When Erin Delaney March was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, she was 8 years old. Like most children with the disorder, March was prescribed medicine to help keep her focused and took it every day. But now, at 21, she self-regulates her medication.

A meta-analysis of 61 observational studies showed HDP was associated with a 35% increased risk of ASD and a 30% increase in ADHD risk, reported Gillian M. Maher MPH of Cork University Maternity Hospital in Ireland, and colleagues in JAMA Psychiatry.

In this occasional feature on Psych Congress Network, members of the Psych Congress Steering Committee answer questions asked by audience members at Psych Congress meetings. QUESTION: How do you tell the difference between attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children and past trauma?

Parents are planning for summer holidays, too, but for those of children with ADHD, that often means deciding whether to take a “drug holiday,” where they discontinue their children’s stimulant medication for part or all of the school break. If kids experience side effects from the medication – and not all children do – parents must weigh the potential pros of giving their kids a drug holiday from these against the pros of continuing the medication through the summer.

In an investigation seeking to determine any prospective associations between early lead exposure and ADHD, a research team consisting of Xiaobin Wang, MD, MPH, ScD, the director of the Center on the Early Life Origins of Disease in the Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health at Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health, and colleagues analyzed data from 1479 mother-infant pairs in the Boston Birth Cohort. In total, 299 pairs included a child with ADHD, and 1180 consisted of neurotypical children.

The placenta plays a critical role in the risk of developing schizophrenia and may also influence attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and other neurodevelopmental conditions, a new study suggests...the research found that schizophrenia genes become more active in a complicated pregnancy when the fetus is male. ADHD, autism, and other behavioral conditions also appear to be 2-4 times greater in males than in females.

And author Dav Pilkey's latest series "Dog Man" is following close behind its underwear-clad predecessor, with more than 10 million copies of the books currently in print...Growing up in Ohio, Pilkey was diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia. The author says his teachers would send him into the hallway as a punishment for talking and being disruptive.

The brains of ADHD patients are differently wired compared to those without ADHD. The levels of noradrenaline and dopamine neurotransmitters are usually altered in individuals with ADHD. Patients are also reported to have relatively smaller frontal brains. Also, other anatomical features of the brains of ADHD patients are such that the perfusion of blood to the frontal brain is often less than normal.