Medication
ADHD diagnoses happen everyday in America. Over 6 million kids are diagnosed in the U.S. and 90% are prescribed medication that help with academic performance. A recent study came out regarding kids with ADHD ages 7-12 and found that their academic performance was the same whether they were taking medication or a placebo. This study suggests that a more effective method would be behavioral therapy or improving sleep performance. Researchers did determine that medication helped students with ADHD complete more seat work and improved their classroom behavior
Gender and ADHD
In a systematic review published in the Asian Journal of Psychiatry researchers characterized the different effects of ADHD on men and women. Researchers found that women tended to have difficulties in areas like social functioning, time perception, stress tackling, and mood. Meanwhile men have memory impairment and difficulty with educational functioning. Although ADHD was found to be more prevalent in men there was a significant presence of ADHD in women. The review concluded that there was sufficient evidence of different gender effects in adult ADHD and that similarity across genders should not be assumed. However the research team also stated that there was conflicting evidence when it comes to gender differences in ADHD and further research was advised.
Self-Diagnosis
There has been a rising concern as more and more people turn to social media platforms like TikTok for ADHD and other mental health self-diagnosis as getting an official diagnosis is a lot harder and more time consuming then just assuming your mental health condition on your own. A lot of people are going online to seek advice, especially on TikTok. On TikTok, videos about ADHD, obsessive compulsive disorder and other mental health conditions are gathering a large audience. The only issues is that, though well meaning, these TikToker’s are spreading misinformation, lack of context and lack of nuance to these mental health situations.
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