Stimulant medications, such as those used to treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), may raise the risk for psychotic side effects among young patients who have a parent with a history of serious mental illness, new research suggests...These side effects included hallucinations, delusions, hearing voices, and/or perceptual disturbances, the researchers said...The study findings were published online Dec. 30, and in the January print issue of Pediatrics...

Stimulant medications have been previously reported as the cause of adverse psychiatric symptoms in children, including mania and psychosis.1 New work by MacKenzie et al. in this month’s Pediatrics ( 10.1542/peds.2015-2486) provides new insight into a subpopulation apparently at very high risk for this concerning side effect. Children diagnosed with ADHD and treated with stimulants, whose parent or parents have major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder or schizophrenia, have a significantly greater risk of psychotic symptoms than their peers.

An analysis of medical records data from three Massachusetts health care systems finds no evidence that prenatal exposure to antidepressants increases the risk for autism and related disorders or for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). ..the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH)-based research team finds evidence that any increased incidence of autism or ADHD found in previous studies was probably associated with the severity of the mother's depression - a known risk factor for several neuropsychiatric disorders - and not from antidepressant exposure during pregnancy."

In my last post, we discussed identifying and helping those of your team members who may have Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) ADHD. While understanding why that person is hard to manage is one thing, are there specific steps you can take to make meetings less painful and the day-to-day job of supervising less of a chore? Rick Green, whose comedy writing I have long admired, is a producer, director and comedian who was diagnosed with ADHD

Do you attend IFSP (Individualized Family Service Plan) or Individualized Education Program (IEP) meetings for your child? Parents attend these meetings to plan for children if they have a learning disability, speech or language impairment, other health impairment (OHI), Autism, intellectual disability, developmental delay, emotional disturbance, hearing impairment, or orthopedic impairment. This article details some specific ways to bring positivity and intention to IEP meetings.

You’ve probably seen or heard ads for the brain training app Lumosity boasting that its games were designed by neuroscientists and were scientifically proven to help stave off Alzheimer’s as well as improve real-world cognitive performance. Well, you won’t be seeing those ads anymore. Lumosity maker Lumo Labs are now banned from making such claims as the result of a multimillion-dollar settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, the agency said today.

The prevalence of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has increased substantially over the past 20 years: by some estimates, as much as 30%.1 Much like the rise in autism prevalence, the reasons for this are likely multifactorial, including an actual rise in incidence as well as increased recognition and diagnosis.