Emotion dysregulation is common in youth with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and is associated with social impairment-basic regulatory processes in a socio-emotional context in youth with ADHD may account for this relationship. Emotional interference control and emotional conflict adaptation are two such processes. The first process refers to selectively attending to relevant emotional stimuli while ignoring irrelevant emotional information. The second process refers to the ability to take previous experience in a conflicting emotional context (e.g., conflict between one's facial emotional expression and verbal information) in order to resolve current emotional conflicts (e.g., attending to facial emotional expression while ignoring verbal cues). The current study examined emotional interference control and emotional conflict adaptation in children and adolescents with and without ADHD. Twenty children and adolescents with ADHD and 20 without ADHD between the ages of 9 to 15 years performed an emotional Stroop task in which they were instructed to identify the emotion of facial expressions (happy or angry) while ignoring the overlapping words ("happy" or "anger") that were either congruent or incongruent with the facial expressions. Emotional interference control was measured by subtracting reaction time on congruent trials from incongruent trials. Emotional conflict adaptation was measured by subtracting reaction time on postcongruent incongruent (cI) trials from postincongruent incongruent (iI) trials. Children and adolescents with ADHD showed significantly lower accuracy on incongruent trials compared to those without ADHD. Within-group analyses indicated that both groups showed slower and less accurate responses on incongruent relative to congruent trials, suggesting an interference effect without evidence of a speed-accuracy trade-off. No group differences were observed in emotional conflict adaptation. Emotional interference control, but not emotional conflict adaptation, was impaired in our sample of youth with ADHD. Further research should investigate emotional interference control as a mechanism involved with emotion dysregulation symptoms in a social context among youth with ADHD.

Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is increasingly diagnosed in adults, including women of childbearing age. However, limited research exists on how maternal ADHD and psychotropic medication use during pregnancy impact early child development. This study aimed to assess developmental outcomes in children of mothers with ADHD during the first 4years of life. A retrospective cohort study using data from a pilot study, supplemented with data from Isala Hospital Zwolle (ageneral teaching hospital) and regional child health clinics. The exposed group comprised mothers diagnosed with ADHD, aged ≥18years at term, with a gestation of ≥24weeks. A subgroup used psychotropic medication during pregnancy (including SSRIs, methylphenidate, benzodiazepines and antipsychotics). The reference group included mothers without psychiatric diagnosis. Relevant somatic and socioeconomic confounders were documented. Child development was assessed using the Van Wiechen Onderzoek (VWO), a validated Dutch screening tool for early childhood developmental disorders, routinely used in child health clinics. Seventy-two children born to mothers with ADHD were included, of whom 36 were exposed to psychotropic medication in utero. Thirty-two children formed the reference group. Univariate analysis revealed no significant differences in total VWO-scores between children of mothers with and without ADHD, nor between those exposed and unexposed to psychotropic medication. Maternal ADHD and associated medication use during pregnancy did not appear to adversely affect early childhood development. However, findings are limited by the small sample size and should be interpreted with caution.

Association of ADHD symptoms with the interactions within and between the HPA axis and melatonin system characterized by hair-based biomarkers.

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common neurodevelopmental disorder in adolescents, with maternal pregnancy behaviors and adolescent dietary quality considered risk factors for its onset and progression. This study aimed to analyze associations of maternal pregnancy behaviors and the Healthy Eating Index (HEI)-2020 with adolescent ADHD. Data from 3859 adolescents were extracted from NHANES 2013-2018. Dietary quality was assessed using two-day dietary recall data and quantified as HEI-2020 scores. Multivariate logistic regression assessed associations of HEI-2020 and maternal pregnancy behaviors with ADHD likelihood. Restricted cubic spline regression models were utilized to describe nonlinear relationships, and subgroup analyses were conducted. HEI-2020 index was linked to a lower adolescent ADHD reporting rate (OR=0.977, 95% CI: 0.954-1.000, p=0.048). Subgroup analysis showed that higher HEI-2020 was significantly linked to lower ADHD reporting rates when maternal age of a mother at pregnancy was <25 or ≥35 years or when the child's birth weight was not overweight (OR<1, p<0.05), with no nonlinear relationship detected. Joint association analysis revealed that higher HEI-2020 score was significantly associated with lower ADHD reporting rates in women with maternal age at pregnancy<25 (OR=0.515, 95% CI: 0.310-0.851, p=0.012). Across all HEI-2020 levels, adolescents born to non-smoking mothers had significantly lower ADHD rates than those born to smoking mothers (OR<1, p<0.05). A higher HEI-2020 diet was associated with lower ADHD reporting rates, whereas maternal smoking during pregnancy correlated with higher rates. Improving adolescent diet and promoting healthy pregnancy behaviors are recommended for better prevention.

Paraphilias and paraphilic disorders in Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: an observational study.

Maternal attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and adverse obstetrical and perinatal outcomes: A population-based cohort study in Ontario, Canada.

School environment and ADHD-related stigma in children with ADHD.

Although "easily distracted" is a core diagnostic criterion for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), its underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. The few studies on ADHD that relied on experimental tasks specially designed to study visual distraction in the general population reported mixed findings. Here, we suggest that failure to consider experience-based suppression, that is, suppression of irrelevant information after repeated exposures, may explain the inconsistent findings. Therefore, we investigated distraction in ADHD while disentangling distraction by novel salient distractors and experience-based suppression of these distractors. Participants searched for a target shape, and a salient-color distractor was either present or absent. Its color changed at the beginning of each block. We compared baseline distraction (the performance cost on distractor-present versus distractor-absent trials in the first block halves) and feature-based suppression efficiency (the reduction of this cost from the first to the second block half) in participants with ADHD and their controls. The results confirmed our conjecture: Participants with ADHD tended to be more distracted by novel distractors than controls, but they were at least as efficient at suppressing these distractors following a few exposures. These findings explain why studies using rare distractors showed higher distractibility in ADHD, whereas studies using frequently repeated distractors reported no difference. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

This study aimed to conduct a comparative assessment of mathematical competence, including vocabulary, operations, and mathematical problem-solving, in children diagnosed with Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD) and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Individual assessments were administered to evaluate intelligence quotient (IQ), mathematical competence, reading, and written language for both groups (SLD: N = 17; ADHD: N = 17). The results revealed statistically significant differences between the groups in several WISC-IIIGR measures, including Verbal IQ, Information (factual knowledge, long-term memory, recall), Arithmetic (attention, concentration, numerical reasoning), Digit Span (short-term auditory memory, concentration), Picture Arrangement (planning, logical thinking, social knowledge), Verbal Comprehension Index (VCI), and Freedom from Distractibility Index (FDI), as well as in Mathematical Operations and Mathematical problem-solving. Both groups demonstrated challenges across several assessed domains. To explore these difficulties in greater depth, canonical correlation analyses (CCA) were conducted on three variable sets. Findings suggest that while both SLD and ADHD are associated with cognitive challenges, they present largely distinct patterns of cognitive deficits. Findings are interpreted in terms of differential cognitive profiles and their potential implications for differentiated instructional approaches. In particular, results are linked to the design of mathematical tasks in 5th-grade mathematics inclusive classrooms, aiming at reducing cognitive load and supporting mathematical learning in students with ADHD and SLD.

While attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) medications, particularly stimulants, are among the most effective treatments in psychiatry, there remains a need for novel alternatives, as not all individuals with ADHD respond to or tolerate currently available medications. We aimed to provide an up-to-date overview of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of agents either not approved for ADHD or approved for ADHD but tested for off-label indications. We updated, using the same methodology, two previous reviews (Cortese et al, 2023 exploring agents in the pipeline for children with ADHD, and Veronesi et al, 2024, focusing on RCTs of novel compounds in adults with ADHD). For the update, we searched ClinicalTrials.gov and the European Union-based EU Clinical Trials registers up to December 14, 2025. Including the RCTs retrieved by the two previous reviews and those from the updated search, we identified a total of 53 eligible RCTs. Of these, 11 reported results in children and adolescents, and 11 in adults. Considering agents with at least two positive trials for ADHD core symptoms without negative trials, only dasotraline, in children, and centanafadine, in adults, emerged as promising (however, the dasotraline development programme was halted in 2020). This review also includes a discussion of opportunities for advancing the development of novel, effective agents and maximising the benefits of currently available options.

Young adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), relative to their neurotypical peers, are at increased risk for developing depression and anxiety (i.e., internalizing disorders), which may be exacerbated by the demands of adjusting to college. Longitudinal day-to-day relations between ADHD and internalizing symptoms remain poorly understood, despite their potential for highlighting pathways and mechanisms underlying comorbidity and specifying targets for microlevel assessments and interventions. The current study attempted to clarify such relations using ecological momentary assessment data collected across 28 days (once per day). Participants were 151 college students (Mage = 19.9 years, 78.8% women, 31.8% White), oversampled for ADHD-related concerns, who completed abbreviated daily measures of ADHD, generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), and major depressive disorder (MDD). Temporal results suggested increases in ADHD-related Difficulty unwinding and relaxing and Put things off until the last minute predicted increases in next-day GAD symptoms and vice versa. Increases in ADHD-related Difficulty concentrating predicted increases in next-day MDD symptoms, and increases in MDD symptoms predicted increases in ADHD-related Depend on others to keep your life in order. Contemporaneous results suggested Difficulty unwinding and relaxing, Difficulty concentrating, and Put things off until the last minute demonstrated the strongest positive relations with same-day MDD and GAD symptoms. Between-person results indicated Difficulty unwinding and relaxing and Often leave your seat were positively related to GAD and MDD symptoms. Findings highlighted ADHD symptoms that may serve as key assessment and intervention targets to prevent cycles of worsening ADHD and internalizing disorders. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Prenatal exposure to infectious or non-infectious maternal immune activation (MIA) represents a transdiagnostic environmental risk factor for psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders. Building on previous findings of locomotor hyperactivity in a subset of male MIA offspring, the present study investigated whether viral-like MIA in mice recapitulates features of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in this subgroup. We show that 40-50% of MIA-exposed male offspring develop locomotor hyperactivity in a novel environment, which is most pronounced during early- to mid-adolescence and precedes the emergence of increased impulsive behavior and pre-attentive filtering deficits in early adulthood. We further identified subgroup-specific dopaminergic and noradrenergic alterations in cortical and subcortical brain regions of MIA offspring. These neuronal alterations were age-dependent and correlated with behavioral changes. Moreover, treatment with methylphenidate (MPH), a first-line pharmacological therapy for ADHD, normalized locomotor hyperactivity and restored abnormal mesolimbic and striatal activation patterns in susceptible MIA offspring. Collectively, our findings demonstrate that MIA in mice recapitulates key features of ADHD in a susceptible subset of offspring, supporting the notion that MIA may contribute etiologically to ADHD in some individuals. More broadly, our results suggest that the heterogeneous neurobehavioral outcomes of MIA offspring may result from distinct yet overlapping pathophysiological mechanisms across neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders.

Methylphenidate is a first-line psychostimulant widely prescribed for the treatment of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Although its therapeutic efficacy is well established, concerns remain regarding its potential effects on cardiovascular regulation, particularly on autonomic nervous system balance. To evaluate the effect of methylphenidate on heart rate variability (HRV) in ADHD children and adolescents. Our review included children and adolescents diagnosed with ADHD, studies wherein the intervention group should receive short- or long-term methylphenidate treatment, studies that evaluated participants under conventional treatment except methylphenidate, single or double-blind, non-blind randomized or non-randomized control studies. No significant changes were observed in time- and frequency-domain HRV indices, with all outcomes presenting very low certainty of evidence. Our results indicate that methylphenidate does not significantly affect resting heart rate HRV in ADHD children and adolescents. The very low certainty of this review's evidence level and high risk of bias warrant further studies to provide stronger scientific and statistical evidence.

Stringology-based motif discovery for electrophysiological time series: A framework for temporal pattern analysis with an ADHD case study.

Evaluation of executive functions and cognitive disengagement syndrome in children and adolescents with epilepsy.

Classification of familial and non-familial ADHD using auto-encoding network and binary hypothesis testing.

This study evaluated internalizing and externalizing problems, as well as psychiatric comorbidities, in children with hereditary spherocytosis (HS). The study cohort comprised children followed at the Department of Pediatric Hematology at Gaziantep City Hospital (n=27). Psychiatric diagnoses were assessed using a semi-structured interview, and parents completed the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) to evaluate internalizing and externalizing symptoms in their children. Based on the semi-structured interview, 29.6% of patients (n=8) met diagnostic criteria for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), followed by enuresis (22.2%, n=6). Compared with the control group, children with HS demonstrated higher parent-reported SDQ scores for both internalizing ( P =0.042) and externalizing problems ( P =0.017). Among the SDQ subdomains, children with HS had significantly higher hyperactivity/inattention scores than controls ( P =0.004). No significant between-group differences were identified in other domains, including emotional symptoms, conduct problems, and peer relationship problems. These findings suggest that children with HS may experience a greater burden of internalizing and externalizing difficulties than their healthy peers and may also be at increased risk of psychiatric comorbidities, particularly ADHD. Larger multicenter studies are warranted to confirm and extend these findings.

Effectiveness of intermittent theta-burst stimulation for major depressive disorder with and without neurodevelopmental comorbidities: A real-world retrospective observational study.

Parenting stressors, social support, and mental health of mothers of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Parental education has been highlighted as an effective intervention for children, young people and families. However, no parental education interventions are underpinned by occupational therapy (OT) theory. This study aimed to understand the perspectives of parents/carers of children with neurodevelopmental disorders on the acceptability and design of a parental educational intervention underpinned by OT theory. 23 parents/carers of children aged between 5 and 11 years who had a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and/or Developmental Coordination Disorder participated in one of three online 90-minute focus groups. Participants were presented with a draft of the proposed intervention and engaged in a facilitated discussion about the acceptability and feasibility of the intervention. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. Four themes were generated: (1) Parents want to develop skills to support their child, (2) parents also need support, (3) there are barriers to reaching parents and (4) parents need an inclusive environment to promote their learning. Parents/carers acknowledged the benefits of the intervention, highlighting the importance of focusing on supporting parents as well as their children. They also raised potential barriers to participation, which included time and money, and emphasised the importance of designing the group with inclusivity as a central principle.