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Myth: ADHD is an American disorder. Those who claim ADHD is an American disorder believe that ADHD is due to the pressures of living in a fast paced, competitive American society.   Some argue that if we lived in a simpler world, ADHD would not exist. Fact:  ADHD occurs throughout the world. Wherever scientists have searched […]

There are several very effective drugs for ADHD and that treatment guidelines from professional organization view this drugs as the first line of treatment for people with ADHD.  The only exception is for preschool children where medication is only the first line treatment for severe ADHD; the guidelines recommend that other preschoolers with ADHD be […]

Myth:  ADHD medications “anesthetize” ADHD children.    The idea here is that the drug treatment of ADHD is no more than a chemical straightjacket intended to control a child’s behavior to be less bothersome to parents and teachers.  After all, everyone knows that if you shoot up a person with tranquillizers they will calm down. Fact:  […]

Psychotherapy and ADHD: How a Harvard Professor Help his Patients Professor Larry Seidman is world renowned for his neuropsychology and neuroimaging research.   In addition to all of his creative science, he has found the time to create what he calls “Neuropsychologically Informed Strategic Psychotherapy (NISP) in Teenagers and Adults with ADHD.”   Let’s start with what […]

If you’ve been reading my blogs about ADHD, you know that I play by the rules of evidenced based medicine.  My view is that the only way to be sure that a treatment  ‘works’ is to see what researchers have published in scientific journals.   The highest level of evidence is a meta-analysis of randomized controlled […]

Myth: The ADHD diagnosis is very much “in the eye of the beholder.” This is one of many ways in which the ADHD diagnosis has been ridiculed in the popular media.  The idea here is that because we cannot diagnose ADHD with an objective brain scan or a blood test, the diagnosis is “subjective” and […]

As a researcher who has devoted most of the past three decades to studying ADHD, I am surprised (and somewhat embarrassed) to see how little research has focused on how ADHD affects the romantic side of life.   There are over 25,000 articles about ADHD listed on www.pubmed.gov, but only a few have provided data about […]

A recent paper by Margaret Sibley and colleagues addresses a key issue in the diagnosis of adult ADHD.  Is it sufficient to only collect data from the patient being diagnosed or are informants useful or, perhaps, essential, for diagnosing ADHD in adults.    Dr. Sibley presented as systematic review of twelve studies that prospectively followed ADHD […]

Many myths have been manufactured about attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).  Facts that are clear and compelling to most scientists and doctors have been distorted or discarded from popular media discussions of the disorder.   Sometimes, the popular media seems motivated by the maxim “Never let the facts get in the way of a good story.”  […]