Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is increasing in prevalence. Childhood exposure to television has been shown to result in dysfunctional cognitive hyperstimulation and lead to the onset of metabolic disorders (Bazar, Yun, Lee, Daniel & Doux, 2006). In a recent study, researchers from Stanford University, proposed that obesity and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder effectively represent different manifestations of the same underlying dysfunction, a phenomena called environmental oversampling syndrome (Bazar, Yun, Lee, Daniel & Doux, 2006). Environmental oversampling syndrome is an excess of exogenously (external influence) supplied information in the form of nutritional content and sensory content. In this study it is report that the dopamine receptor gene DRD4 has shown linkage to both obesity and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, suggesting the existence of a potential common pathway for both diseases. This gene is believed to lead to insufficient reward satiety, normally mediated by dopamine, and in turn reinforces information that the activites of risk taking, substance abuse and abnormal eating habits might satiate.
Bazar, K.M., Yun, A.J., Lee, P.Y., Daniel, S.M. & Doux, J.D. 2006. Obesity and ADHD may represent different manifestations of a common environmental oversampling syndrome: a model for revealing mechanistic overlap among cognitive, metabolic and inflammatory disorders. Medical hypotheses, 66, 263-269.
