Pennsylvania has an elevation of roughly 1,100 feet above sea level.  This will pose relevance, as this article applies to our lives.

Recent research has linked the thin air of high elevations to increased rates of depression.  While such correlation may seem negative; high elevations have also proven to decrease the prevalence of attention deficit disorder, commonly known as ADHD.  In Utah, the average state elevation is 6,100 feet.  The rate of ADHD patients is 50% lower than sea-level states! The trend continues in Salt Lake city, where the elevation is 4,300 feet, and ADHD rates are 38% less than sea-level states.

After reading these statistics, I wondered; how can this be?  Hypobaric Hypoxia is a condition caused by the lack of oxygen in the air, at a high elevation.  In order to combat the adversity of this geographically-stimulated side effect, the body produces higher levels of dopamine.  Ironically, decreased dopamine is associated with ADHD.  Consequently, as ones’ elevation increases, the risk of acquiring such a disorder diminishes.  Douglas G. Konde, assistant professor psychiatry and senior author of this study, labeled hypoxia as an “environmental stressor.”  However, in this case, altitude provides protection.

In order to further examine this correlation, the national Survey on Children’s Health conducted a survey.  In 2007, they visited 94,642 households.  They found 73,123 children with mild, moderate, or severe ADHD (ages 4-17).  The same study was conducted in 2010, this time, they interviewed 372,689 households and found 40,424 participants were diagnosed with ADHD.  Through geographical analysis, they concluded that for every one foot increase in elevation, health care providers lowered their chance of diagnosing a patient with ADHD by .001%!  Such statistics demonstrate how an increase in sea level deters the probability of acquiring ADHD.  Additional examples include North Carolina where the average elevation is only 869 feet above sea level, and an incredibly large 15.6% of the population appears diagnosed with ADHD.  North Carolina is opposite Nevada, where the average elevation is 5,517 feet above sea level, and merely 5.6% of the population suffers from ADHD.  Such statistics make a compelling argument for strategically starting your life.  Will informed citizens foreshadowing reproduction begin to relocate to higher altitudes?  Or will this data go unnoticed in a society where ADHD provides a large amount of obstacles to those affected.

For those of you who are not familiar with how ADHD is treated, their are two different categories of medications prescribed.  One are stimulants, which accelerate the heart and speed up neurotransmitters.  The others are non-stimulants, such as Concerta.  In the following study, 325 medicated-ADHD students were interviewed, based on their symptoms.  A large 48% complained of at least one side effect.  These symptoms include an abnormal loss of appetite, sleep problems, and mood swings.  Stimulants appeared to effect patients psychologically, as the majority of them reported mood disturbances.  Non-stimulant patients reported digestive discomfort, ranging from nausea to gastrointestinal problems.  The reason I brought up the complications of medications is in order to stress how inconvenient having ADHD is.  In our competitive society, academics and education are becoming increasingly competitive.  In order to combat the negative effects of having a learning disability, many citizens have to unhealthily depend on these medications.  However, what if people used this article in order to strategically reproduce in a high elevation? Thus, lowering the chances of their offspring growing up with ADHD.  I believe this is an incredibly interesting field of science, and I am excited to see if there is a continuously decreasing trend of ADHD diagnoses in high elevations.

Sources:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/04/150407210834.htm

http://psychcentral.com/lib/side-effects-of-adhd-medications/