Children aged 4 to 17 years who have a primary diagnosis of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) collectively made 6.1 million visits to physicians' offices in 2012-2013, new research shows. "Health care utilization related to ADHD is of interest because the prevalence of parent-reported ADHD diagnosis among US children and adolescents has increased in recent years," Michael Albert, MD, MPH, Hyattsville, Maryland, and colleagues write.

You forget appointments. It's impossible for you to get organized. You start a project—then another and another—without any one of them getting done. You can't remember what you've just read, because your mind is wandering. We all have our "moments." We might write them off to multitasking, age, anxiety or mood disorders. But if these moments occur more than just once in a while, and there's a pattern to them, you may have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD—especially if these behaviors affect your self-esteem, productivity, relationships and the quality of your everyday life.

The clinical presentation and functional impacts of ADHD in adults vary greatly from their child and adolescent counterparts...Major challenges include a lack of validated diagnostic criteria; psychiatric comorbidity and symptom overlap; compensatory mechanisms; evidence of significant clinical impact; underdiagnosis vs overdiagnosis; and prescription drug abuse and drug-seeking behavior."

Instead of eating, your child races around the dinner table. Moments earlier, the youngster abruptly stops playing with a favorite toy in favor of watching the birds gather around the backyard feeder. While these behaviors may seem normal for an active, curious child, could it possibly suggest he or she has the neurodevelopmental disorder ADHD?

Maybe you’re an entrepreneur. Maybe you’re a real estate agent or writer...Whatever your profession, you aren’t tied to a desk and you don’t have specific work hours — like 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. And you also have ADHD, which makes not having a built-in structure challenging...Below are five tips to help you create a routine that works best for you.

Many women feel a huge sense of relief when they find out they have ADHD. They feel happy that it is "just" ADHD, because prior to being diagnosed they were blaming themselves for their struggles. Many women with undiagnosed ADHD feel inadequate and stupid. Having ADHD isn’t a reflection of your intelligence. In fact, lots of people with ADHD are extremely bright and have above average intelligence.

Persistent optimism is a quality that many with ADHD develop, because it helps them get through, and recover from, the many setbacks they experience when ADHD symptoms get in their way. Insomuch as it helps one dust off the scratches and keep going in life, it’s a real benefit...But optimism has its dark side, as well. As a rosy picture of the future, optimism can allow you to remain blissfully ignorant of what’s actually going on around you. This can really cause problems.