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.
Our findings suggest that geographic location plays a limited role in the reasons for the large variability of ADHD/HD prevalence estimates worldwide. Instead, this variability seems to be explained primarily by the methodological characteristics of studies.
The authors pooled results from 61 cross-sectional studies to estimate how common ADHD is in children and adolescents worldwide. They found a pooled prevalence of 7.6% (95% CI 6.1–9.4%) in children aged 3–12 (from 96,907 children) and 5.6% (95% CI 4.8–7%) in adolescents aged 12–18. Prevalence estimates varied by age…
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 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 systematic review looked at what happens when women live with undiagnosed ADHD and what changes after they get diagnosed as adults. The authors searched three databases and kept eight studies. They used thematic analysis and found four main themes: harms to social and emotional wellbeing, hard or strained relationships,…
This study combined results from 14 research papers to see whether mindfulness programs help adults with ADHD. The pooled data covered 834 adults and came from searches of PsycINFO, PubMed, SCOPUS, and ERIC up to July 2019. Overall, the meta-analysis found that mindfulness-based interventions reduced ADHD symptoms, lowered depression, and…
This article explains how ADHD can continue into adulthood and looks at common signs in adults. It says ADHD is a neurodevelopmental condition that usually begins in childhood but often persists. Adults with ADHD most often have trouble with attention, time management, memory, and organization. Symptoms can look different from…
This study recorded brain activity (EEG) while 68 females aged 13–23 (35 with borderline personality disorder, 33 healthy) did a guessing task with equal wins and losses. People with BPD showed less difference in their brain responses to wins versus losses than healthy peers. Time-frequency tests suggested this smaller difference…
The study measured very early brain responses to emotional and neutral pictures in 119 undergraduate students (91 female, mean age 23.5 ± 3.6). It compared 30 fearful-avoidant people with 32 secure, 28 anxious-preoccupied, and 29 dismissive-avoidant participants. Fearful-avoidant individuals showed patterns in the early ERP components P1 (110–165 ms) and…
This systematic review and meta-analysis combined 311 clinical studies (653,558 children and 43,311 adults) up to August 1, 2023. It found that ADHD/hyperkinetic disorder occurred in 32.4% (95% CI 31–34%) of pediatric patients and 21.4% (95% CI 20–23%) of adult patients seen in clinical settings — about 8–9 times higher…
The review found that adults generally felt ADHD medications reduced their ADHD symptoms. But experiences differed a lot because of social, psychological, and physical side effects. People talked about taking medicines in the context of “fitting in” at school, work, and with family and friends. That idea of fitting in…
