How Does Adhd Change Over the Lifespan?

What Does ADHD Look Like in the Earliest Years of Life? No one ever said it was easy to raise toddlers and preschoolers under the best of circumstances. Most parents quickly understand why the third year of life is known as the Terrible Twos....

How Widespread Is It?

How Prevalent is ADHD in the United States Today, for Both Children and Adults? Before we answer this question, let’s be clear about the difference between a condition’s actual prevalence and its diagnosed prevalence. Prevalence of ADHD is just what it sounds...

HOW HELPFUL—OR HARMFUL—IS MEDICATION?

How Many US Children and Adults are Taking Medication for ADHD? In 2015, more than two-thirds of US children and adolescents diagnosed with ADHD were taking medication. By the most recent estimates, that works out to be close to 4 million youth. The vast...

Conclusions and Recommendations

Can America’s Rate of ADHD Diagnoses Continue to Grow? Indeed, it can. Even as, currently, a shocking one in five American boys has been diagnosed with ADHD, we believe this rate could escalate to one in four, or—in a worst-case scenario—even one in three...

What Other Strategies May Be Helpful in Treating ADHD?

What Do We Know About the Value of Daily Exercise? The evidence is solid and plentiful on this question: Regular, intense physical exercise is good for everyone’s brain and particularly helpful for the brains of people with ADHD. Scientists have known the basic truth...

How Do You Know If You Have It?

Under What Circumstances Should Your Child, Your Partner—Or You Yourself—Be Evaluated for ADHD? Many core ADHD symptoms, particularly hyperactivity and impulsivity, first appear during the preschool years. Yet except in extreme cases, when the child is at risk of being expelled or is physically...

What Causes It?

What is the Most Common Cause of ADHD? (Spoiler Alert: It Runs in Families) ADHD can be caused by one or more of several different factors that we’ll list and explain in this chapter. But by far the single most common way to get...

How Much Does It Matter Who You Are and Where You Live?

How Do ADHD Rates Vary Between Males and Females? An enduring myth about ADHD is that it affects only or mainly boys. For much of the twentieth century, five to as many as 10 boys for every girl were diagnosed with the disorder. More...

What Do You Need to Know About the “ADHD Industrial Complex”?

What Do We Mean by the “ADHD Industrial Complex”? We use this term to refer to the vast and mostly unregulated marketplace of touted but unproven treatments for ADHD. A few of these may be useful for some people, but most risk costing needless...

How Helpful Is Behavior Therapy, and What Kinds of Behavior Therapies Help the Most?

What is Behavior Therapy? Behavior therapy is the only form of treatment besides medication that researchers have found to be consistently helpful for children and adolescents with ADHD. It can be effective as a substitute for or supplement to medication. Which type of the...