Students with ADHD have a greater ability to learn and perform in school while white noise is playing in the background. With some students, the white noise is complementary with ADHD medicine. However, white noise can be used as a replacement for the ADHD medicine with other students.

Goran Sodurland of Stockholm University and his team of researchers conducted this experiment at a secondary school in Sweden. The researchers observed certain ADHD children’s concentration improved with the addition of white noise while the non-ADHD children had a poorer performance with the white noise. Sodurland explains, “Our study shows that different brains need different levels of external noise to work properly”.

dailyRx Insight: Adding white noise during your ADHD diagnosed child’s homework might show an improvement in concentration.

The white noise used in Sodurland’s study was a screeching 78 decibels (think vaccuum cleaner), so it isn’t practical to use such loud noises in a classroom containing both ADHD and non-ADHD students. One solution may be headphones for the ADHD students during school.

This study is quite surprising as ADHD students generally have difficulty in distracting environments. Researchers explain that the white noise may cause the brain to produce higher levels of dopamine through a phenomenon called stochastic resistance (noise reaching a certain threshold for a signal to be produced, in this case, dopamine production). Non-ADHD students already have adequate amounts of dopamine, which is a chemical messenger to the brain.

This is an inexpensive approach which can possibly help your child improve his learning skills. Many white noise CD’s are available on line.

So, if you want to try a non-medical approach to your child’s ADHD, experiment with different white noises accompanying his or her study time. It could be that just a gentle sound of running water or a fan in the study room will do the trick.

Conduct disorder is estimated to affect between 2%-6% of children under the age of 18, or about 800,000 to 2.4 million youths , with boys being three to four times more likely to be affected. As a child with conduct disorder grows into an adult, the same behaviors would be classifed as anti-social personality disorder. In conduct disorder, children display repetitive behaviors of aggression, cruelty towards people and animals, lack of empathy, and other destructive behaviors like lying, truancy, vandalism, and theft. Causation is unclear, although it has been associated with child abuse, genetic defects, dysfunctional family units, parental substance abuse, and low socioeconomic status. Treatment is most successful with family involvement and restructuring the home environment into a positive place for development. Medications for depression (Prozac®, Zoloft®, Lexapro®, Paxil®, Celexa®) and ADHD (ex. Concerta®, Ritalin®, Strattera®) can be effective, as those conditions often occur with conduct disorder. Talk therapy and behavioral modification have also been effective.