Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) News and Research RSS Feed - Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) News and Research Twitter

Attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurobehavioral disorder that affects 3-5 percent of all American children. It interferes with a person's ability to stay on a task and to exercise age-appropriate inhibition (cognitive alone or both cognitive and behavioral). Some of the warning signs of ADHD include failure to listen to instructions, inability to organize oneself and school work, fidgeting with hands and feet, talking too much, leaving projects, chores and homework unfinished, and having trouble paying attention to and responding to details. There are several types of ADHD: a predominantly inattentive subtype, a predominantly hyperactive-impulsive subtype, and a combined subtype. ADHD is usually diagnosed in childhood, although the condition can continue into the adult years.

New U-M poll shows 1 in 100 parents believe their kids use prescription stimulants to boost grades

As high schoolers prepare for final exams, teens nationwide may be tempted to use a "study drug" -- a prescription stimulant or amphetamine -- to gain an academic edge. But a new University of Michigan poll shows only one in 100 parents of teens 13-17 years old believes that their teen has used a study drug. [More]

Early-life exposure to traffic-related air pollution associated with higher hyperactivity

Early-life exposure to traffic-related air pollution was significantly associated with higher hyperactivity scores at age 7, according to new research from the University of Cincinnati (UC) and Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. [More]

Men diagnosed with ADHD in childhood are at higher risk to suffer from obesity as adults: Study

A new study conducted by researchers at the Child Study Center at NYU Langone Medical Center found men diagnosed as children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder were twice as likely to be obese in a 33-year follow-up study compared to men who were not diagnosed with the condition. [More]
Shire's scientific data on treatments for psychiatric disorders to be presented at APA meeting

Shire's scientific data on treatments for psychiatric disorders to be presented at APA meeting

Shire plc, the global specialty biopharmaceutical company, announces that it will present scientific data in 7 poster presentations at the American Psychiatric Association 166th Annual Meeting in San Francisco, May 18-22. [More]
Study: Breastfeeding can prevent the development of ADHD later in childhood

Study: Breastfeeding can prevent the development of ADHD later in childhood

Breastfeeding has a positive impact on the physical and mental development of infants. A new study suggests that breastfeeding may protect against the development of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) later in childhood. [More]

FDA OKs TWi Pharmaceuticals' tentative ANDA for Guanfacine Hydrochloride Extended Release Tablets

TWi Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced that it has received tentative approval for its Abbreviated New Drug Application for Guanfacine Hydrochloride Extended Release Tablets 1mg, 2mg, 3mg and 4mg from the United States Food and Drug Administration. [More]
Methylphenidate normalizes activation of several brain areas in children with ADHD

Methylphenidate normalizes activation of several brain areas in children with ADHD

The stimulant drug methylphenidate "normalizes" activation of several brain areas in young patients with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), according to a review published in the May Harvard Review of Psychiatry. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health. [More]
Over 90% of medical specialists do not follow ADHD guidelines

Over 90% of medical specialists do not follow ADHD guidelines

A recent study by pediatricians from the Cohen Children's Medical Center of New York examined to what extent pediatric physicians adhere to American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) clinical guidelines regarding pharmacotherapy in treating young patients with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). [More]
Weekend reading: Overweight doctors; ADHD diagnosis wars; States cut treatment for mentally ill; The war on breast cancer

Weekend reading: Overweight doctors; ADHD diagnosis wars; States cut treatment for mentally ill; The war on breast cancer

Recently, a survey of three decades of screening published in November in The New England Journal of Medicine found that mammography's impact is decidedly mixed: it does reduce, by a small percentage, the number of women who are told they have late-stage cancer, but it is far more likely to result in overdiagnosis and unnecessary treatment, including surgery, weeks of radiation and potentially toxic drugs. [More]

Examining social factors is vital to understand the rise in diagnoses of mental disorders

Examining social factors is vital to better explaining and understanding the dramatic rise in the number of Americans diagnosed with mental disorders in recent years, according to an analysis by a team of medical and mental health experts. [More]
1 in 4 teens misused or abused a prescription drug at least once in their lifetime

1 in 4 teens misused or abused a prescription drug at least once in their lifetime

New, nationally projectable survey results released today by The Partnership at Drugfree.org and MetLife Foundation confirmed that one in four teens has misused or abused a prescription (Rx) drug at least once in their lifetime - a 33 percent increase over the past five years. [More]
Academic medical centers launch ASD sub-registry within ResearchMatch

Academic medical centers launch ASD sub-registry within ResearchMatch

Each year, only five percent of the estimated 1.5 million children with an autism spectrum disorder in the US participate in clinical research studies. This is in stark contrast to pediatric cancer studies, which have a nearly 90 percent enrollment rate - a rate that has helped advance treatment and outcomes for childhood cancers substantially in the last decade. [More]

Study finds increased use of antipsychotic medication among Medicaid-insured children

A new study from the University of Maryland found that use of antipsychotic drugs from 1997 to 2006 increased 7- to 12-fold in a Medicaid population of about 500,000 children ages two to 17. [More]
Nearly 90% of young children continue to struggle with ADHD symptoms despite treatment

Nearly 90% of young children continue to struggle with ADHD symptoms despite treatment

A study published in the March 2013 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry found that 9 out of 10 young children with moderate to severe attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) continue to experience serious to severe symptoms and impairment long after their original diagnoses, and in many cases, despite treatment. [More]
Children with ADHD more likely to have other psychiatric disorders as adults

Children with ADHD more likely to have other psychiatric disorders as adults

The first large, population-based study to follow children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) into adulthood shows that ADHD often doesn't "go away," and that children with ADHD are more likely to have other psychiatric disorders as adults. Although numbers were small, they also appear more likely to commit suicide and are often incarcerated as adults. [More]
Autism, ADHD, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder and schizophrenia share common genetic risk factors

Autism, ADHD, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder and schizophrenia share common genetic risk factors

For the first time, scientists have discovered that five major psychiatric disorders—autism, attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder and schizophrenia—share several common genetic risk factors. [More]
Substance use increased in teens with ADHD

Substance use increased in teens with ADHD

Adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder have significantly higher rates of substance abuse and cigarette use than their peers without the condition, US research shows. [More]
Study establishes possible link between high-fat diets and ADHD, learning disabilities

Study establishes possible link between high-fat diets and ADHD, learning disabilities

A University of Illinois study has established a possible link between high-fat diets and such childhood brain-based conditions as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and memory-dependent learning disabilities. [More]

Substance abuse and cigarette use more prevalent among adolescents with ADHD histories

A new study published online in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry revealed a significantly higher prevalence of substance abuse and cigarette use by adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) histories than in those without ADHD. [More]

New data on attention and visual perception

The journal PLOS ONE has recently published a study which provides new data around attention and visual perception. The article "A role of eye vergence in covert attention" is signed by led by Hans Supèr, ICREA researcher at the Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour (IR3C) of the University of Barcelona; Maria Solé Puig, J. Antonio Aznar Casanova and Laura Pérez Zapato, all of them researchers at the IR3C, have also participated in the study. [More]