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A McMaster University-led study has found that the mothers of teens with food allergies are more likely than the kids themselves to report that the youth have emotional and behavioural problems. Following 1,300 children involved in an Australian study, the researchers found that at 14 years old, about a third of teens with food allergies reported they had emotional and behavioural problems, but more than 46 per cent of their moms reported those problems. These were depression, anxiety or ADHD rather than defiance or misbehaviour. When the same teens were 21 years old, 44 per cent of those with food allergy reported emotional and behavioural problems, and they were twice as likely as their non-allergic peers to have symptoms of depression that had persisted from adolescence. The study has been published online by the medical journal  Allergy . "Unfortunately, we don't know whether the teens with food allergy are less likely to report problems themselves, or whether t...

"Health Canada has issued a series of black-box warnings about the suicidal potential of ADHD medications. However, these warnings have failed to take into account epidemiological studies showing the opposite, that increased use of this medication has been associated with reduced suicide risk in adolescents," says Dr. Alain Lesage, psychiatrist and researcher at the Institut universitaire en santé mentale de Montréal (CIUSSS de l'Est-de-l'Île-de-Montréal) and one of study's authors. In the past decade, the medical treatment of ADHD increased three-fold in Quebec, reaching 9% of boys aged 10 years and 4% of boys aged 15 years. However, suicide rates in Quebec's adolescents decreased by nearly 50% during that period among 15-19 year olds, which contradicts the warnings issued by Health Canada. "Clearly, the increased use of ADHD drugs indicates that they might actually reduce rather than augment the risk of suicide," says Edouard Kouassi, pharm...

Although various studies propose a connection between childhood ADHD and obesity, "this is the first population-based longitudinal study to examine the association between ADHD and development of obesity using ADHD cases and controls of both sexes derived from the same birth cohort," says lead author Seema Kumar, M.D., pediatrician and researcher at Mayo Clinic Children's Research Center. The study included 336 individuals with childhood ADHD born from 1976 to 1982 and matched with 665 non-ADHD controls of the same age and sex. Weight, height and stimulant treatment measurements were gathered from medical records detailing care provided from Jan. 1, 1976, through Aug. 31, 2010. Cox models were used to assess the link between ADHD and obesity. The researchers found that females with childhood ADHD were at a two-fold greater risk of developing obesity during childhood and adulthood compared to females without ADHD. Obesity was not associated with stimulant treatment a...

But a review of brain imaging studies led by researchers at UC Berkeley and the University of British Columbia offers a new way of looking at spontaneous versus controlled thinking, challenging the adage that a wandering mind is an unhappy mind. It suggests that increased awareness of how our thoughts move when our brains are at rest could lead to better diagnoses and targeted treatments for such mental illnesses as depression, anxiety and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). "It's important to know not only the difference between free-ranging mind-wandering and sticky, obsessive thoughts, but also to understand, within this framework, how these types of thinking work together," said review co-author Zachary Irving, a postdoctoral scholar at UC Berkeley. Irving and fellow authors of the qualitative review, published in the November issue of  Nature Reviews Neuroscience , looked at three different ways in which people think when they're not directl...

In a recent study, young adults with ADHD, when performing a continuous motor task, had more difficulty inhibiting a motor response compared to young adults who did not have ADHD. The participants with ADHD also produced more force during the task compared to participants without ADHD. Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common childhood disorder that can continue to affect up to 65 percent of these children as they become adults, according to the researchers. "A large group of individuals have the label 'ADHD,' but present with different symptoms," said Kristina A. Neely, assistant professor, kinesiology. "One of the goals of our ADHD research is to discover unique physiological signals that may characterize different subgroups of the disorder." Previous studies have shown that some individuals with ADHD may have poor control of their motor systems, but until recently, the way that it was measured was not very sensitive. "In...

Fibers belonging to the larger forceps pre-musical coaching are noticed (A, B, C). Fibers belonging to the identical sufferers after 9 months of musical coaching are noticed beneath (a, b, c). Credit score: Radiological Society of North America Taking music classes will increase mind fiber connections in kids and could also be helpful in treating autism and Consideration Deficit Hyperactivity Dysfunction (ADHD), in line with a examine being offered subsequent week on the annual assembly of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). "It has been recognized that musical instruction  advantages kids with these problems," stated Pilar Dies-Suarez, M.D., chief radiologist on the Hospital Infantil de México Federico Gómez in Mexico Metropolis, "however this examine has given us a greater understanding of precisely how the mind adjustments and the place these new fiber connections are occurring....

Evidence for ADGRL3 in ADHD risk had already been stacked against it -- common variants of the gene predispose people to ADHD and predict severity of the disorder. The study, led by Dr. Maximilian Muenke of the National Human Genome Research Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, brings scientists closer to understanding how ADGRL3 contributes to risk by providing functional evidence that implicates a transcription factor in the pathology of the disorder. According to first author Dr. Ariel Martinez, the study is an effort to address limitations of existing ADHD medications that don't work for all patients, and develop new medication targeting the protein encoded by the ADGRL3 gene. "In this new era of genomics and precision medicine , the key to success lies in dissecting genetic contributions and involving some level of patient stratification," Martinez said. The researchers analyzed the ADGRL3 genomic region in 838 people, 372 of whom were diagnosed with ADHD. Varian...

Noriko Osumi, Kaichi Yoshizaki and colleagues at Tohoku University's Graduate School of Medicine collaborated with Shigeru Wakana and Tamio Furuse at RIKEN Bio-Resource Center, and Tucci Valter at Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, to conduct comprehensive behavioral analyses on how paternal aging influences the behavior of offspring that inherit a genetic risk (a mutation in Pax6 gene). In the experiments, in order to minimize the physical influence of the father, the male mouse was isolated and in vitro fertilization was used to impregnate the female. The researchers found that the offspring of young fathers exhibited impaired vocal communication, while the offspring of older fathers exhibited hyperlocomotion. The results are significant for both animal researchers and the public. For researchers working on animal models, it shows that the age of male mice can influence the behavior of the offspring, so this should be a consideration when they are used to mate. For the publ...

Dr. Lencz and fellow researchers studied the genes of 35,000 people and discovered new genetic variations related to cognitive ability. The findings bring scientists a step closer to developing new -- and potentially better -- treatments for cognitive disorders of the brain, such as schizophrenia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The findings are published online in  Molecular Psychiatry . The team of 60 international scientists is called the Cognitive Genomics Consortium (COGENT). COGENT researchers measured brain function of the participants through tests of learning, memory and other components of cognitive function. In addition to zeroing in on a few specific genes related to cognitive ability, the team also showed a significant genetic overlap between risk for several psychiatric disorders and reduction in cognitive ability . Impairments in general cognitive ability, such as reasoning, problems solving, learning, and memory, are critical components for ...

The study, which is the first scientific work dealing with the relation between the Mediterranean diet and ADHD in children and adolescents, evokes that some unhealthy eating habits could play a role in the development of this psychiatric disorder. However, new researchers are necessary to establish the causality between nutrient-poor eating habits and ADHD, according to the authors. Researchers Alejandra Ríos Hernández and Andreu Farran Codina, from the Faculty of Pharmacy and Food Sciences of the UB, and Estrella Ferreira García, from the Faculty of Psychology of the same University, have signed the study too. One of the most common mental disorders among children and adolescents The attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder belongs to the field of neurobiology, and affects around 3,4% of children and adolescents worldwide. This is one of the most common mental disorders among children and teenagers, and its consequences can last until adulthood. The main symptoms are hyperactiv...