For the first time, researchers have found that African-American mothers in a study rated boys as displaying more frequent ADHD symptoms than Caucasian mothers did, regardless of child race. The findings mean that racial differences found in prior studies may be more due to maternal race than child race, said researcher George DuPaul of Lehigh University.

Xu and colleagues[1] used updated information from the National Health Interview Survey conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to estimate the most recent prevalence of ADHD among US children and adolescents. This survey samples approximately 35,000 households.

Prescribing stimulants to people with ADHD who also have substance use disorders is so counterintuitive that many medical professionals simply refuse to do it. After all, handing over a controlled substance to someone with a drug problem sounds like a bad idea, right?...So how do we know whether prescribing stimulants to people with ADHD and substance use is advisable? Through scientific studies, of course.

One of the biggest debates among parents who have the choice is whether to send their newly-turned 5 year olds to school, or hold them back a year in order for them to gain more maturity before the rigors of kindergarten. A newly-released study published in the New England Journal of Medicine adds yet another data point to a complicated decision.

A new study shows that the infections children contract during their childhood are linked to an increase in the risk of mental disorders during childhood and adolescence. This knowledge expands our understanding of the role of the immune system in the development of mental disorders.

Although ADHD includes the word “disorder” in its title, this condition ultimately means your brain works a bit differently than that of people without ADHD — and it doesn’t have to be a “bad thing”...Here are some of the superpowers of the ADHD brain that mental health experts and patients often observe: