Each month our editorial team sifts through hundreds of papers and curates notable findings—for practitioners and informed readers who want to stay current with the evidence. Subscribe to the monthly Research Digest for expert analysis and concise summaries of key papers.
This review looked at research on emotion dysregulation (problems managing emotions) in people with ADHD. It found three main points: emotion dysregulation is common across the lifespan and causes substantial problems; it may come from trouble noticing, recognizing, or paying attention to emotional cues tied to a brain circuit that…
This study reexamined gender differences in adult ADHD by comparing 219 adults with ADHD to 215 control subjects matched for age and gender. The researchers found no evidence that gender changed how ADHD related to other psychiatric disorders. Adults with ADHD showed cognitive deficits and higher rates of major depression,…
Brain imaging studies (fMRI) show that ADHD is linked to problems in many brain networks that control attention, timing, working memory, motivation, and emotion. There is also evidence that a brain system normally quiet during tasks (the default mode network) does not switch off properly in people with ADHD. Some…
Research links ADHD — which shows up as inattention, impulsivity, and too much activity — to weaker structure and function in the brain’s prefrontal cortex (PFC), especially on the right side. The PFC helps control top-down attention, stop inappropriate actions, and regulate emotion, and it needs the right balance of…
This 2020 systematic review looked at human and animal studies on physical exercise and brain plasticity. The authors screened 20,782 records and included 21 original studies. They reported that exercise was linked to higher levels of several neurotrophic factors and receptors, more cell growth and proliferation, and better measures of…
This small pilot randomized placebo‑controlled trial tested a cannabinoid spray (Sativex) in 30 adults with ADHD. The main test of cognition and activity (QbTest) showed no significant difference between Sativex and placebo in the intention‑to‑treat analysis (Estimate = -0.17, 95% CI -0.40 to 0.07, p = 0.16). Some secondary measures…
This study used a long-term UK birth cohort (N = 8,310) and genetic analyses to test whether childhood ADHD is linked to depression later in life. Children with ADHD at age 7 had higher odds of recurrent depression in young adulthood (OR 1.35, 95% CI 1.05–1.73). Genetic analyses (Mendelian randomization)…
This review looked at studies of ADHD stimulant drugs (like methylphenidate and amphetamine). The drugs clearly reduce core ADHD symptoms for many people, but they do not reliably make ADHD students do better in school or on many cognitive tests in real-world settings. The drugs helped one type of memory…
This randomized clinical trial tested 12 sessions of manualized group cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) with individual coaching in 88 adults with ADHD. Participants were randomly assigned to CBT alone (n = 46) or CBT plus medication (n = 42). The combined treatment produced greater improvements in ADHD symptoms, organizational skills,…
Researchers followed 3,779 Canadian adolescents (mean age 12.8 years, 49% girls) for five years and found that when a teen’s screen time went up in a given year, their ADHD symptoms tended to increase that same year. Impulsivity was the strongest link between screen time and ADHD symptoms. Only social…
The researchers surveyed 1,738 students about ADHD, cannabis use, and thinking skills. People with ADHD who had used cannabis said it gave them short-term benefits for many ADHD symptoms (for example, hyperactivity and impulsivity) and eased many medication side effects (for example, irritability and anxiety). The study also found that…
