Environmental Factors That May Influence Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

Although there is no evidence that environmental factors cause ADHD, they may influence how the disorder is expressed. For example, although ADHD is not caused by "bad parenting," certain parenting methods can improve or make worse some symptoms of the disorder.

Environmental factors that may influence how ADHD is expressed include:¹

• Exposure to lead.
• Exposure of a fetus to smoking or alcohol during pregnancy.

References

Citations

1. Greenhill LL, Hechtman LI (2009). Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. In BJ Sadock et al., eds., Kaplan and Sadock's Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry, 9th ed., vol. 2, pp. 3560–3572. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.

Credits

By	Healthwise Staff
Primary Medical Reviewer	Adam Husney, MD - Family Medicine
Specialist Medical Reviewer	Louis Pellegrino, MD - Developmental Pediatrics
Last Revised	February 2, 2012