Evidence review: Physical exercise helps boost attention, cognitive flexibility and inhibitory control in children and adolescents with ADHD

The impact of phys­i­cal exer­cise on ADHD has been exam­ined in a large num­ber of stud­ies. Col­lec­tive­ly, these stud­ies have exam­ined whether exer­cise reduces on core ADHD symp­toms, e.g., inat­ten­tion and hyperactivity/impulsivity, and strength­ens exec­u­tive func­tions, e.g., inhibito­ry con­trol, work­ing mem­o­ry, and men­tal health, e.g., emo­tion­al and social func­tion­ing. Over­all, results across mul­ti­ple stud­ies suggest…

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Should doctors prescribe Leqembi (lecanemab) to women with early Alzheimer’s Disease? The evidence-based answer is probably No

Wel­come to a new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains e‑newsletter, fea­tur­ing this time a range of inter­ven­tions for brain/ cognitive/ men­tal health plus a few brain teasers to test our per­cep­tion and cog­ni­tive skills. #1. Should doc­tors pre­scribe lecanemab (Leqem­bi) to women? The answer, giv­en avail­able evi­dence, is prob­a­bly No Huge (and most­ly over­looked) red flag regard­ing newly…

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From “Eminence-based” to Evidence-based cognitive & mental healthcare: Time for quality and accountability

Wel­come to a new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains’ e‑newsletter, fea­tur­ing time­ly brain & men­tal health news, two excel­lent new books and a few fun brain teasers. #1. From “Emi­­nence-based” to Evi­­dence-based men­tal health­care: Time to focus on qual­i­ty and account­abil­i­ty “The real chal­lenge is not find­ing a ther­a­pist, it’s find­ing a ther­a­pist who knows how to provide…

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Canadian study finds causal link between time playing videogames at age 12 and ADHD symptoms at age 13

Recent stud­ies have linked screen time — includ­ing video game play — to con­cern­ing out­comes in chil­dren, includ­ing low self-esteem, low life sat­is­fac­tion, and depres­sive symp­toms. Screen time has also been found to be cor­re­lat­ed with symp­toms of ADHD in chil­dren and ado­les­cents, even when ear­li­er atten­tion dif­fi­cul­ties are tak­en into account. These find­ings suggest…

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Meta-analysis finds sustained benefits of neurofeedback for kids with ADHD

___ In neu­ro­feed­back treat­ment for ADHD, indi­vid­u­als learn to alter their typ­i­cal pat­tern of brain­wave activ­i­ty, i.e., EEG activ­i­ty, to one that is con­sis­tent with a focused and atten­tive state. This is done by col­lect­ing EEG data from indi­vid­u­als as they focus on stim­uli pre­sent­ed on a com­put­er screen. Their abil­i­ty to con­trol the stim­uli, e.g.,…

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Consistent use of ADHD medication may stunt growth by 2 inches, large study finds

___ The Mul­ti­modal Treat­ment Study of ADHD (MTA Study) is the largest ADHD treat­ment study ever con­duct­ed — near­ly 600 7–9‑year-old chil­dren with ADHD were ran­dom­ly assigned to one of four inter­ven­tions: 1) Care­ful­ly mon­i­tored med­ica­tion treat­ment; 2) Inten­sive behav­ior ther­a­py; 3) Med­ica­tion Treat­ment com­bined with Behav­ior Ther­a­py; or 4) Com­mu­ni­ty Care (par­ents obtained what­ev­er treatment…

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