ADHD in the News 2018-09-13

ADHD may increase risk of Parkinson’s disease and similar disorders

"Parkinson's disease is commonly thought of as a neurodegenerative disease associated with aging," said Glen Hanson, D.D.S., Ph.D., professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology and School of Dentistry at U of U Health and senior author on the paper. "This may be the first time where a childhood disease and its treatment may be linked to a geriatric expression of neurodegenerative disorder."



Adderall shows adverse effects in students without ADHD

Many college students in the United States abuse prescription ADHD medications with the belief that they can improve focus and cognition to achieve academic success. The results of recent research, however, suggest that these medications — specifically Adderall — either have a negative or nonexistent effect on performance in a number of brain processes.



Differences in Efficacy and Tolerability of ADHD Medications Across Age Groups

When both safety and efficacy are taken into account, the preferred first-choice medication for treating attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) should most often be amphetamines for adults and methylphenidate for children and adolescents, according to research published in Lancet Psychiatry.



3 Reasons Therapy Should Be Part of ADHD Treatment

For many, the first ADHD treatment that comes to mind is medication...But ADHD meds by themselves aren’t a complete ADHD treatment program. Whether you’re currently on an ADHD medication that works for you or not, you’re missing out if you haven’t considered psychotherapy as part of your ADHD treatment. By the same token, if you haven’t yet started any ADHD treatment, you’ll be doing yourself a big favor if you find a good therapist as part of the process of addressing your ADHD symptoms.



What is TMS? The Most Effective ADHD Treatment May Also be the Most Controversial

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved TMS in 2007 for patients with depression who didn’t respond to medication. But for ADHD, “there isn’t any evidence to my knowledge showing that it’s clinically effective,” says Joel Voss, an associate professor of neurology at Northwestern University. Treatments for ADHD outside clinical trials “would be unethical,” he says, “especially when they are so expensive."



Scientists Study Barn Owls To Understand Why People With ADHD Struggle To Focus

Kids with ADHD are easily distracted. Barn owls are not. So a team at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore is studying these highly focused predatory birds in an effort to understand the brain circuits that control attention. The team's long-term goal is to figure out what goes wrong in the brains of people with attention problems, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.



Childhood Trauma Associated With Impulsivity in Bipolar Disorder

A causal relationship was identified between childhood trauma and impulsive behavior in patients with bipolar disorder (BD), according to research findings published in the Journal of Affective Disorders. However, no similar association was identified in patients with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or borderline personality disorder (BPD).



Parents Guide for Disciplining Kids with ADHD

Receiving our son’s diagnosis of ADHD shed light as to why standard parenting advice wasn’t really working in our home. Understanding our son’s non-neurotypical condition enabled us to be more effective parents as we researched beneficial parenting techniques for children with ADHD. For those parents who have been struggling to discipline their children with ADHD, I will go through the research we found which revolutionized our parenting practices and helped our son improve his behavior.