ADHD stimulants appear to work less by sharpening focus and more by waking up the brain. Brain scans revealed that these medications activate reward and alertness systems, helping children stay interested in tasks they would normally avoid. The drugs even reversed brain patterns linked to sleep deprivation. Researchers say this could complicate ADHD diagnoses if poor sleep is the real underlying problem.
This annoys me. Many articles about ADHD refer only to children with ADHD, not adults. I’m nearly fourty and I still have ADHD now, if I make it to 80 I will still have ADHD, why is it always about kids? It is lifelong not just a childhood thing.
because neurotypicals don’t actually care about how ADHD effects the people with it, just those who interact with them.
Because the DSM diagnosis and criteria are basically “let’s just take what applies to kids and apply it to adults, I guess” and wrongly so, there’s only a small field of research. The guy who effectively wrote the literature on adult adhd is Russell A. Barkley, and the APA pretty much blew him off at the time of the DSM-V publication. I suggest anyone check out his handbook (probably a quick search will get you a pdf version).
Neglect of focus on adult adhd seems to be a thing, eh?
The therapist who diagnosed me as an adult kept stressing that he will add scientific literature to his reports to support and justify his diagnosis of an adult for any future health care stuff I might have to deal with.
It does study adults, we just have to wait
I suspect most adults have some coping mechanisms built up so its often harder to separate out the basic problems. Children offer a ‘cleaner’ study, so that is what they focus on.
I have to say my 6 year old has a lot of symptoms. I started giving her melatonin to help her sleep and a lot of the behavioral issues have gotten a lot better.
I’m not trying to say its a cure all, but I was surprised how well it helps her sleep, and how many (I thought) unrelated issues have improved.