ADHD Overview

This lecture is intended as an overview of major advances of the past decade in understanding the nature, causes, life course, and management of ADHD in children and teens. It provides an overview of many of the most important topics on the disorder concerning nature, diagnostic criteria, subtypes, prevalence, comorbid disorders, life course impairments, etiologies, the empirically supported treatments, disproven remedies, parent counseling, parent training, school management, and medication management. The program is designed to acquaint participants with what is currently known about these various topics providing a state-of-the-art summation about the disorder. [For more in-depth coverage of some of these topics, see the more detailed presentations on this KZbin Channel]. This lecture is 2 hrs. 40 minutes in length
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[@Crawleyman]

I just want to say thank you for your lectures. I was recently diagnosed and because of you and others I am learning to live with ADHD which I assume I have had most of my life.

[@russellbarkleyphd2023]

Thank you!

[@adarshsahu3207]

Best Channel for learning about ADHD. Content is Deep, clear and practical.

[@cindymccallister-wz6kn]

I am 58 years old and never diagnosed, but I know I have dyslexia and ADHD. My husband has both also. We never realized until we had a daughter - who has both. Was a little more prepared for second daughter and granddaughter - we all have it. The older group is better functioning of course. And due to supports parents gave me and that we gave are kids adults are very productive in very satisfying medical fields. My granddaughter is 14. Her and her mom live with us. She hits all the hyper and attention markers, has dyslexia, disgraphia and dyscalculia. With support, she has always been well behaved in school and made A and B. She does work that she can in school and IEP allows her to bring rest home for us to teach and her to get done and no points off for being late. IEP says teachers will email or post on school online page any items she looses.The point of my post is to just say that I am going to watch all of your videos, because I thought I was informed, but this video has shown me that many of my conceptions are wrong and the information you gave me I can recognize in my life, my husband’s, kids and grandchild. Grandchild’s is the worst and her mom and I are making the error of why can she control in such and such situation but not in this one - she must be playing us and this view has been causing issues within family and for granddaughter. I cannot believe that we made sure she had school accommodations and then because we thought old enough to control self pulled accommodations at home - which is what this video showed me. That is changing immediately. Know you just saved our family because her mom having ADHD also was having the worst time feeling like a failure and obviously so is my granddaughter. SO THANK YOU!

[@sarahc3110]

Also wanted to say I’m so glad to see you’re posting new videos, and thank you for the work you’ve done. When I was first diagnosed with ADHD (about 8 years ago) I watched all the lectures of yours available on youtube at the time, and I was so relieved to finally understand what was wrong with me and why I had struggled so much to “get with the program” (as my mom used to say) throughout my life. In my opinion you are the best expert on this condition, and your understanding of it is way ahead than the rest of your field. The others are still playing catch up! Having your lectures available to the public made such a huge positive impact for me, thank you so much for what you do!

[@russellbarkleyphd2023]

Thank you so much. Very kind of you to write. Be well.

[@GhaliaZJafri]

Med student, F, Diagnosed last fall w/ Inattentive ADHD, but had an itch in my brain that I might have the combined type. 16 minutes in, and I'm beginning to understand the rationale behind why I believe so, and why my Psychiatrist picked up on what he did. Thankyou Dr. Barkley! Gonna go listen to the rest!

[@user-lq4px8se6f]

Perfectly Monotonous and with such a consistent delivery of speech that one with ADHD can easily follow. . . Very Stimulating to the point of laughing realizing that there exists A Physician telling the Truth. Thanks so much, Signed, Childhood Head Trauma. ;)

[@chrisalan8527]

At 5:50, your cursor is in the middle of the screen. I just spent 2 minutes trying to clean what I thought was dirt on my screen! 😵‍💫

[@PGurgelSegrillo]

How nice! your own channel!! Thank you! for all the work you do and info you make available, very helpful!

[@russellbarkleyphd2023]

And thank you for watching.

[@victoriasonnenberg3903]

thank you so much for your work, dr. Barkley! I am hiperfocused on ADHD and neurodivergence at the moment, and you are helping me to use this moment to improve my self knowledge to. Thanks!!!

[@EdwardThomasLee]

Crazy how much this man knows how my brain works. Describes me to a T.

[@madgepickles]

So glad you have a KZbin channel now!

[@russellbarkleyphd2023]

Thanks!

[@ProBloggerWorld]

Great section at the end of this great lecture, in which is mentioned what doesn’t work and has been disproven. Perfect complement to what works.

[@ktmac2375]

Dr. Barkley: thank you thank you thank you

[@OrafuDa]

Dear Dr. Russell Barkley, thank you so much for this extensive overview. Your videos and books help me understand ADHD in far more depth than any other resource, while remaining concise and easy to follow. One question: is it possible to get your slides somewhere? This is the best overview with numbers that I have seen, and it would be great to be able to refer to the slides.

[@russellbarkleyphd2023]

Please send your request to [e-mail]

[@emmamckenzie3987]

Thank you so much for making this accessable to all

[@chillwinstonuk]

Dear Russell, god bless you. Thank you so much for uploading new content, particularly the research updates. This information is so far reaching. Grateful on a personal and clinical/vocational level. I hope you are enjoying 'semi-retirement' 😂😉 Thank you Marvin

[@sanjavukovic169]

I finally feel seen and validated!

[@piotrgraniszewski8544]

This is the ultimate introduction to ADHD and an amazing knowledge refresher. Epic calming voice too! ❤

[@BalajiThulasinathan]

Thanks

[@sophiedelavelle5958]

Dr. Barkley, I remember seeing a video where you took the example of going to the bank to open a safe, and then took the example of planning a wedding. You used there a colored brain picture « front to back, rostral to caudal, top down organization of the brain ». The way you illustrated the path that it takes to do something, and the collapsing of all because of a distraction was very cool in the way that it created some kind of imagery in my mind to understand the process. I haven’t stumbled upon this example in the new videos. Is it because the example is outdated due to new discoveries or for some other reason (or maybe I missed it)?

[@russellbarkleyphd2023]

No, you are correct, they are not there because the background graphs are copyrighted and so cannot be used in Google videos for which income might be generated. Sorry. I was able to use them in my lectures under the fair use clause of standard copyright but not here, as I understand things.

[@sophiedelavelle5958]

@@russellbarkleyphd2023 I understand. Those laws are complex moreover on the scientific articles field I guess. I found back the "pick up money" graph based on the keyword we see on screen from the article "Hierarchical models of behavior and prefrontal function" but it's sure is difficult to understand for me now. Should you need us to create some illustrations for you, I'm sure we'd be many followers to be willing to help.

[@tiagomateus3190]

I came across your channel recently and have been learning a lot from it, thank you so much for the effort! I have a question (probably just ignorance from my side). Lately, I have been reading about emotional dysregulation, how come the criteria for diagnosis only looks for symptoms from inattention and hyperactivity and emotional dysregulation is never mentioned although is has been accepted as a big part of adhd ?

[@Healinghands829]

I’m 35 and was just diagnosed last week. I’m wondering if it’s too late for me to have a normal life and normal self-regulation. All these negative habits I’ve built over the years.

[@dawnkeyy]

I'm from a country where adults (I'm 23) that weren't diagnosed before the age of 18 can only be prescribed wellbutrin, (the only other drug available being methylphenidate for under-18s) however modafinil can be more easily perscribed. I have seen some studies on use of modafinil in treating ADHD, however I'm not confident in interpreting them. Could you share your opinion on it? Also I can't thank you enough for the work you're doing here!

[@russellbarkleyphd2023]

Both meds have evidence for effectiveness in ADHD with Wellbutrin likely having greater evidence, yet they are not FDA approved in the US and so are used off label. But they are used.

[@dawnkeyy]

​@@russellbarkleyphd2023Gotcha, thank you, professor!

[@SGCXD]

Is there any value to supplementing with Tyrosine since it’s a precursor to dopamine?

[@barnes29510]

Don't include certain medications for treatment. Unless you know of a stockpile hidden some where. I haven't taken anything since March 23 and I think my condition is worse now than before starting medicine 3 years ago

[@ap3008]

Question: so what if you showcase mostly symptoms of inattentive presentation? I have a lot of the symptoms in inattentive presentation and not hyperactive behaviour. I do have hyperfocus, difficulty focusing, difficulty focusing on what other people have to say automatically and other symtpoms since I was a child. But I didn’t really have disinhibition symptoms as a child and adult. Sometimes I do fidget and find that movement helps me focus.

[@russellbarkleyphd2023]

See my lecture on Cognitive Disengagement Syndrome to see if that is more appropriate for you.

[@FasFas160]

Did you ever get diagnosed? very curious what your result were, as your comment is describing the exact same symptoms I have

[@DLusby]

I was wondering if I could ask for your thoughts regarding inherited/genetic ADHD and perspectives derived from the neurodiversity movement. I’m not suggesting not accept it as a disability. You can’t have it both ways, right? You can’t ask for accommodations and reject it as a disability and expect most people to take you seriously, yes? That is, so long as someone accepts their ADHD as a disability and owns their disability… So long as they accept that professionals who are attempting to help individuals with their disabilities are doing just that… Do you think that seeing ADHD as a disability “due to difference” is a valid way of thinking about it? I realize that there are those who struggle greatly. When I asked, the psychologist who had diagnosed me (late-diagnosed at age 52) said that she felt I fell under what might be described as generally needing moderate support, and maybe in some cases only mild support. She also said that she felt I had other strengths or ‘gifts’ that had probably allowed me to compensate to a point, mentioning the results of my IQ testing. But I too wouldn’t have sought out an assessment unless things were significant enough to warrant it. I had a hard time at first opening up to the idea of possibly having ADHD. Getting past the stigma I perceived was difficult. I think Jessica McCabe’s TedTalk was helpful for getting past the stigma. But also reading about the ideas behind the neurodiversity movement, I think, also helped me towards accepting ADHD as a possibility and getting to a point where I sought an assessment. I acknowledge that like this perspective. But I’m trying to choose my words carefully at this moment and also acknowledge perhaps an emotional bias on my part. Thank you!

[@russellbarkleyphd2023]

I think that you can adopt both perspectives in that they are not mutually exclusive. As I noted in my research update, ADHD is dimensional along a typical bell curve that represents a more extreme level of symptom variation. So, yes, it is part of diversity in the human population. But when that is so extreme that it causes harm, we call it a disorder. What I disagree with in the neurodivergent community in some cases is the abandonment of diagnosis and management entirely in favor of just viewing ADHD as a different way of functioning as if it had no significant consequences. Thanks for viewing the Channel

[@DLusby]

@@russellbarkleyphd2023 Thank you!

[@nobbee]

I was wondering if adhd can be associated with dyspraxia? Thanks for the education.

[@russellbarkleyphd2023]

Yes, see my short video on this under commentaries.

[@sarahc3110]

Is there any research on the comorbidity of ADHD and PTSD? My thinking is, the emotional lability and disinhibition of ADHD make those with it more satisfying targets for bullying and abuse. What do we tell kids about bullies? Just ignore them, don’t give them a reaction. Someone with ADHD is much less able to be nonreactive, to “grey rock” as this strategy is now called. Even in adulthood, someone with ADHD may be more easily taken in by lovebombing, miss red flags early on in a relationship, and their lower social skills may make them easy targets for gaslighting, smear campaigns, and other forms of coercive control. Have there been any studies done on the percentage of people with ADHD who are abuse victims/survivors?

[@russellbarkleyphd2023]

Yes, you can find it using a Google Scholar. It does show that those with ADHD are more likely to develop PTSD than typical when exposed to traumatic events, such as combat while in the military. We think this is due to the preexisting difficulties with emotional self regulation, as you suggest. And they are also more likely to place themselves in situations where trauma, physical, sexual, and emotional, are more likely to occur due to poorer EF, foresight, and planning among other difficulties. Thanks for watching.

[@Chizuru94]

I can just say my emotional stuff is what got me eventually diagnosed after all the other issues were ignored or not taken seriously by teachers. And bullying was an immense factor there as well, sadly. In my case, ignoring bullies never helped, even if and when I never reacted or hadn't acted out before after their attempts etc. It's usually best to have an authority figure one can trust to tell about the issues and step in. That's the only way sometimes, sadly.

[@acoisiglis]

personal timestamp 1:30:00

[@Flow_with_G]

Thank you so much for all the work and information! It is so needed for parents and the public. I was wondering what is the connection between intelligence and ADHD, as in one of Huberman Lab episodes on ADHD, Andrew Huberman suggests that "ADHD has nothing to do with intelligence". The episode is here and he talks about it at min 10 kzbin.info/www/bejne/nnevZ6SIfq-Nlbs As a parent of a child with ADHD I'm trying to learn as much as possible to be able to fully support my child, but I'm finding some contradictory information.

[@russellbarkleyphd2023]

See my video on ADHD, IQ, and Giftedness. Thanks for watching.

[@shayinga6440]

Wait, adhd is curable? How can you recover from a numerological disorder?

[@chrisalan8527]

You count your blessings. 😁

[@azamattamabek]