The Multimodal Treatment Study of Children with ADHD (MTA) study looked at medication management, intensive behavioral treatment, the two combined, or standard community care, and found value for each of these therapies in the management of ADHD. The latest results of this ongoing study are soon to be published, and Dr. Eugene Arnold of Ohio State University joins us to talk about the study’s design and findings.

According to a study by Susan Crawford and colleagues, the more disorders that coexist with ADHD, the worse children perform on tests of memory and visual-motor skills, and the worse their impairment in everyday functioning. Ms Crawford, of the Alberta Children's Hospital, discusses her findings and the implications for the place of co-occurring conditions in the clinical picture of ADHD.

A high percentage of symptom overlap has been found between patients presenting with hypersomnias and adult ADHD, and Dr. J.J. Sandra Kooij of the Parnassia Center in the Netherlands reveals the results of her study to investigate the possibility of confusion between these diagnoses.

The FDA has advised health care providers, parents, and other caregivers to closely monitor children and adolescents being treated with atomoextine for signs of suicidal thinking. Dr. Russell Barkley of SUNY Upstate Medical University, USA, discusses the evidence which prompted the Public Health Advisory, and the potential consequences of the FDA’s advice.

Diversion of ADHD medication has long been a concern, and newer drug formulations have been developed to combat the problem. Dr. Christian Teter from Northeastern University’s Bouvé College of Health Sciences tells us about his research, which found that the number of undergraduate students who reported illicit use of prescription stimulants exceeded the number of students who reported medical use of the drugs.

Family and twin studies have demonstrated the importance of genetic factors in ADHD, and now Dr. Philip Asherson of the Institute of Psychiatry, London, UK, tells us about his candidate gene association studies, which have identified several loci that exert significant effects on the condition.

Studies have suggested that the prevalence of ADHD is at least as high in many non-US children as in US children. Dr. Stephen Faraone of SUNY Upstate Medical University reveals that ADHD is certainly not just an American disorder, and that the prevalence of the condition in many countries is in the same range as that found in the US.

ADHD, primarily when comorbid with oppositional defiant disorder, is associated with an elevated risk of drug use, and Dr. Gerald August of the University of Minnesota Medical School discusses his research on the prevalence and epidemiology of substance abuse disorders in patients with ADHD.

The recent American Psychological Association (APA) report on Psychotropic Medications for Children and Adolescents highlights gaps in the scientific knowledge concerning which treatments work best for specific diagnoses and patients. Dr. Ronald Brown, chair of the Working Group that produced the report, talks about the group’s findings and the resulting implications.

The results of the many structural neuroimaging studies of ADHD in children are inconsistent, with little consensus regarding which brain regions are affected by the condition. Dr Eve Valera and colleagues have performed a meta-analysis to help resolve these issues, and in this program she tells us about her findings.

Both parent and teacher reports concerning ADHD-related behavior are needed for clinical purposes, but there has been no standardized way of recording this evidence. Dr Gregory Fabiano discusses how reports can best be elicited from parents and teachers, and how their responses can differ.

Dr Alice Charach and colleagues used hierarchical linear modeling to investigate the influence of dose and duration of stimulant treatment on the rate of growth in height and weight, and in this program she discusses this controversial topic.

Dr Steven Nissen, President of the American College of Cardiology, discusses with Dr Findling the findings he presented to the FDA earlier this year on the cardiovascular risk associated with certain ADHD treatments, and the recent black box warnings that have been added to the drugs’ labels.

Around 35–90% of children suffer cormorbid Tourette’s Syndrome and ADHD, and many have wondered if the prescribed treatments for ADHD are to blame. Dr Gerald Erenberg, pediatrician and Tourette’s Syndrome expert, talks about his research on the hotly-debated topic of first-onset tics in children taking stimulants for ADHD.