Dr . Robert Melillo | By Miranda Jenson
doctors LIFE
ADHD AND THE BRAIN
Dr . Robert Melillo had already been conducting research on the adult brain when , in 1994 , a friend asked him to look into the growing problem of ADHD in children .
Melillo knew very little about ADHD , so he began researching the disorder . Within a short time , one of the main things he noticed was the widespread prescribing of Ritalin to treat ADHD . “ What really struck me was the increase in use ( of Ritalin ).” Melillo had learned that , in just five years from 1990 to 1995 , there had been a more-than-200 percent jump in usage of the drug . Perplexed by this statistic , he spoke to teachers who confirmed that they were seeing that in the classroom .
Then one of his sons started showing signs of ADHD , and Melillo became even more committed to understanding the disorder . He asked others to “ point him in the right direction ,” to help him find out what to do . But he quickly learned that no one knew . “ Basically then , I went to the library and spent the next 10 years learning .”
Through his research , he began to think that there were neurological connections among several developmental disorders such as ADD , ADHD , Autism , Tourette ' s Syndrome and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder ( OCD ). Over the course of the next decade , many scientists were attributing the increase in ADHD and these other disorders to genetics . But Melillo and some other researchers he was working with knew that a damaged gene or a genetic mutation could not explain the rapid jump in these disorders , because those changes typically take hundreds or thousands of years . So , Melillo and his co-researchers latched onto the idea of epi-genetics .
Epi-genetics looks at the genes that are responsible for creating functional connections in the brain and how environmental factors interact with them and
affect their ability to “ come online ” and “ turn on ” when they ' re supposed to . In other words , there ' s an electrical communication problem where the two hemispheres of the brain are not connected , and hence , different areas of the brain that need to work together can ' t .
From this knowledge , Melillo went on to develop a special program designed to help children with these neurological disorders . The Brain Balance Achievement Center is a nationwide learning center with more than 54 centers that use Melillo ' s research and brain-based approach to treating neurobehavioral and learning difficulties .
813-475-6977 Brain Balance of Oldsmar , FL 4022 Tampa Road # 6 • Oldsmar , FL 34677 oldsmar @ brainbalancecenters . com brainbalancecenters . com
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