therapy, by using behavioural, psychological, educational, parent training, so that they can understand what they are dealing with.