Update: A life of cognitive and physical exercise helps you stay sharp in your 70s and beyond

By SharpBrains | September 25, 2020

Wel­come to a new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains’ e‑newsletter, fea­tur­ing 13 fas­ci­nat­ing brain research find­ings, use­ful resources–and a brain teas­er to test your atten­tion skills. #1. Good news of the month: Elders today are in sig­nif­i­cant­ly bet­ter shape–physically and cognitively–than three decades ago #2. A dis­tinc­tion WITH a dif­fer­ence: Actu­al, sus­tained practice–not mere knowledge–is need­ed to…

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Study finds surprising correlation between states’ elevation and ADHD prevalence

By Dr. David Rabiner | September 8, 2020 |

Who would have thought that chil­dren liv­ing at high­er alti­tudes have low­er risk of devel­op­ing ADHD than peers at low­er ele­va­tion lev­els? As the research described below sug­gests, how­ev­er, this may be the case. The impe­tus for this study is the well-doc­u­­men­t­ed region­al vari­a­tion in the preva­lence of ADHD in youth. For exam­ple, nation­al data for…

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FDA clears first videogame to be prescribed to kids with ADHD: EndeavorRx by Akili Interactive Labs

By SharpBrains | June 18, 2020

In a land­mark deci­sion, FDA green­lights a video game for kids with ADHD (STAT): The Food and Drug Admin­is­tra­tion on Mon­day for the first time gave a green light to a game-based ther­a­peu­tic: a video game meant to be pre­scribed to kids with ADHD. The game, known as Endeav­or­Rx and devel­oped by Boston-based Akili Inter­ac­tive Labs,…

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Study finds mixed results of Adderall as cognitive enhancer (seems to boost emotion more than cognition)

By Dr. David Rabiner | April 15, 2020

Over the past 15 years there has been grow­ing aware­ness that many col­lege stu­dents with­out an ADHD diag­no­sis use ADHD drugs. On some cam­pus­es, rates of self-report­ed non-med­i­cal use have exceed­ed 30% of stu­dents. The pri­ma­ry rea­son stu­dents report tak­ing ADHD drugs is to enhance their aca­d­e­m­ic per­for­mance. And, the strong major­i­ty of students —…

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Update: Four tips to practice good mental hygiene during the coronavirus outbreak

By SharpBrains | March 25, 2020

__ Time for a new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains’ e‑newsletter, fea­tur­ing this time 14 time­ly news and resources for men­tal health and brain health inno­va­tion. First of all, let’s remain safe, healthy, and cen­tered dur­ing the cur­rent health cri­sis by fol­low­ing these tips pro­vid­ed by the Greater Good Sci­ence Cen­ter at UC Berke­ley: 1. Stay calm and…

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Study: A brief sleep intervention can bring measurable and sustained benefits to children with ADHD

By Dr. David Rabiner | March 4, 2020

 Sleep prob­lems are com­mon in chil­dren with ADHD, are more per­sis­tent than in the gen­er­al pop­u­la­tion, and often exac­er­bate dif­fi­cul­ties asso­ci­at­ed with ADHD. For exam­ple, poor sleep can enhance dif­fi­cul­ties with atten­tion and con­cen­tra­tion that most youth with ADHD expe­ri­ence. Research has shown that brief sleep inter­ven­tions can improve sleep in youth with­out ADHD who…

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