Weekly Research Updates for July 6, 2024

00:00 Introduction and Dad Jokes
01:32 Effects of judo practice on ADHD symptoms - meta-analysis
03:37 Common health conditions comorbid with ADHD - a review of reviews
05:58 Large study of risk for later psychiatric disorders in people diagnosed with ADHD
08:07 Deficient perception of biological motion in children with ADHD
10:23 Cerebellar network disturbances in adults with ADHD
12:54 Conclusion
Research Discussed in the Video
Benefits of Judo Practice for Individuals with Neurodevelopmental Disorders: A Systematic Literature Review
G Descamps, MJ Campos, T Rizzo, V Pečnikar Oblak… - Sports, 2024
doi.org/10.3390/sports12070182
Comorbid health conditions in people with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorders: an umbrella review of systematic reviews and meta-analyses
J Kang, H Lee, S Kim, HJ Kim, H Lee, R Kwon, Y Son… - Asian Journal of Psychiatry, 2024
doi.org/10.1016/j.ajp.2024.10...
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and subsequent diagnoses of major psychiatric disorders: a nationwide population-based study
S Kim, MS Kim, J Kim, JS Kim, SB Hong - European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 2024
link.springer.com/article/10....
Atypical local and global biological motion perception in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
J Tian, F Yang, Y Wang, L Wang, N Wang, Y Jiang… - eLife, 2024
doi.org/10.7554/eLife.90313.5
Cerebellar network alterations in adult attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder
S Parkkinen, J Radua, DS Andrews, D Murphy… - Journal of Psychiatry and …, 2024
www.jpn.ca/content/49/4/E233

[@CloroxBleach-rq3me]

I appreciate the time you take to do these reviews. This is a bit silly, but with all of the stigma out there about ADHD being fictitious, I find it vindicating to see these rigorous scientific explorations repeatedly and consistently demonstrating the neurological REALITY of this multidimensional disorder.

[@imthinkingthoughts]

I am right there with you. Most people in my life hold negative stigma towards me and my adhd, particularly because it’s inattentive. It’s very painful to feel and I use this pain to deepen my compassion and empathy towards stigmatised others. Papers truly help me to put it into perspective, particularly the ignorance of those who hold negative stigma. I’ve allowed myself to call them uneducated and to reduce my view of them when I comes to rationality. This seems to help my emotional side because it reduces the value I get to their misguided opinions. It’s been a journey, and I’m glad there are other people out there in the trenches with me like yourself 😊

[@Millennial_Manc]

Thank you Doctor. I’m in the UK and am very interested in the neuro-imaging study. A few years ago, my ADHD consultant was trying to negotiate something on those lines for me to try to find a way past my tolerance to the stimulants (which worked flawlessly well for nearly 2 weeks). The neurologist considered a DAT scan and a PET scan with a tracer called raclopride that binds to dopamine receptors. The conclusion was that individual clinical use of neuro-imaging is pointless as there’s an overlap between the highest treatment-naive dopaminergic activity in an ADHD group and the lowest in the healthy population. I went away and put my solution generating hat on, and figured that I didn’t need to compare myself to normal; I could compare myself to myself. Take a substantial break from medication, have a scan, take medication to and have another scan during the couple of days of it working, and then a third scan a couple of weeks later showing how my brain changes over several weeks after the same dose of medication. My ADHD consultant thought it was quite a novel but credible idea, though he was unsure what we would do clinically with the results in terms of treatment. He suddenly became ill and medically retired just before we could choreograph it, so it never happened. UK adult ADHD services are swamped and I don’t have a proper consultant anymore, certainly not one who will sign off on anything as novel as that. I’d gladly pay for it myself if there’s a chance it’d help me have a more normal life but there’s a high clinical threshold for exposing people to radioactive tracers or gamma scans. In the UK, general psychiatrist or GP (family doctor) can diagnose childhood ADHD but not ADHD in adults. Only psychiatrists with an “interest” (as they call it) in adult ADHD or a specialism in it can make the diagnosis, which binds the NHS’s hands in ramping up capacity.

[@russellbarkleyphd2023]

Correct

[@sarahhartnett5629]

The motion study is fascinating. I have never been able to follow along and learn to do things like Zumba, aerobics, or line dancing in real time because I struggle to translate SEEING motions into DOING motions. I can (eventually) learn to do these things if someone puts my body into the right position, or if I read or hear a detailed description of what I need to do - just not by watching. I am also notoriously bad at looking where people are pointing. It’s actually a standing joke in my family that the dog is better at looking where you are pointing than I am. I’ve come to terms with this very minor limitation over the years, and on the rare occasion it is a problem I just laugh about it now. But it’s definitely interesting to hear it could be an ADHD or ADHD-adjacent thing!

[@gabriellawaldi]

Thank you Dr. Barkley!!

[@aybikeanacali8414]

Thank you again Dr Barkley. I have a suggestion if it wouldn't be too much for you, it would be so helpful as headline if you use the topic of studies instead of "Weekly Research". Because sometimes we need to rewatch some of them and we have to open many videos and read the description of each of them until we find that specific topic. So maybe "weekly research" should be a note on the description part. Again, you put so much time and work for this channel and this is just a humble suggestion if it won't be too much to ask.

[@sammick7781]

Welcome back, the sound quality does appear to have improved. I am hearing less reverberations 👍

[@HowndsOfDoom]

A rather cool research review this week, thanks Doc!

[@Handle8844]

Dr. B., at around the 12:10 mark, you mention that people who don't respond to ADHD meds seem to have fewer connections than even other ADHD folk (the ones who DO respond to medications) in both the Superior and Inferior Cerebellar Projections (sp?) Is that people who don't respond to ANY ADHD medication (eg. both stimulant and non-stimulant)? From what I understand from watching your other videos, there are relatively few of us -- maybe less than 10% -- who don't respond to anything. It's great to see that science is finding some useful information about the difference between our brains and the brains of most ADHD people... who do, indeed, tend to benefit greatly from medication. It's a bit depressing, though, to learn that my brain connections might be even weaker than the average ADHD person.

[@chesneymigl4538]

Martial arts was great for this AuDHDer. So, case study of one!

[@olgaanna8864]

Thank you, Doctor. I hear that "risk of later psychiatric disorders in people diagnosed with ADHD earlier in life is higher". Just to confirm - am I correct in assuming that the matter lies not in being diagnosed early, but in the fact that ADHD is likely to cause/linked with comorbidity of those other disorders? In other words, if there were adequate studies on people diagnosed later in lifer, the same effect would probably be seen?

[@russellbarkleyphd2023]

Correct

[@imthinkingthoughts]

Could it be that earlier diagnosis is linked to more impairing/evident cases of adhd?

[@russellbarkleyphd2023]

@@imthinkingthoughts That is possible as more severe disorder leads to more impairment which may be the link to anxiety and depression but genetics is also involved here as all these disorders share some genes as I discussed in my video on comorbidity in ADHD. Be well m

[@courtneyriley185]

Really cool shirt, doc 🎉

[@mariannaark5899]

Lol my first thought abt the motion study was "I bet it's something they borrowed from asd studies" because my social deficits are far more in line with what's typical in autism and yet had very noticeable improvement once I started meds. And a lot of that improvement had to do with finally being able to notice sooo many things I couldn't before like small cues and patterns of behavior and speech etc. It's likely just a funny coincidence but I do wonder what made the reasearchers pick this sort of test. Edit for anyone interested: Apparently studying BM pereception in various disorders has been common for some years now as it's considered a "hallmark of social cognition" and there weren't many studies abt this in ADHD and the few who existed didin't differentiate between local & global BM. It's from the study itself ofc so better read it urself.

[@DustinMaysN]

I'm *really* interested to see more research re: deficits in the perception of biological motion in people with ADHD. Considering how essential that detecting prey and environmental threats would have been to survival, this seems like a possible counterpoint to the hunter-gatherer hypothesis.

[@MzzDee]

I'm loving the new shirt

[@freedbygsus]

I'm glad to see that ADHD continues to receive attention from Social Neuroscience researchers with that paper about Biological Motion perception. Perhaps local BM perception can be used as an early childhood screening tool for ADHD and ASD. Maybe improvements in global BM perception could be a target for early intervention strategies. It's obviously still quite early to say anything meaningful about this research, but its fascinating nonetheless.

[@Keddlecorn]

My korean mother has been raised in a cultural environment of mental health denial, is there a translation of that south korean study that she could read so that I might have a small breakthrough with her stubborn self?

[@russellbarkleyphd2023]

Check the journal website for the article to see if any such translations are available. I don't know of any. You can also provide her with the names of the Korean professionals who authored the paper if contacting them might help her change her mind.

[@tan4296]

Nice shirt!

[@Joe_from_Li]

I wonder whether activities like judo help with developing better balance and therefore causes growth in the cerebellum connections thereby decreasing adhd symptoms? I read an article stating adhd people can’t balance on one foot as long as neuro typical people which is 30 seconds on average

[@TsutsuYumeGunnm]

All this "exercises for ADHD" looks to me like a fraud. Because with ADHD you have a very limited amount of energy. And wasting this energy to moving body around just means that you waste all day cuz no energy is left for productive activities like learning and working. Idk, maybe this researches mistook tiredness for calmness? Or maybe they find improvement in non productive activities?🤔

[@imthinkingthoughts]

I might be wrong, but I think generally the literature suggests regular moderate amounts of exercise increases energy levels and has many other positive effects. Of course doing sprints will make someone tired for the day, but a gentle walk could be more balanced

[@pakers2128]

As a participant in JUDO starting as I young teenager, my PERSONAL experience mirrors the studies.

[@chriscohlmeyer4735]

Sports such as Judo are more about mind and body movement control as well as seeing the mind and body movement of an opponent when that aspect is brought into practice sessions. Once many of the principals are learned then "we" start to see actual competition which is by age and ability level. Sports such as Judo give a young person with ADHD some tools to aid in control of their mind impulses.