On April 29, the Trump administration announced it was cutting $1 billion in funding for federal grants used to hire and train 14,000 mental health professionals in 260 public school districts across 49 states.

The grants originated in 2022’s Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, a bill that passed the Senate with unanimous consent following the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, where 22 people died, including 19 elementary school children. The bill was largely seen as important recognition of and support for an escalating mental health crisis among American youth.

In April, the Trump administration eliminated all funding for these grants, blaming Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives associated with them. Specifically, the administration objected to grant money being used to train and recruit diverse mental health counselors who reflect the demographic make-up of the students they serve.

Meanwhile, research shows that BIPOC students benefit from access to a diverse cohort of mental health professionals¹, and the inverse is true as well.

“We see studies that show a bias in the way that Black children, in particular, are treated in the health care system compared to white children,” said Tumaini Rucker Coker, M.D., during the ADDitude webinar “Equity in ADHD Care.” “It is directly related to racial bias. Black families are less likely than white families to have concordance or a shared lived experience with their healthcare providers, and studies have shown that Black adults are more likely than white adults to report lower levels of trust in their providers as well.”

[Read: “As Inclusion Disappears, My Mask Reappears”]

Furthermore, “studies show that Black families tend to have worse outcomes with white doctors,” said Napoleon B. Higgins, Jr., M.D., during his ADDitude webinar “Health Equity in ADHD.” “That is that is a sad thing to hear, but if we can educate more providers, maybe we could change that.”

Recently, ADDitude invited its readers’ reflections on news of the $1 billion in cuts to youth mental health services. Nearly 200 people responded, and many of them expressed concern that all students’ mental health may suffer because of the cuts, but especially those with autism, ADHD, and learning differences, who may benefit from seeing school counselors with similar lived experiences.

[Read: “DEI – and Neurodivergence – Are Under Attack”]

ADDitude Readers React to Mental Health Funding Cuts

“As a school social worker and the parent of a child who has an IEP, I consider Trump’s cuts to funding for public school mental health to be gross negligence. I think that it highlights his ignorance on the issues plaguing our youth. I also find it irresponsible. Our kids still are not okay ever since COVID. I believe that it will impact the services that my son receives.”

“Students need to feel safe and be OK within themselves before they can take in the knowledge to learn anything. Cutting access to mental health services means that students who are at-risk learners due to factors outside a school’s or educator’s control may become disengaged learners. This leads to more problematic and potentially anti-social behavior.”

“As a former teacher of students with disabilities, I am concerned. Students need safe places to go and get mental health support. Parents are doing their best but don’t always have the resources to support their children.”

“All three of my children are neurodiverse, and this can take a toll on their mental health. Having supports like counselors, DEI programs, and other accessibility programs is vital. I now have two children in college and one entering high school.”

“I am a school counselor and my son has ADHD. We’re already incredibly behind on providing mental health services to students. These cuts are only going to significantly increase the percentage of students whose health needs are hardly or never addressed.”

“Every child should have the support they need to excel in school. School mental health services are critical for this.”

“I don’t understand why we are defunding mental health awareness, advocacy, and resources. It really doesn’t make any sense to me. It seems like we had made such strides forward in mental health, but now we’re going backward for some reason. I understand cutting expenses to cut spending and improve the national deficit, but it seems like we are cutting very vital and necessary things. It’s like trying to cut back on your own budget by deciding to not buy groceries anymore.”

Understanding Trump’s Funding Freeze: Next Steps

• Read: Generation AnXiety — Findings on ADHD & the Mental Health Crisis
• Learn:Youth Mental Health Care Is Vital. And Hard to Access.
• Watch: Mental Health Out Loud Webinar

SUPPORT ADDITUDE
Thank you for reading ADDitude . To support our mission of providing ADHD education and support, please consider subscribing. Your readership and support help make our content and outreach possible. Thank you.

Sources

¹
McGuire, TG., Miranda, J. (March-April 2008). New evidence regarding racial and ethnic disparities in mental health: policy implications. Health Affairs.https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.27.2.393

Six weeks ago, the autistic community sounded the alarm when U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., called autism a “preventable disease” caused by unknown “environmental toxins,” and vowed to root out its causes within six months. Shortly thereafter, the head of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced that it would begin amassing private medical records from commercial and federal databases, including those operated by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), to provide health data for Kennedy’s proposed autism study, according to NPR.

This proposed NIH-CMS database would reportedly include information from wearable health devices, insurance claims, and online medical records. An NIH official said, “The real-world data platform will link existing datasets to support research into causes of autism and insights into improved treatment strategies.”

Kennedy initially said the NIH-CMS database would fuel a series of research studies to “identify precisely what the environmental toxins are that are causing” autism by September; he recently pushed back that date by six months or more. Meanwhile, autism scientists, medical practitioners, and advocates have expressed concern and even outrage over Kennedy’s apparent dismissal of existing autism research and the recent resignation of a top NIH scientist who accused the Kennedy-run organization of research censorship.

Though Kennedy insists the database is not an “autism registry,” privacy concerns remain high. Currently, autism databases do exist in seven U.S. states, including Delaware, Indiana, North Dakota, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Utah, and West Virginia. However, rules of consent for these state databases set them apart from the NIH-CMS database, which reportedly pulls in medical information from insurance claims and medical records without first securing patient consent.

In its May 22 MAHA Report, Kennedy’s MAHA Commission confirmed its plans to “expand the NIH-CMS autism data initiative into a broader, secure system linking claims, EHRs, and environmental inputs to study childhood chronic diseases.” Details remain unclear, however ADDitude recently asked readers to share their thoughts and reactions to this news.

Overall, a majority of the 194 respondents expressed privacy concerns, citing possible violations of HIPAA laws in relation to the NIH-CMS database. They also remained largely unconvinced that this database could unlock answers about the causes of autism within 6 to 12 months, considering that global researchers have been working to solve that puzzle for decades.

Some respondents reported experience with state-level databases and expressed a desire for the NIH to institute a nationwide support network for autistic people and their families, but most expressed skepticism that this database would achieve that goal. Following are more than a dozen comments shared by ADDitude readers.

“Nothing About Us Without Us!”

“I believe that collecting and studying medical records related to autism can be valuable — but only if it is done ethically, with full transparency, and with the informed consent of individuals and families. Trust, privacy, and the protection of autistic people’s rights should be at the center of any such effort.”

“I have not knowingly participated. But being AuDHD and on Medicaid for ADHD makes me very much a part of this. This makes me very nervous. I feel more anxiety about discrimination than I do hope about research breakthroughs.”

“I understand the exceptional possibilities of researching, connecting, and resourcing families touched by autism. However, (this database) must be paired with mandatory ethical guidelines and government-backed regulations to ensure that families, students, job applicants, etc. are not discriminated against if their status can be ‘looked up.'”

“Voluntary registration to connect with others: Great idea. Government oversite of such a registry? No way. Every administration has its own agenda, and you have no way of knowing how the information will be used. It smacks of lack of privacy, lack of safety, lack of internet security, and especially the possibility for abuse of power over the vulnerable.”

“Both my college-aged and teenage children who are autistic are against the idea of a registry. They feel it could be used to track them and their personal information without their consent. They also feel this is preferred more by parents than actual autistic people, who often do not get to voice their experiences to professionals. Many teenage and adult autistic people are begging for a voice in this conversation!”

“Connecting to supports is important but a nationwide registry is not necessary to facilitate this. It could (and in my opinion, would) be used for purposes that would not benefit and could cause major harms to the families and/or the children who are on the ‘list.’ This is a major moral, ethical, and privacy issue. What kinds of data management would be put in place to ensure that individuals as well as families and communities (especially Indigenous peoples and other vulnerable communities) have control over how, when, where, and why the data is accessed?”

“How about a voluntary registry? Long-term data is good, but there needs to be consistency and confidentiality. This should not be done without full consent of the people being studied. Nothing about us without us!”

“I am fearful that a national registry of those identified on the autism spectrum could be used against them rather than to help link them to supports.”

“I am horrified as I fear for an unjust use of this data. As a clinical therapist, I am almost reluctant to record ADHD and ASD as diagnoses. This is a frightful reversal to our cultural values in which I grew up.”

“I feel like the idea of an ‘autism registry’ is being created for the wrong reasons. While it may be presented as a tool for research or support, it raises serious concerns about privacy and potential misuse. A centralized list of autistic individuals could easily be weaponized — whether intentionally or through systemic bias — and used to deny people opportunities in areas like employment, housing, education, or even healthcare. It could lead to increased surveillance, reinforce harmful stereotypes, and deepen the stigma that already exists around autism.”

“Most of the current communities that provide services to autistic individuals are the de facto registries and are also (in theory) under HIPPA disclosure standards. I do not trust that setting up a brand-new registry would be up to that standard of protecting the rights and privacy for individuals and families.”

“I support the opportunity for connections, but the availability for others to use personal medical data without consent is abominable. I fear this information will be used against people in hiring and in obtaining benefits. I have several autistic co-workers, and I am scared for them.”

“If this was for research only, or to sign up for some valid benefit, it wouldn’t feel so ominous. But the way this is being handled, it feels like a target list, and I don’t trust that those added to these lists won’t suffer in some way or another, like loss of economic opportunities.”

“It feels like an invasion of privacy to force individuals into a registry. It also further perpetuates the narrative that autistic and neurodivergence is a problem or needs to be ‘fixed’. It truly brings me despair. We deserve better, and everyone deserves education on things they don’t personally relate to/are directly related to.”

“The amassing and studying records are steps of good science. But I don’t trust the intentions, the word, or the medical judgement of the people who want to do the amassing and studying in this case. I hope those with legal standing will try to stop these actions.”

Autism Registry Proposed by the MAHA Commission: Next Steps

• Analysis: MAHA Report – 3 Takeaways for the ADHD Community
• Read: RFK Jr., Is Spreading a Dangerous, Ignorant Myth About Autism
• Learn: MAHA Commission Means Fear, Stigma, Health Threats for Two-Thirds of ADDitude Readers
• Background: MAHA Commission Draws Swift Criticism, Condemnation

SUPPORT ADDITUDE
Thank you for reading ADDitude. To support our mission of providing ADHD education and support, please consider subscribing. Your readership and support help make our content and outreach possible. Thank you.

ADHD raises the risk of obesity, but its effect is dampened for people living in large cities, according to two new studies.

Young adults with combined-type ADHD are more likely than their non-ADHD peers to carry excess weight around their midsection and to have an unhealthy waist-to-height ratio (known as the body mass index or BMI), according to a new cross-sectional study published in American Journal of Human Biology. ¹ Obesity-related health conditions, such as heart disease and Type 2 diabetes, are tied to excess abdominal fat.

“The effect of ADHD on obesity intensified with age,” however, “no significant association was found with blood pressure, but trends suggested hypertension may escalate with age among ADHD individuals,” the study’s authors wrote.

ADHD’s Behavioral and Biological Links to Obesity

The biological link between ADHD and obesity, and the influence of environment on this relationship, was the focus of another new study led by researchers from the Tandon School of Engineering at New York University and the Italian National Institute of Health. ²

The study, published in PLOS Complex Systems, proposed that ADHD influences obesity along two pathways:

1. Behavioral: Difficulties with motivation, planning, and sustained attention may lead people with ADHD to engage in less physical activity, increasing the likelihood of weight gain.
2. Biological: ADHD affects areas of the brain responsible for impulse control, decision making, and reward processing, making people with ADHD more susceptible to impulsive eating behaviors, such as bingeing or choosing high-calorie snacks.

“A lot of people I work with complain about using food for stimulation,” said Nicole DeMasi Malcher, M.S., R.D., CDES, during the ADDitude webinar “Eating with ADHD: Improving Your Relationship with Food.” “They are constantly looking for food to deliver a quick fix rather than thinking about the long-term effects.”

Malcher attributes this behavior, in part, to poor interoception, the ability to sense what’s happening inside the body, including cues such as thirst, hunger, and fullness. “People with ADHD are unable to recognize these cues until they feel really ravenous,” she said. “Then it’s too late, and they make more impulsive eating and food choices.”

ADHD and the City

Living in a city environment may mitigate the risk of obesity for individuals with and without ADHD. The research found that living in a large city offers more opportunities for physical activity, better access to mental health care, and higher overall levels of education, which could buffer the effects of ADHD that lead to obesity.

The NYU/Italian research team analyzed 915 cities in the United States using an urban scaling mathematical model to examine how rates of ADHD and obesity changed as cities grew. Their analysis showed that, in larger urban areas, ADHD and obesity become relatively less common as population grows. At the same time, access to education and mental health services tends to grow faster than the population. In short, bigger cities aren’t just more populated — they’re often better equipped to handle public health issues like ADHD and obesity. In contrast, cities with fewer opportunities for physical activity or more food insecurity demonstrated stronger links between ADHD and obesity.

“Our research reveals a surprising urban advantage: as cities grow, both obesity and ADHD rates decrease proportionally,” says Tian Gan, a co-author of the PLOS study. “Meanwhile, mental health services become more accessible, helping combat physical inactivity — a key link between ADHD and obesity. This pattern suggests larger cities offer protective factors against these interconnected health challenges.”

Similar patterns emerged when the researchers analyzed survey data from 19,428 children across the U.S. as part of the National Survey of Children’s Health. Children with more severe ADHD symptoms were more likely to be obese, especially if they lived in homes with fewer opportunities for physical activity or lower parental education levels.

The researchers also measured the differences between each city’s rates of ADHD and obesity, and those expected for its population, identifying several regional discrepancies. Cities in the Southeastern and Southwestern U.S. displayed greater disparities in ADHD and obesity prevalence, mental health access, and food insecurity than other regions. Neighboring cities often differed significantly, suggesting that local policies and resources could either amplify or reduce these health risks.

“These findings underscore the importance of city-level interventions in mitigating the impact of impulsivity disorders on the obesity epidemic,” says Dr. Maurizio Porfiri, Ph.D., senior author on the PLOS study. “It’s not just about how big a city is — it’s about how it uses its resources. With this kind of insight, policymakers can target investments in mental health care, education, and physical activity to break the link between ADHD and obesity where it’s strongest.”

Intuitive Eating for ADHD

Both studies suggest that effective management of ADHD symptoms can help reduce the risk of obesity and its complications, and that obesity management programs must take into account a patient’s ADHD diagnosis.

The practice of intuitive eating (IE), for example, may help address the underlying neurological traits that influence the eating habits of people with ADHD.

“Intuitive eating, when adapted for the ADHD brain, provides an evidence-based framework that works with rather than against ADHD traits,” Malcher said. “This approach helps reduce overwhelm, prevent binge eating, and create sustainable eating habits without triggering the restriction-binge cycle common in ADHD.”

Sources

¹Mishra, S., Choudhury, O., Chaudhary, V., Saraswathy, K.N., Shekhawat, L.S., and Devi, N.K. (2025). Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in obesity and hypertension: A study among young adults in Delhi NCR, India. Am J Hum Biol. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.70022 

²Gan, T., Succar, R., Macrì, S., Porfiri, M. (2025). Investigating the link between impulsivity and obesity through urban scaling laws. PLOS Complex Syst. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcsy.0000046

ADHD symptoms are impacted by changes in sex hormone levels in females across the lifespan, finds a new systematic review published in the Journal of Attention Disorders.¹ The review included 11 studies that investigated puberty, pregnancy, postpartum, and the menstrual cycle and tracked changes in symptomology and in the efficacy of ADHD medication during these times.

“There is an ADHD experience that is unique to females,” the study’s authors concluded. “Recognizing potential influences of sex hormones on ADHD symptoms in females may have key implications to clinical management and treatment of ADHD.”

The study included several key findings.

Sex Hormones and ADHD During Menstrual Cycle

The research reviewed four studies that explored the fluctuation of ADHD symptoms during the menstrual cycle. The following associations were identified:

• Early luteal phase: increased impulsivity and hyperactivity²
• Mid-luteal phase: increased emotional dysregulation, executive dysfunction, inattention³
• Late luteal phase: increased inattention and executive dysfunction, and mental health symptoms such as depression, irritability and anxiety⁴

Linking these symptom trends to increase and decrease of specific female hormones, the authors wrote: “Inattention symptoms may be related to decreasing estrogen and moderated by progesterone, whereas hyperactive/impulsivity symptoms may similarly be driven by reducing estrogen levels, though without effect of progesterone.” ⁵

These significant shifts in symptom severity were vividly described by Chloe, an ADDitude reader, in an article titled “Menstrual Cycle Phases and ADHD.” “The entire week leading up to my period is where my ADHD symptoms get even more intrusive than usual,” she wrote. “My executive functioning dips even lower, distractibility and difficulty focusing is increased, and my mood/energy level is much lower, causing me to feel badly about all the things I’m not being successful at that week.”

The review found that increasing stimulant dosage premenstrually resulted in improvement of ADHD and mood symptoms, including emotional dysregulation. This point was echoed in the lived experience of many ADDitide readers, who reported that their typical medication dosage seems less effective in the luteal phase of their cycle. Norma, a reader from Wisconsin wrote: “The week leading up to my cycle, I might as well not even take my ADHD meds. It’s like my body overrides them.”

Sex Hormones and ADHD in Pregnancy and Postpartum

The review included one study investigating ADHD in pregnancy.⁶ Three groups of pregnant women were included: those who discontinued ADHD medication, those who continued, and those who took medication as needed.

The study found hyperactivity symptoms were significantly lower and both mood and family functioning were better among the women who continued medication compared to those who discontinued. Other ADHD symptoms did not differ between the groups, leading researchers to theorize that, for some, the high estrogen of pregnancy may ameliorate certain ADHD symptoms. Because just one study was reviewed, and its sample size was small, the authors stressed that more research is required to contextualize the results.

Allison Baker, M.D., lead author for the study included in the review, wrote about her findings in an article for ADDitude, “Treating for Two:” “Women who discontinued stimulant treatment during pregnancy were more likely to experience conflict within their family, rate parenting as more difficult, and report feeling more isolated. Those who discontinued stimulants but did not stop taking their antidepressant medication, experienced a clinically significant increase in depression.”

While the study did not investigate an association between ADHD and postpartum depression, other studies have found that 17% of women with ADHD experience PPD compared to 3.3% of women without ADHD. and 25% experience postpartum anxiety disorders, compared to 4.61% of women without ADHD.⁷

“New mothers with ADHD face distinct postpartum challenges that are as ubiquitous as they are unstudied,” wrote Baker in “Postpartum Care for Mothers with ADHD.” “The months following the birth of a baby are uniquely difficult, and women with ADHD do not usually receive the medical support and treatments they need during this time.

Future Research on Hormones and ADHD

Understanding the role that sex hormones play on ADHD symptoms in women has far-reaching implications for diagnosing the condition and treating it. The review’s authors put forth the following interventions as possible ways to improve ADHD symptoms exacerbated by female hormones:

• premenstrual adjustment of stimulant dose ⁸
• use of hormonal therapies to stabilize estrogen and progesterone levels during menopause⁹ for those who struggle with PMDD ¹⁰

The main limitation of the review, authors acknowledged, is the small number of studies included, many of which include small sample sizes. “To advance our understanding of ADHD in females, research that seeks to understand the mechanisms underlying how sex hormones may influence ADHD symptoms is essential,” they wrote, calling for a multi-disciplinary approach that combines assessments of hormone levels with neurocognitive, brain imaging, genetic, or neurophysiological investigations.

This call for research was echoed in the ADDitude magazine article “Hormonal Changes in Women with ADHD: 4 Gaping Holes in Research,” written by five leading experts on ADHD in women, including Michelle M. Martel, Ph.D., a lead author of several of the studies included in the review. “We know that hormones collide with ADHD to cause heightened mood dysregulation, memory problems, and impulsivity each month,” the authors explained. “But we don’t yet see the big picture of how symptoms manifest during different reproductive stages because research is scant and leaves more questions than answers.”

Sources

¹Osianlis, E., Thomas, E. H. X., Jenkins, L. M., & Gurvich, C. (2025). ADHD and Sex Hormones in Females: A Systematic Review. Journal of Attention Disorders, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/10870547251332319

²Roberts B., Eisenlohr-Moul T., Martel M. M. (2018). Reproductive steroids and ADHD symptoms across the menstrual cycle. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 88, 105–114. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2017.11.015

³Bürger I., Erlandsson K., Borneskog C. (2024). Perceived associations between the menstrual cycle and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): A qualitative interview study exploring lived experiences. Sexual & Reproductive Healthcare, 40, Article 100975. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.srhc.2024.100975

⁴de Jong M., Wynchank D. S. M. R., van Andel E., Beekman A. T. F., Kooij J. J. S. (2023). Female-specific pharmacotherapy in ADHD: Premenstrual adjustment of psychostimulant dosage. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 14, Article 1306194. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1306194

⁵Eng A. G., Nirjar U., Elkins A. R., Sizemore Y. J., Monticello K. N., Petersen M. K., Miller S. A., Barone J., Eisenlohr-Moul T. A., Martel M. M. (2024). Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and the menstrual cycle: Theory and evidence. Hormones and Behavior, 158, Article 105466. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yhbeh.2023.105466

⁶Baker, A. S., Wales, R., Noe, O., Gaccione, P., Freeman, M. P., & Cohen, L. S. (2020). The Course of ADHD during Pregnancy. Journal of Attention Disorders, 26(2), 143-148. https://doi.org/10.1177/1087054720975864

⁷Andersson, A., Garcia-Argibay, M., Viktorin, A., Ghirardi, A., Butwicka, A., Skoglund, C., Bang Madsen, K., D’onofrio, B.M., Lichtenstein, P., Tuvblad, C., and Larsson, H. (2023). Depression and Anxiety Disorders During the Postpartum Period in Women Diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Journal of Affective Disorders. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2023.01.069

⁸de Jong M., Wynchank D. S. M. R., van Andel E., Beekman A. T. F., Kooij J. J. S. (2023). Female-specific pharmacotherapy in ADHD: Premenstrual adjustment of psychostimulant dosage. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 14, Article 1306194. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1306194

⁹Herson M., Kulkarni J. (2022). Hormonal agents for the treatment of depression associated with the menopause. Drugs & Aging, 39(8), 607–618. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40266-022-00962-x

¹⁰Appleton S. M. (2018). Premenstrual syndrome: Evidence-based evaluation and treatment. Clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology, 61(1), 52–61. https://doi.org/10.1097/GRF.0000000000000339

The anticipated MAHA Commission report released yesterday misrepresents ADHD causes and care in the U.S., misinterpreting studies and disregarding compelling new research and patient voices to suggest that ADHD is contributing to a “crisis of overdiagnosis and treatment” in American children.

The MAHA Report, spearheaded by Health and Human Service (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., equates ADHD with obesity, heart disease, and diabetes in calling these harmful contributors to the “childhood chronic disease crisis” in the U.S. It disregards the genetic underpinnings of ADHD to suggest it is solely caused by environmental factors and foods, twists data to stoke fear over rising diagnosis rates, and excludes a wealth of studies that link stimulant medication use to improved health outcomes.

It assumes ADHD is a disease caused and cured by environmental factors. And it suggests that curing ADHD will “make America healthy again.” We disagree, and so does the research.

Should the U.S. government take a long, hard look at the impact of ultra-processed foods, environmental chemicals, and declining physical activity on American children? Absolutely. Should it invest in programs to provide healthy foods, affordable health care, and screen-free activities for all children, regardless of socioeconomic status or means? Yes. Do we support efforts to eliminate toxins from our kids’ food, water, and air? To protect them from unhealthy screen use? To help them live longer, healthier lives? 100%.

Will any of these efforts “cure” ADHD, as the MAHA Report suggests? No, the research does not support that notion. But these efforts, if undertaken by Kennedy, do stand to improve quality of life for many children, and so they should be seriously considered by HHS through investment in the FDA, CDC, and NIH.

Do you know what else improves quality of life for kids? Less stigma and shame, and more investment and solutions. The MAHA Report, sadly, increases ADHD stigma by claiming the condition is overdiagnosed and disparaging its treatment as ineffective without any credible evidence to support these claims. On the flipside, it makes no mention of the proven, life-saving benefits of ADHD treatment or the risks associated with undiagnosed, untreated ADHD. It makes no mention of behavioral parent training, cognitive behavioral therapy, dialectical behavior therapy, or classroom interventions for ADHD, all of which are shown to improve outcomes for individuals with ADHD. Instead, the report’s “solutions” for ADHD suggest more scrutiny of and restricted access to stimulant medication.

Finally, it is notable that the commission included few scientists or experts in pediatric health care. The commission conducted no new research and it apparently did not seek comment or insight from the American Professional Society of ADHD and Related Disorders (APSARD), the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), or the World Federation of ADHD regarding the established science on ADHD causes and treatments. No patients were interviewed for or quoted in the report.

The next steps outlined in the report are vague and we expect the commission to propose more detailed strategies in August, but here are three takeaways from the May 22 MAHA Report that may impact the ADHD community.

#1: The Report Misrepresents the Causes of ADHD

ADHD is a highly genetic condition, as confirmed by brand-new research that identified measurable genetic traits that essentially act as biomarkers for ADHD. Lifestyle factors such as nutrition, exercise, and sleep exert epigenetic changes on DNA that influence how strongly or weakly ADHD genes are expressed. However, diet, physical activity, sleep, or screen use alone do not cause — and have not been shown to “cure” — ADHD.

Scientific research has established no causal link between consumption of sugar, food additives, or food dyes and ADHD, though some studies show a heightened sensitivity among children with ADHD to these foods, which may exacerbate existing symptoms. Likewise, scientific research has established no causal link between excessive screen time, video game play, or social media use and ADHD.

Despite clear evidence to the contrary, the MAHA Report claims that ADHD is caused by all of the following, but it never mentions genetic factors:

• Antibiotics: The report cited as evidence a study that “could not disentangle the effects of antibiotics from those of the underlying conditions” and “could not verify adherence to antibiotic prescriptions.” Other recent studies have found gut microbiome alterations in children with ADHD but no causal link between antibiotic use and ADHD in humans.
• Food additives: Research shows that food dyes may worsen symptoms of inattention or hyperactivity in children with ADHD, however there is no evidence of a causal relationship.
• Environmental toxins: This article by Joel Nigg, Ph.D., contains a thorough overview of all existing research on environmental toxins and ADHD, but the bottom line is this: “Genes and environments work together to shape development of the brain and behavior throughout life, but especially — and most dramatically — in very early life. ADHD, like other complex conditions, doesn’t have a single cause. Both nature and nurture influence its development.”

#2: The Report Casts Doubt on the Validity of an ADHD Diagnosis

The MAHA Report claims that “research shows ADHD has the strongest evidence of overdiagnosis,” however no such research is cited in the report. Perhaps that is because there is no definitive evidence that ADHD is overdiagnosed in America today. ADHD diagnosis rates have increased over the last few decades, however this may be a result of any of the following, and other factors:

• The high diagnosis rate cited in the report comes from a problematic and misleading CDC study that is “terribly designed to assess the prevalence of the disorder,” says Russell Barkley, Ph.D., a leading authority on ADHD. “In this survey, there is one question about ADHD: ‘Has a doctor or other healthcare provider ever told you that this child has ADD or ADHD?’ That could be anybody associated with the healthcare profession who has no training in ADHD… and there is no effort in this study to follow up to see if these children were, in fact, diagnosed.” Barkley goes on to say that meta-analyses of better-conducted studies that apply diagnostic criteria to their research populations find that the prevalence of ADHD among children ranges from 5 to 8 percent, not 10 to 11 percent.
• Revised diagnostic criteria published in the DSM-5 changed the age of onset from 7 to 12 and added the first-ever qualifier symptoms for ADHD in adulthood
• With ongoing research and clinician training on ADHD, education and symptom recognition have improved
• Twenty years ago, ADHD was viewed as a disorder that affected young males. As research on females began to take hold, girls and women were able to secure ADHD evaluations for the first time
• Likewise, as mental health stigma dissipates within time, historically underserved populations are seeking care for the first time

The report further suggests that “the harms associated with an ADHD diagnosis may often outweigh the benefits” without naming those supposed harms or acknowledging the many health risks associated with undiagnosed ADHD. Research shows that undiagnosed and untreated individuals face a higher risk for fatal car accidents, unwanted pregnancies, serious injury and hospitalizations, job loss, academic interruptions, self-harm, anxiety, depression, eating disorders, and more. The harms associated with undiagnosed ADHD are too severe to ignore, yet the MAHA Commission does just that.

#3: The Report Misrepresents the Efficacy and Risks of ADHD Medication

The MAHA Report draws faulty conclusions from the ​​Multimodal Treatment of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (MTA) study to argue that ADHD medication use offers no benefits “in grades, relationships, achievement, behavior, or any other measure” after 14 months of use. This is untrue.

In reality, the MTA study ended after 14 months, so the control group members with ADHD who did not initially receive medication were free to seek it out after 14 months. As many of the controls began treating their ADHD symptoms with medication, the differences between the control and treatment groups faded because the control group members began to improve on medication, not because the treatment group began to do worse. It is wrong and irresponsible to suggest that no patients experienced benefits from ADHD medication use after 14 months.

“The groups became very contaminated after that 14-month follow-up,” Barkley says in a video on his YouTube channel. “Therefore, we can’t make comparisons at years 2, 3, or 4 between or among the treatment groups and draw any conclusions about them because the treatments were mixed up among all the groups.”

The report claims that stimulants, “when stopped, often lead to disabling and prolonged physical dependence and withdrawal symptoms.” This is untrue. The research cited in the report was a study of antidepressants, not stimulants. There is no evidence to support this assertion regarding stimulant medication. In addition, we know that half of teens and adults with ADHD stop taking stimulant medication within one year of starting it, often due to stigma or access problems. This suggests that it is not addictive. In fact, stimulant medication has been used safely and effectively for nearly 100 years — more than enough time for long-term adverse outcomes to come to light, yet none has.

Finally, the report’s claim that stimulant medication use does “not improve outcomes long-term” is also false.

Research dating back more than 40 years has documented the positive impact of ADHD treatment on specific symptoms like inattention and hyperactivity, and on life expectancy overall. Recently, a Swedish study, published in JAMA Network Open, documented these findings:

• ADHD medication use reduced overall risk of death by 19%. Among people with ADHD who did not receive medication, there were 48 deaths for every 10,000 people, contrasted with 39 deaths per 10,000 people within the medicated cohort.
• ADHD medication use reduced the risk of overdose by 50%. Medication use also reduced the risk of death from other unnatural causes, including accidental injuries, accidental poisoning such as drug overdoses, and suicide.
• ADHD medication use reduced the risk of death from natural causes, such as medical conditions, for women.

People with childhood ADHD are nearly twice as likely to develop a substance use disorder as are individuals without childhood ADHD. However, research suggests that patients with ADHD treated with stimulant medications experience a 60% reduction in substance use disorders compared to those who are not treated with stimulant medication. Considerable evidence also suggests that children taking ADHD medication experience improvements in academic and social functioning, which translates to improved self-esteem, lower rates of self-medication with drugs or alcohol, and decreased risk of substance abuse.

Given all of the above, it’s difficult to view the increase in stimulant medication use flagged by the MAHA Report as anything but positive. “Why isn’t that evidence of improvement in good public mental health?” Barkley asks. “The fact that there is a rise in the occurrence of a particular treatment does not provide prima facie evidence that there is something bad, wicked, evil, wrong going on here; it simply means that, over time, we are getting closer and closer to identifying conditions that produce harm in individuals, and that we try to alleviate that harm and suffering.”

The Threat to ADHD Care Access

The MAHA Commission plans to release its recommended strategies in August, but it’s easy to see the writing on the wall now. The arguments presented in Thursday’s MAHA Report, based largely on outdated or poorly interpreted research, suggest that Kennedy may seek to restrict access to ADHD care and that he’s building a foundation of doubt and misinformation now to support that action.

We fear efforts to dissuade physicians from diagnosing and treating ADHD may be forthcoming from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) with support from the CDC, which Kennedy oversees. Of course, we hope we are proven wrong. We hope that, instead, HHS chooses to fully restore funding for ADHD research efforts through the National Institutes of Mental Health, for mental healthcare initiatives through the CDC, and for nationwide nutrition assistance programs through the FDA.

ADDitude supports an investment in unbiased research into the root causes of and effective treatments for ADHD to support, not ‘cure,’ individuals living with neurodivergent brains. We welcome the opportunity to engage in transparent dialog with the MAHA Commission and to introduce the voices and viewpoints of individuals and families living with ADHD, which were excluded from this report. And we hope that this administration will fund initiatives to improve food quality and access, eliminate harmful food additives, provide mental health services to all children, and crack down on the industries and companies contributing toxins to our environment.

We also stand ready to defend the legitimacy of the robust library of credible, science-backed research studies that confirm ADHD’s genetic underpinnings, that validate its diagnostic tools, and that confirm the benefits of its uninterrupted treatment.

Reactions from the ADHD Community

Mark Bertin, M.D., PLLC, of Developmental Pediatrics

“Lifestyle changes that promote child health are a wonderful idea. However, the MAHA paper ignores the reality of ADHD, a common medical disorder with genetics nearly as strong as the inherited trait of height. Undertreated ADHD is a public health concern that affects school performance, relationships, and driving; increases the risk of substance abuse; and shortens lifespans. Research and clinical experience show clear benefits to ADHD medication, which has been used for a century without evidence of chronic side effects. Supporting individuals with ADHD requires more understanding, not less, while making medical, educational, psychological, and health-related supports affordable and easily available. The MAHA document completely misrepresents ADHD in ways that are judgmental, demeaning, and will be harmful to individuals, our health care system, and society.”

Russell Barkley, Ph.D.

The ADHD Evidence Project, Founded by Stephen Faraone, Ph.D.

“ADHD is one of the most discussed neurodevelopmental disorders in the MAHA Report, but many of its claims about ADHD are misleading, oversimplified, or inconsistent with decades of scientific evidence, much of which is described in the International Consensus Statement on ADHD, and other references given here.”

Listening to music while practicing mindfulness exercises may improve focus, mood, and emotional wellbeing in people with symptoms of ADHD, anxiety, and depression, according to two new studies.

A systematic review examining the relationship between music and ADHD found that music listening activates brain regions involved in sensory processing, motor control, and motivation — networks that are often dysregulated in individuals with attention deficit.¹

Traditional thinking suggests that quiet environments help sustain attention; however, the opposite may be true. The review, published in Behavioral Science, indicated that music, especially calm music with or without lyrics, can improve focus and performance in individuals with ADHD, especially when it is heard before or during tasks. Listening to music can also help filter out distractions, leading to improved learning and mood.

“People with ADHD benefit from ‘rhythmic entrainment,’ using strong, steady rhythms to imprint structure and consistency. This assists with regulation of attention and behavior,” said Roberto Olivardia, Ph.D., Clinical Instructor of Psychology at Harvard Medical School, during his presentation titled, “We Got the Beat: The Impact of Music on ADHD,” at the 2024 Annual International Conference on ADHD.

Listening to music could become counterproductive if it causes overstimulation or if the listener is doing a challenging task that requires significant cognitive resources, the researchers noted.

Music Therapy Boosts Emotional, Social Skills

Music listening may be self-directed or facilitated by a trained music therapist, as part of music therapy. Music therapy sessions often incorporate active music listening, playing instruments, songwriting, or singing, as well as passive music listening.

The review made a compelling case for using music therapy to complement ADHD medications and other recommended therapies, citing evidence for the efficacy of music therapy in reducing symptoms of ADHD. For example, active music-making can enhance working memory and social skills while decreasing aggression. Conversely, passive music listening may improve learning and reduce disruptive behaviors.

“These insights highlight the potential for music to contribute to more holistic, non-pharmacological approaches, offering individuals with ADHD new avenues for enhancing cognitive functioning and overall wellbeing,” the study’s authors wrote.

The systematic review included 20 studies published between 1981 and 2023, reflecting data from 1,170 participants aged 2 to 56 years. Several limitations exist: The studies primarily focused on children and adolescents, rather than adults. Variations in study methods and design also resulted in some inconsistent findings.

“Despite these limitations, this review provides a valuable foundation for future research on the interaction between ADHD and music,” the study’s authors wrote.

Mindfulness Paired with Music Reduces Stress, Improves Mood

Another recent, smaller study, published in Frontiers in Neuroscience, suggests that listening to music while performing mindfulness exercises activates areas of the brain and body related to stress and emotional regulation that could reduce moderate symptoms of anxiety and depression in adults.sup>2

The study, led by a team of researchers from the Yale School of Medicine, assessed the physiological impact of music mindfulness by recording heart rates and EEGs from 38 participants, aged 18 to 65, as they engaged in a bilingual, two-week mindfulness program centered on “focus” and “mindfulness.”

“Anxiety and depression reduce autonomic system activity, as measured by Heart Rate Variability (HRV), and exacerbate cardiac morbidity, while both music and mindfulness have been shown to increase HRV,” wrote the researchers.

They found that music mindfulness quickly improved HRV — a sign of better stress regulation — and changed brain wave patterns (measured by EEG) in areas of the brain linked to emotion, awareness, and decision-making.

Both virtual and in-person sessions incorporated similar guided mindfulness exercises, accompanied by live improvised music, music listening, or no music at all. In addition to wearing mobile heart rate and EEG monitors during each session, participants completed surveys regarding their stress levels, degree of mindfulness, state of consciousness, and level of social connection before and after each session.

The virtual group exhibited a significant decrease in stress and a significant increase in altered states of consciousness during the “focus” sessions, but not the “motivation” sessions. This contrasted with the in-person sessions, where stress decreased and mindfulness and altered state of consciousness increased during both Focus and Motivation sessions.

The researchers said that the differences in music composition features (tempo, key, mode) between “focus” and “motivation” sessions may explain the physiological differences observed in heart rate variability.

In-person sessions with music boosted feelings of social connection more than the virtual sessions did, underscoring the value of live, shared experiences in therapeutic settings.

“Our results imply that, while virtual sessions reduce stress, they do not have as extensive an effect on psychological states as in-person sessions do,” the researchers wrote. “Important aspects of live social interaction may drive feelings of social connection and serve as a key differentiator between live and virtual sessions.”

The researchers also observed gender-specific effects via HRV; women appeared to benefit more physiologically from music mindfulness than men.

While the findings from the Behavioral Science and Frontiers in Neuroscience studies contribute to a growing body of evidence supporting the use of music as a viable adjunct treatment for ADHD and mood disorders, both research teams emphasize the need for further investigation. Future studies would include randomized controlled trials, long-term outcome assessments, and greater representation of adult populations.

Sources

¹Saville, P., Kinney, C., Heiderscheit, A., Himmerich, H. (2025). Exploring the intersection of ADHD and music: A systematic review. Behav. Sci. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs15010065

²Ramirez, C., Alayine, G.A., Akafia, C., Selase, K., Adichie, K. et al. (2025). Music mindfulness acutely modulates autonomic activity and improves psychological state in anxiety and depression. Frontiers in Neuroscience. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2025.1554156

Typing and handwriting lecture notes are equally effective methods for helping students with ADHD learn and recall information presented in class, and each one is far superior to taking no notes, finds a new study conducted by researchers at Indiana University. In addition, researchers found that both slower handwriting speed and worse sustained attention were related to higher ADHD symptoms.¹

In the study, 152 college students (46 with an ADHD diagnosis, 105 without) were divided into three groups: one cohort was instructed to handwrite notes, one was instructed to type notes, and one was instructed not to take notes. The students then watched a 15-minute TED talk and were given a free response quiz with no opportunity to review their notes. In addition to grading the assessment, researchers measured the participants’ handwriting speed, typing speed, fine motor dexterity, sustained attention, and severity of ADHD symptoms.

The learning benefit associated with both handwriting and typing notes was greater for students with higher ADHD symptom severity, causing researchers to conclude that, “active notetaking facilitates significant encoding gains in individuals with higher ADHD symptoms, critically suggesting that not taking notes is especially detrimental for those with higher symptoms.”

Challenges of Note Taking with ADHD

Previous research has demonstrated that students with ADHD face considerable challenges taking effective notes because of issues with working memory, transcription fluency, handwriting speed, and listening comprehension.^{2, 3}

Because of this, many postsecondary students with ADHD receive academic accommodations that allow them to receive copies of notes, either from a designated notetaker, a speech-to-text software, or an artificial intelligence note-taking program.

While notetaking accommodations offer students with ADHD access to good, quality notes they might not be able to produce themselves, the process of note-taking itself offers benefits that student with notetaking accommodations may be missing, the study’s researchers explain.

“The in-the-moment, active process of transcribing lecture information via notetaking facilitates learning, independent of studying, coined as the encoding effect,” ⁴ write the study’s authors. “It is theorized that encoding benefits arise from the sensorimotor engagement notetaking affords through transcription, as well as the cognitively demanding nature of the notetaking process.”

The study’s authors point out the dearth of research exploring whether notetaking accommodations actually reduce academic impairment related to ADHD, and they urge educators and providers supporting students with ADHD to consider that, “not taking notes may prevent individuals with higher ADHD symptoms from benefiting from initial learning gains active notetaking affords.”

Handwritten and Typed Notes Equally Beneficial

While notetaking’s cognitively demanding nature is precisely what gives rise to its benefits — including helping students with ADHD sustain attention — it is also why students with ADHD avoid or struggle to take notes.

Susan Kreuger, M.Ed., offers more detail about why notetaking is so taxing, in an ADDitude article titled “Notes on Taking Notes:” “Taking notes should be more than writing down information as a teacher is lecturing. A student needs to pay attention and try to understand what the teacher is teaching. He should be able to distinguish the big picture from insignificant details.”

For some, notetaking is particularly draining because of its fine motor demands. The study found that students with ADHD exhibited slower handwriting speeds than did neurotypical students, which slowed their transcription speed. By contrast, no differences in typing speed were found between the ADHD and non-ADHD groups.

The researchers urge students with handwriting challenges to explore the use of a keyboard which, “may free up cognitive resources during the notetaking process and provide opportunity for in-the-moment encoding benefits.”

Sources

¹Shimko, G. A., & James, K. H. (2025). The effects of notetaking modality and symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) on learning. Educational Psychology, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2025.2493257

²Vekaria, P. C., & Peverly, S. T. (2018). Lecture note-taking in postsecondary students with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 31(7), 1551–1573. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-018-9849-2

³Gleason, J. D. (2012). An Investigation of the Note-Taking Skills of Adolescents with and without Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): An Extension of Previous Research (Doctoral dissertation, Columbia University).

⁴Di Vesta, F. J., & Gray, G. S. (1972). Listening and note taking. Journal of Educational Psychology, 63(1), 8–14. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0032243

Vitamin D insufficiency worsens sleep problems in children with ADHD, but it does not directly affect the condition’s symptoms or functional impairments, a recent study published in Frontiers in Psychology found.¹

Children with ADHD are more likely to experience vitamin D deficiencies than are children without ADHD, according to previous research.² However, this study found no causal relationship or direct link between ADHD symptoms and vitamin D insufficiency.

Scientists did find that low vitamin D levels (below 30 ng/mL) can worsen sleep difficulties, impairing sleep quality and worsening sleep disordered breathing, in children with ADHD.

The researchers wrote that sleep difficulties “increased daytime sleepiness, inattention, and oppositional defiant disorder symptoms in children.” Additionally, it was found that sleep disordered breathing can affect a child’s attention, focus, hyperactivity, memory, and executive functioning, essentially exacerbating ADHD symptoms.

Nearly three-quarters of children with ADHD experience a sleep problem or disorder.³ Additionally, up to half of children with ADHD have sleep problems, such as difficulty sleeping, insomnia, night waking, and hypersomnia.⁴, ⁵

This is the first study, to the researchers’ knowledge, that examines whether vitamin D insufficiency exacerbates sleep problems and symptoms in children with ADHD. Exploring the impact of vitamin D on sleep in children with ADHD is an important area of study since sleep problems in childhood may last into adolescence and adulthood.

“Poor sleep is a self-fulfilling prophecy,” says Joel Nigg, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist and a professor in the departments of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Oregon Health & Science University. “Just one night of bad sleep can make a child’s inattention and opposition even worse the next day, in turn making it even more difficult to get ready and settled for sleep the next night. The pattern repeats indefinitely if not arrested.”

The case-control study examined data collected from 260 children with ADHD aged 6 to 14 years, 95 with vitamin D sufficiency and 165 with vitamin D insufficiency, from the Department of Child Health at Dalian Municipal Women and Children’s Medical Center in China.

The researchers noted several study limitations. Sleep information was obtained through subjective reports from the subjects’ parents, and researchers noted differences between these and objective sleep measures. Additionally, the study participants were limited to a group of children from Northeastern China. The sample size of 220 children is also too small to extrapolate the findings to other populations. Furthermore, since all participants had ADHD, there was no control group in this study.

The scientists hope to use the data collected from this study to further explore the relationship between ADHD symptom severity, sleep, and vitamin D levels in future studies with a more representative sample and a control group.

Vitamin D, which is mainly sourced from sunlight, can help with sleep difficulties commonly found in people with ADHD, like sleeping late, waking up throughout the night, or waking up very early. In the past few decades, researchers have found that locations with greater sunlight report lower-than-average ADHD prevalence, suggesting a possible connection between ADHD and vitamin D.⁶

Sources

¹ Zhang, P., Liu, Y., Yan, M. et al. (2025). Vitamin D insufficiency and sleep disturbances in children with ADHD: a case-control study. Frontiers in Psychology. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1546692

²Kotsi, E., Kotsi, E., Perrea, D.N. (2019). Vitamin D levels in children and adolescents with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): a meta-analysis. <em>Attention deficit hyperactivity Disord. </em> https://doi.org/10.1007/s12402-018-0276-7

³ Sung, V., Hiscock, H., Sciberras, E., Efron, D. (2008). Sleep problems in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: prevalence and the effect on the child and family. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. https://doi.org/10.1001/archpedi.162.4.336

⁴ Hvolby A. (2015). Associations of sleep disturbance with ADHD: implications for treatment. Atten Defic Hyperact Disord. doi: 10.1007/s12402-014-0151-0

⁵ Spruyt, K., Gozal, D. (2011). Sleep disturbances in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. <em>Expert Rev Neurother.</em>.https://doi.org/10.1586/ern.11.7

⁶ Miller, M.C., Pan, X. Eugene Arnold, L. et al (2021). Vitamin D levels in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: Association with seasonal and geographical variation, supplementation, inattention severity, and theta:beta ratio. Biological Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2021.108099

Stimulant medications (amphetamine or methylphenidate) reduce ADHD symptoms better than non-pharmacological interventions, according to a meta-analysis published in The Lancet Psychiatry, which included 113 randomized clinical trials (RCTs) and 14,887 participants aged 19 to 44. ¹

The researchers analyzed self-reports and clinician-reported rating scales submitted at 12, 26, and 52 weeks regarding the efficacy of medication and non-medication treatment for ADHD.

“Stimulants were the only intervention supported by evidence of efficacy in the short term (i.e., at time points closest to 12 weeks) for core symptoms of ADHD in adults (both self-reported and clinician-reported) and were associated with good acceptability (all-cause discontinuation),” they said. (Amphetamines and methylphenidate showed no notable difference in effectiveness.)

Atomoxetine, a selective norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (SNRI), benefited adults with ADHD during the measured time periods, but atomoxetine had worse overall acceptability compared to placebo.

A small body of evidence suggested that non-medication treatment [i.e., cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), neurofeedback, and relaxation therapy] benefited people with ADHD over longer periods. However, those studies, the researchers noted, had inconsistent results with variations depending on whether the individual with ADHD or their clinician rated the core symptoms.

“Our findings highlight how both individuals with ADHD and clinicians should be considered as sources of evidence, with ratings of symptoms by both groups measured in RCTs,” the researchers said. “Participants in RCTs might report positive effects of the active intervention to please the interviewer (the Hawthorne effect), or might not correctly report the perceived effects of interventions (especially when they feel under pressure from the clinicians and have difficulties with executive function, as is often the case in people with ADHD).”

Neurofeedback Therapy for ADHD Not Effective

A separate meta-analysis published in JAMA Psychiatry examined the results of neurofeedback treatment in 2,472 people with ADHD aged 5 to 40 years from 38 RCTs. ²

The review, led by the University of Southampton, King’s College London, and the University of Zurich, found insufficient evidence to recommend neurofeedback as a front-line treatment for ADHD. According to the researchers, neurofeedback did not significantly reduce ADHD symptoms of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity, and it did not improve cognitive performance in adults. Their findings did show that adults who used neurofeedback gained a slight improvement in their processing speed.

In addition, the researchers did not identify any differences between neurofeedback and other non-pharmacological treatments, such as physical exercise or cognitive training. Newer neurofeedback techniques, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), also lack the evidence to support their efficacy at treating ADHD symptoms.

Neurofeedback is a distinct form of biofeedback that uses electroencephalography (EEG) to help patients train their brains to improve focus, impulse control, and executive function.

“The effects of neurofeedback don’t really last in the long term,” Stephanie Sarkis, Ph.D., said during the ADDitude webinar “Dispelling Myths About Supplements for ADHD.” “I know people who have used it say they felt more focused after sessions, but then they returned to baseline quickly. Neurofeedback is expensive to get that kind of a result, and insurance doesn’t cover it.”

A 2023 ADDitude survey of more than 11,000 caregivers and adults with ADHD found that 9% of adults and 14% of children have tried neurofeedback for ADHD. Of those respondents, caregivers rated the efficacy of neurofeedback as 2.9, and adults rated it as 2.88, on a five-point scale. In contrast, medication was rated 3.57 by caregivers and 3.52 by adults who responded to the ADDitude survey.

Indeed, the formal effect sizes for ADHD medication are .8 to 1.0, which are among the strongest in all of psychiatry.³ Clinical practice guidelines recommend medication as the first-line treatment for ADHD due to its overwhelming efficacy; for children with ADHD ages 4 to 6, parent behavior training is recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). ⁴

“Despite continuing progress in our scientific understanding of ADHD, little has changed for decades in terms of treatment,” said Edmund Sonuga-Barke, a professor of developmental psychology, psychiatry and neuroscience at King’s College London and joint senior author on the JAMA Psychiatry report. “Effective alternatives to medication as the front-line treatment for core symptoms are still lacking. The development of new, science-driven, and more effective non-pharmacological approaches for the treatment of ADHD, therefore, remains a priority for our field.”

Sources

¹ Ostinelli, E.G., Schulze, M., Zangani, C., Farhat, L.C., Tomlinson, A., Del Giovane, C., et al. (2025). Comparative efficacy and acceptability of pharmacological, psychological, and neurostimulatory interventions for ADHD in adults: a systematic review and component network meta-analysis. Lancet Psychiatry. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(24)00360-2

² Westwood, S.J., Aggensteiner, P., Kaiser, A., Nagy, P., Donno, F. et al. (2025). Neurofeedback for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA Psychiatry. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2024.3702

³Faraone, S. V., & Buitelaar, J. (2010). Comparing the efficacy of stimulants for ADHD in children and adolescents using meta-analysis. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.  https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-009-0054-3

⁴Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2022, March 8). Treatment recommendations for healthcare providers. https://www.cdc.gov/adhd/hcp/treatment-recommendations/index.html

Serotonin neurons signal to the brain the expected value of near-future rewards, a discovery that helps to clarify the neurotransmitter’s complex role in regulating mood, learning, and more, according to a new study in Nature. ¹ The research puts forth a unifying theory that makes sense of previously irreconcilable contradictions regarding the understanding of how serotonin functions, based on what its interdisciplinary team of scientists from the University of Ottawa calls a “prospective code for value.”

Serotonin, involved in the regulation of everything from mood and movement to appetite and sleep, has been historically deemed a “feel good” chemical. However, previous research revealed that serotonin is activated by pleasure, pain, and surprise, a finding that led scientists to suspect that its role in the central nervous system is more complex than was previously understood.

The Canadian researchers combined ideas from reinforcement learning theory (used to understand learning, behavior, and decision making) with insights into the properties of the dorsal raphe nucleus (the region of the brain containing neurons that release serotonin) to arrive at a nuanced understanding of the messages sent by the serotonin system.

The study found that serotonin tells the brain what reward to expect in the near future, information the brain needs to make decisions about what to do next. This function of serotonin may resemble that of dopamine, which is centrally involved in reward prediction. In fact, the authors were inspired by advances in the dopamine research field, which have paved the way for research of this kind.²

“Your brain needs to compute the expected value of the actions you contemplate and undertake as you interact with a changing world,” explains Jean-Claude Béïque, Ph.D., co-author of the study and professor in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine. “What we think serotonin actually does in the brain is encode the expected value of a particular environment or course of actions in order to ultimately guide everyday decisions.”

This unifying theory explains why serotonin neurons are activated by both rewards and punishments, why they are more strongly activated by surprising rewards but not by surprising punishments and why negative uncertainty results in slow changes in neuron activity.

According to the study’s lead author, Emerson Harkin, Ph.D., the serotonin system is essentially updating the brain with the following message: “Here’s our best guess about how good your near future will be, and here’s how quickly that guess is improving.”

“Serotonin might promote patient waiting by increasing perceived reward availability,” the authors write regarding the brain’s response to the serotonin-fueled information it receives. “Whether serotonin sustains reward-seeking behavior in general, and how this relates to behavioral reinforcement, remains unclear.”

Implications for Understanding ADHD, Depression, and More

This new research may impact scientific thinking about ADHD, which impacts the brain’s reward system.

“Key aspects of the dopamine reward system are underactive in ADHD brains, making it difficult to derive reward from ordinary activities,” explains Ellen Littman, Ph.D., in the ADDitude article “Never Enough? Why ADHD Brains Crave Stimulation.” “Deficits in the reward pathway, including decreased availability of dopamine receptors, decrease motivation. Indeed, ADHD brains struggle to sustain motivation when rewards are mild or are linked to long-term gratification.”

The research may also inform the treatment of mood disorders like depression, in which serotonin is thought to play a central role. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) that increase levels of serotonin in the brain are the first-line treatment for depression, which affects 21.9 million adults in the U.S (8.5% of all adults).³

Among individuals with ADHD, depression is the second most common comorbidity. The risk of developing depression is about 2.5 times higher for people with ADHD than it is for the general population. What’s more, for people with mood disorders, having comorbid ADHD is associated with an earlier onset of depression, more recurrent episodes, more frequent hospitalizations, and higher risk of suicide.⁴

It’s unclear whether the new research will impact interventions for depression or neurodevelopmental disorders, however a deeper understanding of what Harkin calls the brain’s “notoriously difficult to understand” neurons is noteworthy.

Sources

¹Harkin, E.F., Grossman, C.D., Cohen, J.Y. et al. A prospective code for value in the serotonin system. Nature (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-08731-7

²Sousa, M., Bujalski, P., Cruz, B., et al. Dopamine neurons encode a multidimensional probabilistic map of future reward. bioRxiv (2023).11.12.566727; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.11.12.566727

³Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2023). Key Substance Use and Mental Health Indicators in the United States: Results from the 2023 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Rockville, MD.

⁴McIntyre RS, Kennedy SH, Soczynska JK, Nguyen HT, Bilkey TS, Woldeyohannes HO, et al. Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in adults with bipolar disorder or major depressive disorder: results from the international mood disorders collaborative project.

Deficits in working memory, response inhibition, and processing speed are present not only in individuals with ADHD but also in their family members without the condition, according to a new study published in the Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science that suggests these shared cognitive deficits may be “endophenotypes,” or measurable genetic traits that essentially act as biomarkers for ADHD. 1

The multilevel meta-analysis found that “unaffected first-degree relatives” (parents, siblings, or children) of individuals with ADHD performed significantly worse than non-ADHD controls in working memory, processing speed, response time variability, temporal processing, and cognitive flexibility. However, unaffected first-degree relatives did not display significant differences in inhibition, arousal, motor functioning, planning, or delay aversion compared to the control group.

“This is an incredibly important study,” Russell A. Barkley, Ph.D., said recently on his YouTube channel. “This study suggests that there is a larger endophenotype within families of people with ADHD, such that first-degree relatives show some symptoms and signs of the disorder. Think of it as an iceberg; underneath the surface lies the variability in the genetic endophenotype within these families. Then above the surface is a smaller peak, that’s the diagnosed people with ADHD.”

The researchers said that more studies focusing on basic cognitive functions, like working memory and cognitive flexibility, are needed to better understand how genes predispose someone to ADHD and how these genetic factors interact with other influences to cause ADHD symptoms.

Subthreshold ADHD

Identifying and studying potential ADHD endophenotypes may help researchers better understand subthreshold ADHD, which may be experienced by individuals who display ADHD symptoms but not to the severity or frequency required for a formal ADHD diagnosis.

“People with subthreshold ADHD may not exhibit impairing symptoms before age 12, as required in the current DSM-5 for a diagnosis. However, these undiagnosed, untreated adults may experience significant distress later in life and face an elevated risk for substance abuse, burnout, and professional and personal problems as a result,” said Maggie Sibley, Ph.D., a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Washington School of Medicine, during the 2024 American Professional Society of ADHD and Related Disorders (APSARD) conference.

Sibley cited research from the 2022 Multimodal Treatment of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (MTA) study showing that 63.8% of people with ADHD experienced symptom fluctuations throughout their lives. “We need to recognize that ADHD symptoms are not stable; they wax and wane over the lifespan,” she said. “Even individuals with mild, non-clinical symptoms can experience fluctuations that temporarily send their symptoms or impairment severity into the clinical range.”2

Sibley expanded on the MTA data in “ADHD’s Vanishing (and Reappearing) Act,” an article in the Spring 2025 issue of ADDitude magazine. “Most adults today with new diagnoses of ADHD probably did not develop their symptoms in adulthood,” she wrote. “Instead, they were likely missed, or they had mild, non-clinical symptoms in childhood that became more impairing as life’s demands multiplied. The study suggested that ADHD is more likely to be missed in childhood in females and minorities. People with intellectual gifts or supportive environments are more likely to compensate for their ADHD in childhood, so symptoms appear milder.”

Sources

¹ de la Paz, L., Whitney, B.M., Weires, E.M., Nikolas, M.A.(2025). A meta-analytic evaluation of cognitive endophenotypes for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: Comparisons of unaffected relatives and controls. J Psychopathol Clin Sci. https://doi.org/10.1037/abn0000985

² Sibley, M.H., Arnold, L.E., Swanson, J.M., Hechtman, L.T., Kennedy, T.M., Owens, E., Molina, B.S.G., Jensen, P.S., Hinshaw, S.P., Roy, A., Chronis-Tuscano, A., Newcorn, J.H., Rohde, L.A. (2022). MTA Cooperative Group. Variable Patterns of Remission From ADHD in the Multimodal Treatment Study of ADHD. Am J Psychiatry. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.2021.21010032

Since its publication last Sunday, The New York Times Magazine article “Have We Been Thinking About ADHD All Wrong?” has been called provocative and controversial. We would like to add a few adjectives: misrepresentative, biased, and dangerous.

In his 8,800-word article, writer Paul Tough used cherry-picked bits of decades-old data, very small studies, and interviews with three patients (all men) to exhume long-debunked ideas about ADHD and its treatment with prescription stimulant medication. Tough dismissed the lifelong work of esteemed ADHD researcher Russell Barkley, Ph.D., and suggested that the diagnosis of ADHD was unreliable or subjective because it relies not on a biomarkers or genetic tests, but on a trained clinician’s careful review of patients’ self-reported and observed symptoms in several settings.

To be clear, identifiable biomarkers do not yet exist for many psychiatric, neurodevelopmental, and neurodegenerative disorders. In the case of ADHD, medical experts use rating scales, neuroimaging studies, and/or criteria in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-5 (DSM-5) to assess whether patients meet the threshold for a diagnosis.

“There’s no genetic marker for most psychiatric illness, but there is very clear heritability, as Dr. Russell Barkley has pointed out for years,” says Wes Crenshaw, Ph.D., a licensed psychologist and author. “I wonder if the Times author doubts depression? Or autism? Or anxiety? Or bipolar disorder?”

Though he was also quoted in the Times article, Crenshaw says he was never interviewed by the reporter, who pulled quotes out of context from his ADDitude articles.

ADHD Biases Divorced from Fact

Tough cited findings from the Multimodal Treatment of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (MTA) Study to suggest that the benefits of stimulant medication wear off after 36 months. In arguing that Ritalin’s “advantage had completely faded,” Tough failed to report that long-term medication adherence among the MTA subjects was inconsistent — an important fact that undermines the author’s contradictory argument that stimulant medication is somehow both ineffective and “powerfully addictive,” as he claims in the article. (If it were addictive, wouldn’t the MTA subjects have taken it every day without fail? We know that half of teens and adults with ADHD stop taking stimulant medication within one year of starting it, suggesting that it is not addictive and shining a light on how woefully irresponsible it is to claim the ineffectiveness of a medication that is not taken consistently.)

Tough was guilty of biased reporting, or a deep misunderstanding of the subject he was covering, when he suggested that the increase in ADHD diagnosis rates — from 3 percent nearly 40 years ago to up to 11.4 percent of American children today, according to the CDC — represents a medical crisis or evidence of overdiagnosis. In truth, this uptick is is due, in large part, to a revised set of diagnostic criteria for ADHD in the DSM-5, a dramatic improvement in both clinician and patient understanding of ADHD, and critical research on its manifestations, especially in girls, women, and people of color — populations that have been historically overlooked and underserved, with serious consequences.

Perhaps the Times reporter was unaware of the basic fact that, 40 years ago, the scientific community screened almost exclusively only boys for symptoms of ADHD. It did not acknowledge the inattentive subtype of ADHD that many girls and women exhibit. And it insisted that symptoms only caused impairment in school settings. We now know much better.

Sloppy Reporting, Inaccurate Conclusions

Tough did Times readers a disservice by choosing not to interview more esteemed physicians, researchers, and clinical psychologists at the forefront of ADHD care. Instead, he plucked their quotes from the pages of ADDitude, stripped them of context, and did not pursue conversations with authors, like Crenshaw, or patients they suggested. [Crenshaw told ADDitude that, prior to the article’s publication, he offered “the author (through fact checker) a chance to interview an almost infinite number of ADHD people whose lives have been radically changed by integrative treatment.” No interviews were granted.]

For example, Tough quoted a feature from the Fall 2021 issue of ADDitude magazine in which Crenshaw addressed parents’ top concerns regarding ADHD medication. In the article, Crenshaw used established, evidence-based research to suggest that, if your child has ADHD, then stimulant medication paired with behavioral parent training and/or cognitive behavior therapy is shown to produce the greatest results in symptom management. Tough took Crenshaw’s words out of context to make it seem that he was arguing that ADHD exists as a binary, on-off diagnosis without any heterogeneity or symptom fluctuation. This is contrary to Crenshaw’s views and contradicts ADDitude‘s own recent reporting.

In its Spring 2025 issue, ADDitude magazine published a cover story titled “ADHD’s Vanishing (and Reappearing) Act,” in which author Maggie Sibley, Ph.D., explained her recent research into the sometimes unpredictable ebbs and flows of ADHD symptoms over a lifetime. Rather than acknowledge ADDitude‘s work to cover the scientific community’s evolving understanding of ADHD, Tough’s reporting painted ADDitude and its contributors as outdated. This is an unfair depiction.

He manipulated ADDitude content again in quoting an article published in 2020 and written by Roberto Olivardia, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist and Harvard Medical School lecturer. Tough did not interview Olivardia. Instead, he pulled a quote from Olivardia regarding the ways in which stimulant medication may quell a child’s social impulsivity. Tough deliberately omitted this vital precursor to the quoted statement in the ADDitude article: “Clinicians should assure parents that any medication that appears to mute the child’s positive aspects and core personality is indicative of an unsuccessful medical trial. Another medication should be tried.”

Olivardia didn’t mince words in his response to the Times article. “The suggestion that I and other ADHD clinicians would uniformly placate parental concerns with a canned response is insulting,” he says. “This is not the first time this has happened within the ADHD community, and it’s so frustrating. Some things in the article are accurate, but they are mixed in with very inaccurate, overly simplistic information.”

Unraveling a Dangerous Narrative About Medication

Of perhaps greatest concern is Tough’s inaccurate and harmful portrayal of stimulant medication as an ineffective Band-Aid that fails to improve students’ academic test scores and, therefore, must be unnecessary. He cited limited research casting doubt on ADHD medication’s ability to make kids score higher on timed tests, sort specific puzzles more efficiently, or excel in summer school. “If these studies are accurate, stimulant medications don’t do much to improve cognitive ability or academic performance,” Tough wrote. “And yet millions of young Americans (and their parents) feel that the pills are essential to their success in school. Why?”

Inexplicably, Tough did not report that ADHD medication has been shown to reduce impulsivity and, by extension, the risks of car accidents, substance abuse, unplanned pregnancy, comorbid depression and anxiety, incarceration, self-harm, and suicide. In fact, research has found that stimulant medication use among individuals with ADHD reduces the risk of premature death by a staggering 19%.

In a study published in The British Journal of Psychiatry in 2025, the life expectancy for adults with ADHD was found to be 7.5 years shorter than it was for those without the condition. Women with ADHD live 8.6 years fewer years than women without ADHD, while the life expectancy of men with ADHD was 6.8 years shorter than that of their peers. ADHD is a serious condition, and to willfully misrepresent its proven treatments is dangerous at best.

Research has documented the positive impact of ADHD treatment on life expectancy. A Swedish study, published in JAMA Network Open, followed nearly 150,000 adults and adolescents for two years after they received their ADHD diagnoses. The researchers shared the following insights about the use of stimulant medication — amphetamine or methylphenidate — which is effective for roughly 70% of patients with ADHD:

• ADHD medication use reduced overall risk of death by 19%. Among people with ADHD who did not receive medication, there were 48 deaths for every 10,000 people, contrasted with 39 deaths per 10,000 people within the medicated cohort.
• ADHD medication use reduced the risk of overdose by 50%. Medication use also reduced the risk of death from other unnatural causes, including accidental injuries, accidental poisoning such as drug overdoses, and suicide.
• ADHD medication use reduced the risk of death from natural causes, such as medical conditions, for women.

People with childhood ADHD are nearly twice as likely to develop a substance use disorder as are individuals without childhood ADHD. However, research suggests that patients with ADHD treated with stimulant medications experience a 60% reduction in substance use disorders compared to those who are not treated with stimulant medication. Considerable evidence also suggests that children taking ADHD medication experience improvements in academic and social functioning, which translates to improved self-esteem, lower rates of self-medication with drugs or alcohol, and decreased risk of substance abuse.

What’s more, researchers at the University of Michigan and Massachussets General Hospital studied 40,000 high school seniors, more than 4,000 of whom had ADHD. The research team compared the risk for marijuana abuse — the most common drug misused by this age group—among teens with ADHD to the overall population. They found that the students with the lowest incidence of substance abuse started ADHD treatment with stimulants before 9 years of age. When treatment began between ages 10 and 14, it was helpful, but the students still had a significantly higher likelihood of smoking marijuana. The highest risk of marijuana use was found among students with ADHD who started medication after age 15.

The late Joseph Biederman, M.D., the former Chief of the Clinical and Research Programs in Pediatric Psychopharmacology and Adult ADHD at Massachusetts General Hospital, along with researchers at the hospital and at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, conducted a study in which teens with ADHD were separated into two groups, then tasked with driving through a virtual roadway featuring surprise events, including oncoming traffic. The teens in the first group received stimulant medication (lisdexamfetamine: brand name Vyvanse) while the teens in the second group did not. Compared with the group of non-medicated ADHD teens, the medicated group was 67% less likely to have a collision during these events.

“For families that stop ADHD treatment on weekends and during ‘downtime,’ I emphasize the importance of driving only while medication is active,” Dr. Biederman had said. “A short-acting medication taken about half an hour before hitting the road may just be lifesaving.”

Why Ignore Patients’ Real-World Experiences?

Indeed, ADHD treatment with medication is lifesaving for many children, adolescents, and adults with ADHD for many reasons beyond the decreased risks for car accidents, illegal drug use, unprotected sex, and the other dangers outlined above.

ADDitude readers write to us daily about the social, emotional, professional, and psychological benefits they experience while using prescription stimulant medication to treat their ADHD symptoms. By excluding these patient perspectives, Tough’s reporting could place lives at risk by telling a story that may scare caregivers and adult patients away from the ADHD treatments that are shown to safely, effectively improve and protect lives.

On that note, let us leave you with a few quotes from ADDitude readers explaining, in their own words, the benefits of stimulant medication and the threats they feel in 2025.

“Adderall is literally the difference between crippling depression due to executive function disorder and not. If my access to my much-needed medication goes away, the impact will be exponential.”

“If they mess with my stimulants or access to stimulants, I could lose my job and even my marriage. I rely on it to maintain focus as a design engineer. It also helps communication with my wife when I have my stimulants.”

“ADHD medication has huge benefits. It’s frustrating that the discourse is being steered from the top by someone so willfully ignorant, bringing out everyone who has totally misinformed ‘reckons’ about ADHD.”

Rebuttal from Russell Barkley, Ph.D.

More NYTimes Rebuttals

• 4-Part Video Response from Russell Barkley, Ph.D.
• The Child Mind Institute
• The ADHD Evidence Project

ADHD Article Corrections: Next Steps

• Free Download: The Ultimate Guide to ADHD Medication
• Reader Reactions: MAHA Commission Means Fear, Stigma, Health Threats for Two-Thirds of ADDitude Readers
• Read: Is ADHD Real? Yes — and Still Heavily Stigmatized

Corrections

This article was updated on April 25, 2025, to reflect the following:

• Wes Crenshaw, Ph.D., reported to ADDitude that he invited the author to interview several ADHD patients, not himself, and that invitation was not accepted
• The CDC’s 2022 estimate for the prevalence of ADHD in American children aged 3-17 years, which is 11.4 percent, not 5 to 7 percent
• Author Paul Tough did not directly describe the ADHD diagnosis process as “arbitrary,” but rather his quoted source, Edmund Sonuga-Barke, did. This quotation was removed.
• The full quote from Tough’s text was included: “If these studies are accurate, stimulant medications don’t do much to improve cognitive ability or academic performance. And yet millions of young Americans (and their parents) feel that the pills are essential to their success in school. Why?”
• This phrase was removed, “…and then questioned why American parents and students would accept the ‘risks inherent in taking prescription stimulants.'” The original article stated: “Researchers acknowledge that there are other risks inherent in taking prescription stimulants.”

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Thank you for reading ADDitude. To support our mission of providing ADHD education and support, please consider subscribing. Your readership and support help make our content and outreach possible. Thank you.

In 44 days, the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission says it will deliver to President Trump a report — based on existing research, public hearings, roundtables, and meetings but not new studies — on the scope, causes, and treatments related to childhood chronic disease. In its founding documents, the MAHA Commission, chaired by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., singled out autoimmune diseases, autism, and ADHD, which it said “pose a dire threat to the American people and our way of life” and “harm us, our economy, and our security.”

Medical professionals and advocates were swift to condemn the commission’s stigmatizing portrayal of ADHD and autism as “a dire threat,” and challenged its suggestion that chronic conditions like these may be caused by “over-utilization of medication, certain food ingredients, certain chemicals and other exposures” — claims not supported by accepted scientific knowledge and research.

Of greatest concern to caregivers and patients with ADHD was the commission’s vow to “assess the prevalence of and threat posed by the prescription of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, antipsychotics, mood stabilizers, stimulants, and weight-loss drugs.” As countless ADDitude readers have said to us: Stimulants are not a threat; they are an essential and effective treatment that mitigates threats to our wellbeing. Many expressed fear that the commission’s actions could restrict access to their prescription medication.

While the commission said it would rely on “transparency and open-source data,” it has not held any reported public hearings or meetings with ADHD experts since it was established in February. News outlets have reported only one closed-door gathering on March 11 with no public invitation or known agenda.

Secretary Kennedy has not responded to ADDitude’s open letter, urging him to consult with ADHD experts and researchers regarding evidence-based findings to effectively treat the condition. However, more than 400 ADDitude readers shared their opinions of the MAHA Commission and its anticipated assessment and final recommendations, which are expected to be delivered to President Trump on August 12.

• 66% of readers said they feel fearful, angry, and/or skeptical of the MAHA Commission
• 23% of readers said they are reserving judgment, feel torn, or are unfamiliar with the MAHA Commission
• 10% expressed excitement or hopefulness about the commission’s work

[New Class! ADHD Treatment Guide for Adults]

Here are some of those opinions, sent to ADDitude in response to the question: What do you think the MAHA Commission assessment, and subsequent recommendations, might mean for your family and others with ADHD, depression, and other related conditions?

Those Who Oppose the MAHA Commission

“I am deeply concerned by this resolution and its negative bias against the medication that has been life-changing for so many people and families. I also find it misaligned with the opinions of the respected researchers like Dr. Russell Barkley who have worked so hard to destigmatize ADHD medication and help people understand that dangerous consequences can come from living without any treatment. I am concerned that this resolution is misrepresenting itself as trying to improve health, when it is actually an effort to restrict treatment options that are already heavily researched and proven.” — an ADDitude reader in Florida

“Health insurance companies will use the commission’s recommendations to make it harder for us to undergo ADHD testing and treatment in every form. They will use it to justify denying requests to receive all types of therapy, medications, etc., and/or increase our payments to receive them. They will use it to justify denying coverage for pre-existing conditions that they no longer feel need to be treated.” — an ADDitude reader in Florida

[Reader Essay: “We Should Never Pull a Life-Saving Medication from a Child.”]

“One assessment by non-experts devoted to a political cause will be wasteful and biased. It will certainly not be worth throwing out an entire body of scientific dispassionate inquiry and knowledge that has accumulated over decades of ADHD research and practice. I can’t imagine what his motive is except to humiliate and dehumanize us.” — an ADDitude reader in Virginia

“This sets us back at least 10 years in mental health care. Referring to any therapeutic treatment as a potential ‘threat’ not only worsens stigma but propagates complete misinformation.” — an ADDitude reader in Colorado

“It is significantly concerning when those without medical knowledge or an understanding of how to look at and critically assess research are making decisions about how to treat health concerns. We are already seeing the impact of unsound decision-making, as previously eradicated illnesses and diseases are making an unwanted comeback. Without informed decision-makers, people will suffer.” — an ADDitude reader in Pennsylvania

“MAHA will probably limit which medications are covered by insurance or Medicaid, making life unaffordable and unbearable for many neurodivergent people who are relying on them just to get through each day. Each person’s body chemistry handles different drug formulas differently, and often it takes trial and error to find the correct med for each person. Taking many of these medications off the table will greatly impact so many.” — an ADDitude reader in North Carolina

“I see a huge threat in this MAHA initiative. It sounds like segregating or eliminating ‘mutants’ at the beginning of a sci-fi movie. Add in the attack on Section 504, and it would seem that anyone who is not physically or neurologically ‘typical’ is not worth helping/saving/protecting. It’s absolutely horrific. I think it could go way beyond limiting treatment, and I believe it would be a massive disservice to our people, and our public health, setting a terrible precedent for who is ‘valuable enough.'” — an ADDitude reader in California

“The very wording of the statement reflects their bias against these vital tools. Their intent is to restrict access and convince people that they don’t work. This will only further harm marginalized communities that already receive care at lower rates.” — an ADDitude reader in Arkansas

“I am terrified of the outcome of this so-called assessment. For several years we’ve tried to find the right drug combination for my daughter. Now we seem to have it, and I’m afraid it will be stripped away in a couple of months. We both have ADHD, take stimulants, as well as meds for anxiety and depression. If they are no longer available to us, I will attempt to migrate to Canada, seeking asylum based on the fact that living in the U.S. would put our health severely at risk.” — an ADDitude reader in Texas

“No different than a Type-1 diabetic who needs insulin to lower blood sugar levels, my son’s brain needs these medications to help balance its chemistry. Without them, I’m certain he would not be able to attend school. Our insurance company makes me fight every month for the medication he has. I can’t imagine more limitations!” — an ADDitude reader in Oregon

“If the recommendations lead to stricter limitations on the prescribing of medications, it may force individuals with ADHD, depression, and other mental health conditions to turn to less effective or more dangerous treatment options. Additionally, limiting prescribed medications could reinforce the stigma surrounding mental health, making it harder for individuals with ADHD and depression to seek help as their treatment options are limited.” — an ADDitude reader

“I exercise, eat healthy, meditate, blah blah blah, and only the meds make my brain work better. I can feel the moment it turns on. Take the meds away, and you have mayhem at work, and at home. It’s mind-bending to ponder the consequences.” — an ADDitude reader in New Mexico

“I can’t even think about this without feeling ill. On the surface, I look like a normal, functioning professional with an advanced degree. I am fortunate to have landed a job with a six-figure salary, but I can’t tell you how many nights I spent curled up crying during the stimulant shortages because I was terrified that I would lose my job if I couldn’t function without my medication. Not to mention how hopeless and embarrassed I felt having to desperately call every local pharmacy to see if they had medication in stock. We need to broaden access — not limit it.”- an ADDitude reader in Michigan

“Politicians should not be interfering with medication access or making decisions on what is or isn’t safe. That’s what the FDA is for. These headlines make me extremely anxious and, in a way, feel less than — like those who want to ban SSRIs and other medications do not care about those of us who need them.” — an ADDitude reader in Michigan

“They are targeting medications that truly make a difference in the day-to-day lives of ADHD brains and their parents. If some of these medications get taken off the market, there will increases in suicides. Taking away what works without viable alternative solutions is a huge mistake. As a scientist, I’m scared of people who are not accepting of scientific proof.” — an ADDitude reader

“Based on the anti-science rhetoric from this new administration, I am afraid they may act to limit the usage of these medications based on their motivated reasoning. They will disregard the body of evidence, and use false-cause, anecdotal, and Texas sharpshooter fallacies to do real harm to Americans who need these medications to function or even survive.” — an ADDitude reader

Those Who Support the MAHA Commission

“I’m hoping for a broad, holistic, ground-up approach where our treatment options outside of medications are expanded and supported and made more financially accessible to make needed medications and prescriptions more effective.” — an ADDitude reader in Georgia

“I want to know that what my kids are taking is actually safe, actually healthy, and actually doing what it should be doing. We should not be afraid of that. If they find that pharmaceutical companies are lying to us, then please, by all means, take the medications out of production and find us alternatives that really do help! I say this as a mother of four children on ADHD and depression/anxiety medications.” — an ADDitude reader in Minnesota

“I tend to be more conservative when it comes to diagnosing and medication management, so I think we need an assessment of the system with new recommendations from a new perspective. In the 30 years I have been a social worker, I have seen many over-diagnosed and over-medicated clients. I think we need to go to a more holistic approach. I feel that meds are often prescribed in isolation, when they should be in combination with therapy or other forms of counseling/support groups. Mental health is a huge crisis, but even more so is the over-medication of the U.S. population. I welcome the oversight.” — an ADDitude reader in Maryland

“Healthcare in the U.S. needs to be reformed and the only way to do that is to shake things up. It would mean we can get rid of things that aren’t working and implement new policies and ideas that will work. It might mean we have to fight harder for the things that matter but when we work together anything is possible!” — an ADDitude reader

Those Undecided on the MAHA Commission

“My initial reaction was fear and disbelief — wondering why this was being investigated and whether I might have trouble accessing my medications. But once I engaged my professional mindset, I realized the potential harm of prescribing antidepressants and other psychiatric medications too freely. When these medications are used as a quick fix rather than addressing underlying issues — such as biological conditions, illnesses, or nutritional deficiencies — it can be dangerous.” — an ADDitude reader in Texas

“I think it’s important for scientists and doctors to continuously assess and research all medications to ensure they’re effective and safe, but the language of referring to these as a potential ‘threat’ is harmful and potentially dangerous. It could increase stigma, reduce access to medications for those who need them, and contribute to a broader uptick in ableism especially toward mental health disorders. I also think that it sets a dangerous precedent of politicizing health issues, which could further contribute toward not only stigma but misinformation from politicians who are not medically trained or certified, harmful policies and legislation targeting people with mental and physical disabilities, and a cultural shift away from accommodations, accessibility, and legal protections for people affected by mental health disorders.” — an ADDitude reader in Colorado

“A review of these medications may lead to more informed prescribing practices, ensuring that treatments are effective and necessary. This could improve patient outcomes and tailor treatment to individual needs, which is crucial for managing conditions like ADHD and depression. However, there are potential risks associated with the recommendations that could affect access to treatment. If the assessment finds that certain medications are being overprescribed or misused, it might result in stricter regulations or guidelines that could limit access for those who genuinely need these medications. Moreover, increased examination and discussion around these medications may inadvertently contribute to stigma.” — an ADDitude reader in Australia

MAHA Commission: Next Steps

• Free Download: The Ultimate Guide to ADHD Medication
• Read: “Disability Is DEI.”
• Reader Reactions: “I’m Truly Scared for What This Could Mean”

SUPPORT ADDITUDE
Thank you for reading ADDitude. To support our mission of providing ADHD education and support, please consider subscribing. Your readership and support help make our content and outreach possible. Thank you.

Music exerts powerful, and largely positive, forces on the brain regions responsible for decision-making, memory, mood, and comprehension, according to decades of research. ^{1, 2, 3, 4, 5} But what types of music work best for individuals with ADHD? Two new studies suggest that stimulating music, and specifically songs with strong, targeted amplitude modulations, promotes attention and improves cognition in adults with ADHD symptoms.

Why ADHD Brains Prefer Stimulating Music

A peer-reviewed study published in the journal Communications Biology found that music with strong, targeted amplitude modulations (AM + Music) sustains attention for people with ADHD symptoms by engaging the brain regions responsible for cognitive control. ⁵

“We were interested to see if music with different acoustic properties would affect people differently depending on their attentional capacity,” the researchers wrote. “If so, people with attentional deficits, such as symptoms of ADHD, may need specifically designed focus music.”

For the study, researchers conducted four experiments that measured participants’ sustained attention while completing tasks and listening to either AM + Music, control music (with slow amplitude modulations), or pink noise.

The amplitude-modulation music in the research was provided by Brain.fm, a functional music app that combines original compositions with audio technology developed through a collaboration with researchers at MIND lab and funded, in part, by the U.S. National Science Foundation, Brain.fm’s music includes targeted amplitude modulation — rhythmic pulses not typically found in music — designed to impact the brain patterns associated with cognitive control. The music does not contain any vocals or strong melodies.

Participants who received AM + Music as the first music condition significantly outperformed those who received other music conditions first during the initial experiment. The researchers measured the sustained attention of the 83 participants with ADHD using the Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART), a computerized task that tests and measures consistent focus.

“People with ADHD benefit from ‘rhythmic entrainment,’ using strong, steady rhythms to imprint structure and consistency,” said Roberto Olivardia, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist and Clinical Instructor of Psychology at Harvard Medical School. “This assists with regulation of attention and behavior.” Olivardia discussed the Communications Biology study in a presentation at the 2024 Annual International Conference on ADHD titled “We Got the Beat: The Impact of Music on ADHD.”

The researchers then reproduced the same task and background conditions in two neuroimaging experiments using fMRI and EEG to study the brain’s response to the different types of music and task-related activities. These results showed significantly higher activation in multiple brain regions related to executive function during the AM + Music condition than in the other two conditions.

Forty participants had their EEGs recorded while they performed the SART task under the same three background music conditions. The EEG measurements revealed greater stimulus brain-coupling (where two or more brains exhibit synchronized neural activity) during the presence of AM + Music.

“These results suggested that amplitude modulation could underlie the difference in performance observed in the first experiment and the differences in functional network activity observed in the second experiment,” the researchers wrote.

What Is Amplitude Modulation?

Amplitude modulation is a technique for creating sounds and effects, such as tremolo, vibrato, or phasing (when multiple musicians perform the same musical pattern at different times).

“All music contains modulation to some degree, but it isn’t controlled to impact brainwaves systematically,” Psyche Loui, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Creativity and Creative Practice and Director of the Music, Imaging, and Neural Dynamics Laboratory (MIND Lab) at Northeastern University, told ADDitude.

Loui describes low modulation levels as barely perceptible, “like a gentle thrumming,” and high levels might be quite noticeable, like a “distant helicopter.”

“Higher levels of modulation will have a stronger effect on the brain but may be considered intrusive or annoying to neurotypical people,” says Loui, a lead researcher on the study.

The study’s final experiment included music that differed only in the rate or depth of amplitude modulation. Brain.fm’s music includes targeted amplitude modulation — rhythmic pulses not typically found in music — designed to impact the brain patterns associated with cognitive control. The music does not contain any vocals or strong melodies.

The researchers found that participants who were more likely to have ADHD, based on self-reported symptoms, performed significantly better over time listening to heavily modulated music than did participants without ADHD symptoms.

“We know that these modulations in music drive neural oscillations (brainwaves) at the same fast rates, namely, Beta waves (12-20Hz),” Loui says. “Our current hypothesis as to why this helps is that ADHD brains need a boost in these brainwaves to function best. The ADHD brain needs strong stimulation to really kick it into gear, so to speak.

“Brain.fm adds modulation to music that is strong, regular, and most importantly, faster than modulation you would find naturally in music,” she continues. “The music consistently encourages your brainwaves to stay in a pattern associated with focus.”

While the study’s results suggest that listening to heavily modulated music could increase focus and sustained attention in people exhibiting ADHD symptoms, it does not rule out alternative types of music.

“All types of music can sustain attention for someone with ADHD,” Olivardia says. “It is really an individual decision and depends on context. When reading, I listen to instrumental music. When trying to go to sleep, Enya is my go-to. When writing, it is often loud, cacophonous punk music. It is whatever grounds someone.”

Charting Differences in Music Preferences

A recent study published in Frontiers in Psychology found that the music listening habits of young adults with ADHD symptoms differ from those of their neurotypical peers during both less cognitively demanding activities (e.g., cleaning, cooking, or engaging in sports) and more cognitively demanding activities (e.g., studying, learning, writing, problem-solving, etc.). ⁶

The study found that young adults with ADHD symptoms listen to significantly more background music (BM) while studying and engaging in sports and other less cognitively demanding activities than do their neurotypical peers. The amount of time spent listening to BM while participating in more cognitively demanding activities did not significantly differ between the two groups.

Based on online survey responses, researchers found significant differences between the study’s control group (316 young adults) and its ADHD group (118 young adults likely to have ADHD based on self-reports) regarding preferences for certain musical characteristics and styles. The ADHD group had a significantly stronger preference for stimulating music compared with the control group during more and less cognitively demanding activities; a higher percentage of the control group reported preferring relaxing music.

“Young adults screened with ADHD may seek additional stimulation to maintain their cognitive engagement, especially during activities like studying, where mind wandering can be more common due to its boring and monotonous nature,” the researchers wrote.

During More Cognitively Demanding Activities

The ADHD group preferred listening to:

• classical or opera (36.4%)
• pop (32.2%)
• alternative or indie (25.4%)

The control group preferred listening to:

• pop (44.9%)
• classical or opera (34.8%)
• jazz or blues (27.2%)

During Less Cognitively Demanding Activities

The ADHD group preferred listening to:

• pop (53.3%)
• rap or hip-hop (33.9%)
• popular songs from their culture (30.5%)

The control group preferred listening to:

• pop (57.9%)
• dance/techno/electronic music (34.5%)
• popular songs from their culture (28.8%)

Select Your Soundtrack

Check out the ADDitude Spotify channel for playlists by and for ADHD brains based on suggestions from ADDitude readers and editors.

Brain.fm is offering a free 30-day trial to ADDitude readers at https://go.brain.fm/additude
Yearly ($5.83/month, $69.99/year) and monthly ($9.99) subscriptions are available.

Sources

¹ Park, J.I., Lee, I.H., Lee, S.J. et al. (2023). Effects of music therapy as an alternative treatment on depression in children and adolescents with ADHD by activating serotonin and improving stress coping ability. BMC Complement Med Ther 23, 73. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12906-022-03832-6

² Kraus, N. and B. Chandrasekaran. (2010). Music training for the development of auditory skills. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 11(8): p. 599-605. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn2882

³ Chanda, M.L., Levitin, D.J. (2013). The neurochemistry of music. Trends Cogn Sci. 17(4):179-93. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2013.02.007

⁴ Zimmermann, M. B., Diers, K., Strunz, L., Scherbaum, N., and Mette, C. (2019). Listening to Mozart improves current mood in adult ADHD – a randomized controlled pilot study. Front. Psychol 10:1104. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2013.02.007

⁵ Woods, K.J.P., Sampaio, G., James, T. et al. (2024). Rapid modulation in music supports attention in listeners with attentional difficulties. Commun Biol. 7, 1376. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2013.02.007

⁶ Lachance, K., & Gosselin, N. (2025). Listening habits and subjective effects of background music in young adults with and without ADHD. Frontiers in Psychology15, 1508181. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2013.02.007

Children and adolescents with avoidant restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) are more likely to have comorbid neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders like autism, ADHD, and anxiety, according to a new study¹ published in The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.

Among the 30,795 children included in the large-scale study, those with ARFID (n=616) were 14 times more likely to have autism and nine times more likely to have ADHD than were children without ARFID. They also demonstrated an increased risk for OCD, separation anxiety, generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), depression, learning disorders, conduct disorder, and more.

These results stand out amid the relatively scarce research data on ARFID, an eating disorder added to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders (DSM-5) in 2013.

“This study is one of the few large-scale epidemiological investigations of ARFID comorbidities in a general population sample,” the researchers wrote. “The findings emphasize the importance of incorporating routine screening for neurodevelopmental disorders, anxiety, and depression into ARFID assessments.”

Individuals with ARFID avoid foods based on sensory characteristics, a lack of interest in eating, and/or fear-related concerns over adverse eating experiences — not due to the body image concerns that compel other eating disorders like anorexia nervosa. ARFID is characterized by a “failure to meet appropriate nutritional and/or energy needs.”

Despite affecting 1-2% of children and adolescents², ARFID is often excluded from eating disorder discourse and clinical examinations. ARFID’s high comorbidity can complicate symptom identification, according to researchers.

“It’s important to really think about those with ADHD being at risk for a variety of eating disorder thoughts and behaviors, not just binge eating,” said Christine Peat, Ph.D., in a 2024 ADDitude webinar, “Eating Disorders Comorbid with ADHD: What You Need to Know About ARFID, Anorexia, and Others.” “In clinical contexts, ARFID and atypical anorexia nervosa may be overlooked, even in very routine eating disorder screenings.”

The study’s results emphasize the importance of identifying ARFID, the diagnosis of which may shed light on comorbidities.

“Early identification of these comorbidities can facilitate timely, targeted interventions and improve treatment outcomes,” the researchers wrote.

One ADDitude reader, Tiffany Bird, suffered decades of poor health before being diagnosed with ARFID in her late 20s. “For the first time, a doctor fully examined me and determined that I’ve been severely malnourished my entire life, no matter what ‘the numbers’ might have said. It made complete sense,” wrote Bird in an ADDitude guest blog post, “I went Over 25 Years Without Consuming a Vegetable.”

ARFID and Neurodevelopment Disorders

The study examined parent reports for 30,795 children born between 1992 and 2008, at 9 or 12 years old (depending on their cohort), from the Child and Adolescent Twin Study in Sweden. The parents rated their child using three measures of neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders: the A-TAC inventory, the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED), and the Short Mood and Feelings Questionnaire (SMFQ). The researchers examined the relationship between having ARFID and showing symptoms of other disorders using linear and logistic regressions.

The link between ADHD and ARFID found in the study reflects preliminary research in this area. According to Peat, one study found that 25% of adults with ARFID also had ADHD, and another reported that 10% of children and adolescents with ARFID had been diagnosed with ADHD at some point in their lives.

“We are so far from having causal explanations for this overlap,” Peat said. “But maybe kids and adults with ADHD are just sort of more biologically predisposed to have difficulty with sensory characteristics with food, so maybe that makes them more vulnerable to going on to develop something like ARFID.”

The study’s results regarding autism and ARFID also mirror prior research. One meta-analysis reported that autism was present in 16% of individuals with ARFID³.

People with ARFID are more likely to have autism than those without, and vice versa, possibly due to heightened sensory issues and inflexibility due to anxiety around change, both symptoms of autism, according to an article in ARFID Awareness UK.

ARFID and Psychiatric Disorders

According to the study, children with ARFID were four to six times more likely to have a psychiatric disorder, with OCD and anxiety presenting the greatest risks.

The most common type of anxiety found in the study was separation anxiety, which contrasts previous research that found GAD to be more common. This could be because of the younger age of onset characteristic of separation anxiety or younger age of the sample, the researchers wrote. However, they also hypothesize another reason their results differed.

“One hypothesis worth exploring is that separation anxiety is increased in ARFID because children fear separation from caregivers due to the potential for unanticipated exposure to feared foods or feeding-related situations,” the researchers wrote.

The study also found a higher rate of oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) (19.4%) than reported in previous studies, suggesting a possible overlap of symptoms between the two disorders.

“Our findings suggest that food-related conflicts may underlie the observed risk of ODD in ARFID, but further research is needed to confirm this association,” the researchers wrote.

Children with ARFID were found to face a higher risk for anxiety than depression. Depression is common among children with other eating disorders, according to the researchers. This discrepancy in comorbidities highlights the differences between ARFID and other eating disorders.

“The defining feature [of ARFID] is a persistent and pervasive eating or feeding disturbance in which someone is simply not meeting all of their nutritional needs,” Peat said. “In ARFID, these people don’t necessarily have that fear of fat or fear of weight gain.”

Gender and ARFID

Prior research may suggest that ARFID is more common in young males. However, this study found no gender-based differences in comorbidity rates associated with ARFID, meaning that the likelihood of having symptoms of another disorder in conjunction with ARFID did not significantly differ based on sex.

The results did indicate that, overall, boys had higher odds of developing a neurodevelopmental disorder, depression, and sleep problems; girls had higher rates of anxiety disorders (except for panic disorder).

“Unlike other eating disorders, the distribution of males and females with ARFID has been reported to be approximately equal,” the researchers wrote. “Given the sex differences observed in the prevalence of (neurodevelopmental disorders) and psychiatric conditions, it is important to investigate whether these sex differences are also present in individuals with ARFID.”

The study’s sample did not include transgender and nonbinary youth, a major limitation considering that transgender, nonbinary, and gender-expansive kids are at higher risk for eating disorders compared with their cisgender peers.

“There remains an urgent need to develop integrated treatment approaches that address both ARFID and its co-occurring conditions,” the researchers wrote.

Sources

¹ Nyholmer, M., Wronski, M.-L., Hog, L., Kuja-Halkola, R., Lichtenstein, P., Lundström, S., Larsson, H., Taylor, M.J., Bulik, C.M. and Dinkler, L. (2025), Neurodevelopmental and psychiatric conditions in 600 Swedish children with the avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder phenotype. J Child Psychol Psychiatr. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.14134

² D’Adamo, L., Smolar, L., Balantekin, K.N., Taylor, C.B., Wilfley, D.E., & Fitzsimmons-Craft, E.E. (2023). Prevalence, characteristics, and correlates of probable avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder among adult respondents to the National Eating Disorders Association online screen: A cross-sectional study. Journal of Eating Disorders, 11, 214. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40337-023-00939-0

³ Sader M, Weston A, Buchan K, Kerr-Gaffney J, Gillespie-Smith K, Sharpe H, Duffy F. (2025) The Co-Occurrence of Autism and Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID): A Prevalence-Based Meta-Analysis. Int J Eat Disord. 58(3):473-488. https://doi.org/10.1002/eat.24369