Hello everyone, my name is Scott Lyu, a grade 12 student at Dr. Charles Best Secondary School. My inquiry project of choice is “Is the cause of ADHD more effected by genetic or environmental factors?” After the research, hopefully I can use the knowledge of the cause of ADHD will help me understand ADHD better, and potentially help me to try to find a cure/solution to it, it will benefit everyone else on this planet that has ADHD as well. Locally, within small communities, people will understand ADHD’s cause better, to help the person struggling with ADHD better, and to treat children better in the way that they will have a lesser chance of being diagnosed with ADHD due to the environmental factors that they grow up in. Internationally, this will help people with ADHD or those who have loved ones who struggle with ADHD understand the causes of ADHD better, to help people realize that people who have ADHD can’t control their actions, and to help encourage more understanding for people with ADHD. Moreover, I hope my research will be able to put parts and bits together, to help future researches and my researches for the potential cure or solution to ADHD, so that in the future people struggle less with ADHD, and hopefully can live a normal live like any other person!
The three steps of my research are as follow:
- Research about genetic factors and their effect on ADHD. (This will help me understand how genetic factors would effect ADHD better, and help me to compare the effects of it to the environmental factors)
- Research about environmental factors that a person grows up in, and its effect on ADHD. (This will help me understand how environmental factors can effect a person’s chance/likelihood, or if it impacts a person’s chance to get diagnosed with ADHD at all.)
- Research about either genetic factors or environmental factors, which one, if any are more important to a person being diagnosed with ADHD. (This final step, I will be comparing the effects of genetic factors and environmental factors, and their effect on if a person would have ADHD or not, and to decide on which of them is more impactful or important, for when I want to research for the potential cure/solution to ADHD in the future.)
Here are some potential sites that I could use for further research:
Demontis, D., Walters, R. K., Martin, J., Mattheisen, M., Als, T. D., Agerbo, E., Baldursson, G., Belliveau, R., Bybjerg-Grauholm, J., Bækvad-Hansen, M., Cerrato, F., Chambert, K., Churchhouse, C., Dumont, A., Eriksson, N., Gandal, M., Goldstein, J. I., Grasby, K. L., Grove, J., … Neale, B. M. (2019). Discovery of the first genome-wide significant risk loci for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Nature Genetics, 51(1), 63–75. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-018-0269-7
Faraone, S. V., & Larsson, H. (2019). Genetics of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Molecular Psychiatry, 24(4), 562–575. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-018-0070-0
Demontis, D., Walters, R. K., Martin, J., Mattheisen, M., Als, T. D., Agerbo, E., Baldursson, G., Belliveau, R., Bybjerg-Grauholm, J., Bækvad-Hansen, M., Cerrato, F., Chambert, K., Churchhouse, C., Dumont, A., Eriksson, N., Gandal, M., Goldstein, J. I., Grasby, K. L., Grove, J., … Neale, B. M. (2019). Discovery of the first genome-wide significant risk loci for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Nature Genetics, 51(1), 63–75. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-018-0269-7
Weiss, R. E., Stein, M. A., Trommer, B., & Refetoff, S. (1993). Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and thyroid function. The Journal of Pediatrics, 123(4), 539–545. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-3476(05)80947-3
