Connecting Biology to Behavior in ADHD: The Amygdala’s Role

Key points: Individuals with ADHD experience big emotions that are difficult to manage. Disrupted connections between the amygdala and frontal cortex play a role in emotional dysregulation. Amygdala hijack is when the emotional brain takes over the thinking brain, preventing goal-directed behaviors.

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Rice-based baby food linked to lower ADHD risk in Taiwan study

An analysis of data from the Taiwan Birth Cohort Study found that complementary feeding with rice-based solid food was a protective factor against the development of ADHD, reducing the hazard of the disorder by 27%. Male sex, low family income, low birth weight, and advanced maternal age were among risk factors for ADHD.

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Researchers show how humans learn to optimize working memory

Working memory is what allows humans to juggle different pieces of information in short-term scenarios, like making a mental grocery list and then going shopping or remembering and then dialing a phone number. While scientists agree that the capacity of working memory is limited, they offer competing theories about how and why this is true.…

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Who Are the Youth With Undiagnosed ADHD Symptoms?

Key Takeaways: Children with higher cognitive abilities and social skills often face delayed or missed ADHD diagnoses, especially females, indicating potential sex bias in diagnosis. Emotional and behavioral difficulties, emotional dysregulation, lower cognitive ability, and poorer prosocial skills increase the likelihood of earlier ADHD diagnosis. Emotional dysregulation is gaining recognition as a key ADHD symptom,…

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Co-prescribed stimulants, opioids linked to higher opioid doses

The combination of prescribed central nervous system stimulants, such as drugs that relieve ADHD symptoms, with prescribed opioid medications is associated with a pattern of escalating opioid intake, a new study has found. The analysis of health insurance claims data from almost 3 million U.S. patients investigated prescribed stimulants’ impact on prescription opioid use over…

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LGBTQ+ Stress and Stigma Increase Risk of Mental Health Problems

THURSDAY, Feb. 20, 2025 (HealthDay News) — The societal stress and stigma of being LGBTQ+ can increase a person’s risk of mental health problems, a new study suggests. People in sexual and gender minorities are more likely than heterosexuals to suffer from problems like anxiety, depression, PTSD, bipolar disorder, ADHD, eating disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorder,…

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