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Dria Fearn quickly typed away at her computer screen on what would have otherwise been a lazy Sunday afternoon during Memorial Day weekend. In addition to studying for finals and serving on several committees, Fearn recently had to get retested for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder – a condition she was diagnosed with in grade school – because she will be taking the LSAT examination soon. People generally have to get retested before taking a standardized test to safeguard against people who take advantage of the system to get more time. Fearn, the president of the Disabled Students Union, is one of 131 students at UCLA with ADHD or the related condition, Attention Deficit Disorder, according to the Office for Students with Disabilities 2001-2002 Annual Report. Though symptoms differ from person to person, people with AD/HD are typically easily distracted, impulsive and restless. After repeated behavior problems before the first grade – her kindergarten teacher told her she would fail her for her behavior – Fearn went to get tested for AD/HD. Fearn said early intervention, which included taking ritalin, a common drug used to treat AD/HD, enabled her and her family to treat her condition effectively. Ritalin is usually a valuable medicine when it is used as prescribed, but it doesn’t always help everyone. “Most people who take ritalin get some improvement, but it’s not a perfect drug by any means – some people don’t respond or get any improvement,” said Stanley Nelson, a human genetics professor working on the genetic components of AD/HD. But the answers for who can benefit the most from ritalin can come from reading the genes.

Nelson is working under the theory that if someone has disruptive behavior that is causing problems, there have to be genes that causes that behavior. By studying the genes, researchers can differentiate between the people who would benefit from taking ritalin and the people who would be better off without medication. In addition, studying the genetics behind AD/HD would help researchers define the disorder better. A standard test for AD/HD compares a person’s inattentiveness or hyperactivity with the rest of the population. “Exactly where we would draw the line is slightly arbitrary,” Nelson said. “How you diagnose it is clearly spelled out. How the criteria is drawn out is arbitrary.” Nelson said he thinks more work should be done on defining AD/HD and says all the clues can be found in the genetic components. Nelson’s work tries to determine the genetic variations in genes would make some people predisposed to developing AD/HD. For example, though we all have the same genes, those genes can appear with different sequences. Some of these variants cause different eye colors. Other variants underlie a susceptibility to develop diabetes or, as Nelson hypothe-

sizes, AD/HD. Additionally, with a condition as complicated as AD/HD, which includes several factors, researchers have to look for all the traits associated with the disorder when they are studying the genes, said Human Genetics Professor Rita Cantor, who is also looking at the genetics behind AD/HD. “AD/HD is a cultural issue,” she said. “What would be a disorder in one society might not be a disorder in another society,” Cantor continued, adding that she doesn’t think AD/HD is a disorder. Nevertheless, she is still confident that she will find the genes she is looking for. But the task is large. There are about 40,000 genes in the human genome – Nelson’s team has reduced the possible areas to about 400 genes. “I am completely confident that we are going to find it; it is a matter of time and resources that we can focus on the problem,” Nelson said.