ADHD in the News 2026-07-23
Next steps after your child is diagnosed with ADHD
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is incredibly common—more than 9 percent of children receive a diagnosis of this neurodevelopmental disorder before they reach adulthood.
New study links ADHD symptoms in boys and addictive social media use
Parents should monitor patterns of social media use, not just total screen time, findings suggest.
At What Age Should Your Neurodivergent Child Get a Cell Phone?
Key points: Start with a minimalist or dumb phone at age 10 to 12, then move to a full smartphone between ages 12 and 15. Wait until 15 years old at a minimum for social media for neurodivergent kids. Recognize that online platforms can offer social connection and communication for many neurodivergent youth. Neurodivergent children require active, direct supervision rather than passive restriction or simple delays.
They watched TikToks about ADHD, anxiety and cancer. Then they worried they had them
“Things people don’t realize are symptoms of anxiety.” “Signs of inattentive ADHD in the workplace.” “Five physical things you didn’t realize were signs of depression.” Health advice is everywhere on TikTok. And with just a few clicks, it's easy for users to fall down a rabbit hole of videos that leave them convinced they have an illness or disorder. Nearly half of Gen Zers say health content on TikTok makes them feel anxious, according to a June 23 survey from academic writing help platform EduBirdie. And the line between medical advice and misinformation is already blurring, with nearly half of Gen Z saying they trust a health expert on TikTok more than a doctor, according to the study.
What is ‘popcorn brain’ and how to help it
'Popcorn brain' is when someone jumps from one task to another, like watching a movie and then scrolling on Instagram, but is different from ADHD. NBC News' Dr. Akshay Syal talks about who may have it and how to treat it.
Lurie Children’s Program Helps Pediatricians Gain Independent Expertise to Treat More Kids with Depression and Anxiety, Study Finds
Pediatricians who participated in the collaborative mental health program at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago were more likely to diagnose and treat anxiety and depression in kids without reliance on additional support from specialists, according to a study published in Academic Pediatrics. Findings suggest that the program – called Mood, Anxiety, ADHD Collaborative Care (MAACC) – successfully prepares pediatricians to manage these conditions independently, so that more children can access care despite the ongoing shortage of pediatric mental health professionals.
What Is Your Building Communicating to Students?
It can be eye-opening to walk through your school with a student persona in mind, and the audit tool included here can help you find and fix friction points and improve students’ sense of belonging.
How telehealth is fuelling a surge in ADHD scripts in a business model that benefits the rich
Seeing a psychiatrist via telehealth became easier from January 2022. That’s when Medicare-reimbursed telepsychiatry arrangements became permanent. The idea was for these video and phone consultations to provide more flexible and sooner appointment times, without needing to travel. But our new analysis shows what happened next.
New Meta-analysis Finds Structured Executive Function Training Largely Ineffective
[Excerpt] The Background: Interest in training these skills has grown rapidly, but most research has been conducted in Western settings. China presents a distinctive context. Collectivist values make group-based programs culturally natural, and parental investment in academic outcomes is high. Both of these factors should, in theory, work in an intervention’s favor. At the same time, tightly scheduled school days (sessions typically capped at 30 minutes or less) constrain what is actually deliverable. A growing number of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have tested EF interventions with Chinese children, but until now, no one has pulled that evidence together systematically.
Study Maps Accelerated Brain Aging Signatures Across 9 Conditions
People with dementia, mild cognitive impairment, alcohol addiction, or psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia show increased brain aging, each in specific patterns within the brain, according to a study published July 21st in the open access journal PLOS Medicine by Shile Qi from the Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, China, and colleagues.
Centanafadine’s Route to FDA Review: A Clinical Path of the ADHD Medication
Centanafadine, a first-in-class norepinephrine-dopamine-serotonin reuptake inhibitor (NDSRI), awaits a regulatory decision by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday, July 24. Ahead of the FDA action, review the path of Otsuka Pharmaceutical’s centanafadine for treatment of ADHD.