I suspect that instead of social media worsening adhd symptoms, the causation is just the other way. adhd predisposes you to higher social media use, which would make sense
Yeh I agree this is possible for a lot of people, though I do think the sharp rise in ADHD diagnosis is also to do with the rise in social media use - just because tiktok and other social media require only seconds to minutes of attention and the brain gets used to doing what people train it to do
@@ZacharyCortex The sharpest rise in ADHD diagnoses is in adults across all ages. For example, I am getting diagnosed with ADHD now, at age 55. And my ADHD symptoms have been noted in all of my elementary school reports, and are still visible in secondary school. “Needs to work more consistently”, etc. This was way before the Internet. And in our household TV times were regulated, and my mother was a homemaker, watching over this. It should also be noted that a large subgroup of people with ADHD do not only get distracted by external events, but also by their own thoughts wandering off automatically, by themselves. I am one of these people. (These symptoms have been summarized under the Cognitive Disengagement Syndrome (CDS) label. Formerly under the misnomer SCT - Sluggish Cognitive Tempo. Some researchers believe that this syndrome should be separated from ADHD, because people can have ADHD without CDS and vice versa, even though most have both.) What this means is that I cannot even pay attention to what’s happening on a screen for long enough to doom-view TikToks (which I *don’t* use and hate), or watch a movie without skipping back over parts that I missed. On the other hand, the many distractions and interruptions (notifications!) that screens provide have lead some people to believe that they have ADHD. The problem here is that as far as I know it has not been researched if these “symptoms” persist when people stop using their devices. Of course, many seem to need to overcome a period of withdrawal. But does the distractibility / inattentiveness go away? How long does it take? Also, are there any symptoms of impulsivity amongst those people? How about the ability to start tasks that require mental engagement, and to sustain working on tasks. And would ADHD medication help with any of these? Or is withdrawing or regulating device use more effective? So, there are many ways how the device-induced ADHD-like experience could differ from neurodevelopmental ADHD. And I believe in a video titled “The *Actual* Neuroscience of the ADHD Brain” it would be good if this would be mentioned. I also have my doubts that professional licensed diagnosticians would diagnose people with device-induced ADHD-like “symptoms” with ADHD, and go on to treat them with ADHD medications. I imagine that some are misdiagnosed. But in general, diagnosticians look at the circumstances and behaviors in enough detail to make these distinctions.
@@ZacharyCortex Unfortunately, my previous reply here was lost. It took me half an hour to write, and I won’t repeat that. But in summary, device-induced ADHD-like signs and symptoms have received very little attention from research. It is unclear if these people have the whole range of symptoms of ADHD, some of which are not yet in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, but may be included in the next edition. Such as: emotional disregulation, executive function problems such as time management problems (“time blindness”) and difficulties getting started on tasks or sustaining attention to tasks, forgetfulness, rejection sensitivity dysphoria, impulsivity, etc. It is also unclear if treatment with ADHD medications helps, or whether device withdrawal or regulation of device use may be a better “treatment”. Also, a large subgroup of people with ADHD suffer from being distracted by their own thoughts wandering off by themselves, while they try to pay attention to other things. People with these symptoms have trouble to consistently follow what is happening on a screen, or what they are being told in a conversation. (I am one of them.) So, doom-viewing TikToks is not easily possible. - These symptoms have been summarized under the name Cognitive Disengagement Syndrome (CDS), and formerly under the misnomer Sluggish Cognitive Tempo (SCT). Currently, this is part of the ADHD diagnosis, ADHDers may or may not have this. (Some people believe it should be a separate condition, because it is possible to have only ADHD or only CDS, and treatments may be different.) I doubt that licensed ADHD diagnosticians will diagnose people with device-induced ADHD-like “symptoms” with ADHD, and go on to treat them with ADHD medications, when there is no evidence for that to be effective and better than other options. I imagine that some inadvertently will get falsely diagnosed. But generally, from what I read and hear in self-help groups and have experienced in my own ADHD assessment, diagnosticians go into enough circumstances and details to discern device-induced distractibility / inattentiveness from ADHD.
You have to be really careful applying any sense of causality here. A lot of people with ADHD enjoy modern forms of info sharing (like social media, including TH-cam) because we are able to better consume the information and learn. Even suggesting causality can apply stigma where it's neither needed or scientifically backed.
Hello! Thank you so much for the comment I really appreciate it! You are very welcome! Please share with any other students who you think would also find the channel interesting!
I must say this is a very informative and interesting video to watch on. As I'm currently working on my master's project in analyzing EEG signals to identify patterns associated with ADHD. Indeed this is an area that need much more research and information similar to autism where early diagnosis and root cause the disorder is much needed to treat these disorders and provide more supports for children.
Thank you very much! Very interesting what have you found in your project? Please feel free to share this video with anyone on your course you think may also find this video interesting!
This is all very interesting, thank you very much. I've just been diagnosed, I live in France, I'm 63 years old. I have one comment of a practical nature that might be helpful in the context of what you say about the potential for over diagnosis. It's a simple fact that it's just so hard to get a diagnosis. Sure there are private options, but they are so expensive that a huge part of the population don't have access to them. It seems to me that any consideration of a skew in diagnosis should at least take account of how many people there are in the Uk and France, for example, who are on waiting lists measured in years rather than in months and weeks. Hard, I would say, to be clear about the issue in this respect. When I first mentioned my concerns to my GP, he commented that he thought that the condition was over-diagnosed, and then said that he didn't know much about it in detail. Seems more like a rumour than a fact based claim to me at present.
Thanks for this comment I'm glad you found the video interesting. This is a good point for me to incorporate into my world view. I think a part of the 'controversy' of the overdiagnosis question is that there are a lot of people out there who say they have AHDH in a self-diagnosed manner (similar to people saying they have OCD). I think another interesting consideration I hadnt thought about (thank you for including your age) is how diagnosis is probably considered differently for young children in school as opposed to adults. I wonder if doctors are more cautious to diagnose adults than children where the symptoms manifest 'more clearly'. I think in school ADHD is laid more bare as everyone is asked to do the same thing but for adults they are likely to have already found their niche in life where they excel (as I imagine you have) so ADHD can become less 'obvious'. Just speculating now, no data or research for this!
Hi, thanks for your reply. I take your point about people self diagnosing. If a solicitor who represents themselves has a fool for a client, a patient who diagnoses themselves surely has a fraud for a doctor! Joking asside, in some senses your observation makes the viewpoint that ADHD is overdiagnosed even less helpful, as it may be partly based on impatience with those who wrongly self diagnose. But that's unhelpful as it potentially masks the real problem. It seems to me, given the proportion of the population that is thought to be affected by the disorder, to be highly likely that we are woefully behind the curve in diagnosing adult ADHD, so in reality it's more likely under diagnosed; so why not talk more about that possiblity? There simply hasn't been enough resource to catch up to the extant needs, as the waiting lists clearly show, no?
I seriously doubt people who don't have ADHD or autism would even watch more than 5 minutes of these types of videos, unless they're learning for a loved one. I relate to so much of the content, which is familiar in the videos, I'm hooked and need more information. Self diagnosis is the only way you get anything fixed, whether it's this or kidney failure. Obviously if people are finding things in these videos that speak to them, they'll seek help or more knowledge. Be happy, you're doing a wonderful service to us late diagnosed.
Social media use doesn't cause ADHD but it can cause attention problems. Social media usage can increase symtomps or their intensity, and ADHD people are probably more prone to getting addicted to social media. Social media can also cause an increase in diagnoses (not ADHD itself), as it is a place that is used both to educate and advocate for ADHD and to bait people to think they have it to sell booklets, diets, apps and more. It's all a mess really. But as I said in a reply there are loads of people that have ADHD and not a diagnosis due to bias in research, education and medical practice. While the percentage of people with ADHD can increase slightly, the percentage of diagnoses will probably increase until it plateaus while the aforementioned problems are solved. Sincerely, and audhder hoping to study neuroscience to help solve said problems
Thanks for the comment! I think there is some reasonable evidence that social media really does worsens symptoms of adhd to the point of diagnosis, but not for everyone. Otherwise very interesting!
Here are some of the reasons why ADHD diagnoses are rising now: * Awareness. When I was a child in the 70s and 80s, inattentive children were not referred to doctors. Every one of my elementary school reports talks about “needs to work more consistently”, even “easily distracted”, but I was never referred, nor did people talk about it. When there was news from the USA on the radio about schools getting criticized for drugging hyperactive children to make them more “docile”, this was taken as a warning and a horrible story. In Germany, even hyperactive children were rather reprimanded than treated. * Better understanding of ADHD, how it proceeds over a lifetime, and its comorbidities, like autism. When I was a child, only children were ever diagnosed (worldwide) with ADHD. Adult ADHD was not being recognized. This changed for the first time in 1994, with the publication of the book “Driven to distraction” by Hallowell and Ratey. (Two psychiatrists that specialize in ADHD and have the condition themselves.) Around that time, (either in 1989 or 1994, I don’t remember), adult ADHD was first mentioned in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (the “DSM”), which is used by psychiatrists in the US to diagnose these conditions. (And influential world wide.) Afterwards, research of adult ADHD got taken much more seriously. And in 2013, the latest edition of the DSM made it possible for the first time to diagnose a person with both ADHD and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Research had shown that not only is there a high rate of comorbidity between the two, but also that the genetic markers for the two overlap. Previously, research did identify a small set of single genes as the cause of autism in some children. So, people thought that ADHD and ASD cannot be present in the same person - it would be too much of a coincidence that they have two very specific mutations at the same time. But subsequent research showed that for most people with ASD, a larger set of genes (maybe 100 or more) are associated with the condition. And similar results were found for ADHD, with some of the genes overlapping with the ones found for ASD. This was reflected in the 2013 edition of the DSM. - On top of that, a subgroup of people diagnosed with depression and/or anxiety discovered after going from treatment to treatment and from clinician to clinician, that ADHD and/or ASD better describes their problems, and that their depression / anxiety was a result of living with these untreated and unaccommodated conditions.
Thank you for writing all this down, it’s so nice to see correct information being shared. 🙏😍 Can so relate to all this. I’ve read the book from the 2 doctors, it’s great . It has helped me a lot! ( Late diagnosed 54 old ADHD woman here) 🤓
@@ZacharyCortexwould you please consider making a video just about the topic on the so-called „ overdiagnose on ADHD“? Which in my opinion ( and many studies and research which I can’t name, sorry, don’t remember where I read and heard it) . Because when it comes to adults ,it’s really an overdiagnose of depression, because it’s much easier to to diagnose! ( see my other comment above! ) ADHD is STILL underdiagnosed, especially among adult women.
The current estimates for the number of research papers on ADHD is about one million papers. This includes gems with tens of thousands of participants, even across countries, or on health data of the whole population of Sweden (yep, they have this kind of data there), but also studies with smaller and small sample sizes. Nobody can read all of these papers. But if you want a good overview over current publications, I would like to recommend the youtube channel of Dr. Russell Barkley, a retired ADHD researcher. He goes over a selection of new ADHD research papers every week. And I find his presentations very interesting. Note that he has received money for presentations to pharma companies over his career, but was never involved in the development of pharmaceutical treatments (or other ADHD treatments, as far as I know). Nor does he sell anything on his channel.
self diagnosis could be bad but for me it was actually good, because im smart unlike most internet fellows who are "oh i relate to this spesific thing so i must have it" i was "oh i relate to this lets see what else they say, oh i relate to this too, so lets search what it is, oh i relate on most of these and that explains a lot, so i must... go see a doctor" and it didnt happened randomly i was suspecting that i was diffefernt on most ways and i start searching, turned out i also have autism with adhd. but apparently im too smart to show it. its not the same for some people, all those %'s could exclude a 10 to 15% of people who actually has it and some could also be mis-daignosed. so nuh i dont believe half of what the internet says.
Thanks for the comment! Yeh for sure there will be some people who self-diagnose correctly. What I try to get across in the video is the stats are skewed because some are self-diagnosing correctly and some incorrectly. Thanks for sharing and have a good day :)
Thank you very much for the comment! The study I talked about showed Mid East to be very high levels of ADHD! Is that your experience living there day to day?
This is so interesting, I think I would have put money on the fact that I thought incidence of ADHD was increasing.. do you think with the rise of social media and apps like tiktok, these numbers will shoot up again in the next analyses?
Thanks for the comment! I think there is likely to be an impact in the next 5-10 years as the new generation growing up having probably higher levels of ADHD, though interesting diagnosed rates are not as high as everyone seems to think.
Since there are loads of people that have ADHD and not a diagnosis, the number of diagnoses will probably increase until it plateaus. This will happen as we solve the problem of bias in research, education and medical practice.
First of all, thank you very much for a very informative video, and for using evidence based information.👌Most of what you are saying is correct and it’s nice that you point out that some information is confusing or not really useful. That’s right, there needs to be much more research studies on ADULT ADHD, that’s for sure. Even though this condition has been there for soooo long!! 🙄(1775, thank you for making that number big and visual🙏😃👌). But I do not agree with the general opinion that ADHD is being overdiagnosed at the moment. It’s the opposite, it’s being under-diagnosed, especially for girls and women. The doctors and psychiatrists etc today are still not informed enough about adult ADHD. They know enough about ADHD for kids , but not for adults. BUT! DEPRESSION is being overdiagnosed. A lot of people ( again, often women) get diagnosed with depression, when in fact they have ADHD ( or autism or xyz) . Because it's easier to just say it’s depression, because that is such a broad spectrum! So many ADHD symptoms can be seen as depression, if you are not informed enough! This happened to me. I am a 54 year old woman, I was diagnosed with depression in 2014, I spent years in therapy. Finally, I got diagnosed with ADHD 6 months ago. It took about 2 years to get the diagnosis, a lot of doctors didn’t believe me. I more or less had to inform my doctor (neurologist) about the criteria for having ADHD as an adult woman. He was so fixated on the fact that I didn’t get diagnosed as a kid, that’s why he was convinced at first that I was bipolar. I broke down and had to spend 6 weeks in a psychiatric clinic, and it got worse . And then 6 months later, he finally listened to me and gave me the medication. It has helped me so much. 🙏 Having ADHD almost killed me. It’s not fun having ADHD! if I had gotten the diagnosis earlier, my life would have been much easier… So it’s very tiring tiring to hear „it’s just a trend“, „ we all have adhd“ there is overdiagnose etc. Thank you for reading this far.
Hello! Thanks so much for your comment and for sharing these details. I'm glad you liked the video! The over/under-diagnosed question is one i went down the rabbit hole on in researching this video. I definitely agree that is is underdiagnosed in certain groups (like women over 40), but I do think there is still evidence that it is overdiagnosed in children - especially with the motives of teachers to just label 'energetic' behaviour in school as ADHD.........maybe the truth of it is that ADHD is BADLY diagnosed. It is insufficiently diagnosed by family doctors when patients go to them with a wide range of symptoms that can look like depression, and also overdiagnosed (through self-diagnosis or bad testing) in other groups. Either way its definitely something where more research is needed. I like the idea of doing a video to explore this further! A fundamental issue is I like to explain technical research papers more than give my own opinions about stuff, and there just isnt much good research on this topic to present to my subscribers! But watch this space I will keep an eye on all the research in this area!
I have a daughter who ages 4.5 years. She is suffering in ADHD. She can't speak properly. Is it the effect of this? Is ADHD curable? I am so worried. When she leads the normal childhood life??
Thank you very much for the comment. I so sorry to hear this it must be really difficult. All I can advise is to see you family doctor / GP as they will be able to get you to the people who can try help. If you have tried this then maybe go back and ask again! I wish you daughter all the best
Thanks for the comment! Yeh I did think about the fact that people with attention difficulties would struggle to watch it. Hope you found it a bit interesting!
I mean... Zach literally cites everything he says and shows the source on screen. Granted, I haven't read the papers myself, but just claiming "NUH UH, he's talking crap" without elaborating why doesn't help anyone.
I suspect that instead of social media worsening adhd symptoms, the causation is just the other way. adhd predisposes you to higher social media use, which would make sense
Yeh I agree this is possible for a lot of people, though I do think the sharp rise in ADHD diagnosis is also to do with the rise in social media use - just because tiktok and other social media require only seconds to minutes of attention and the brain gets used to doing what people train it to do
@@ZacharyCortex100% attention switch and impact on dopamine for sure
@@ZacharyCortex The sharpest rise in ADHD diagnoses is in adults across all ages. For example, I am getting diagnosed with ADHD now, at age 55. And my ADHD symptoms have been noted in all of my elementary school reports, and are still visible in secondary school. “Needs to work more consistently”, etc. This was way before the Internet. And in our household TV times were regulated, and my mother was a homemaker, watching over this.
It should also be noted that a large subgroup of people with ADHD do not only get distracted by external events, but also by their own thoughts wandering off automatically, by themselves. I am one of these people. (These symptoms have been summarized under the Cognitive Disengagement Syndrome (CDS) label. Formerly under the misnomer SCT - Sluggish Cognitive Tempo. Some researchers believe that this syndrome should be separated from ADHD, because people can have ADHD without CDS and vice versa, even though most have both.) What this means is that I cannot even pay attention to what’s happening on a screen for long enough to doom-view TikToks (which I *don’t* use and hate), or watch a movie without skipping back over parts that I missed.
On the other hand, the many distractions and interruptions (notifications!) that screens provide have lead some people to believe that they have ADHD. The problem here is that as far as I know it has not been researched if these “symptoms” persist when people stop using their devices. Of course, many seem to need to overcome a period of withdrawal. But does the distractibility / inattentiveness go away? How long does it take? Also, are there any symptoms of impulsivity amongst those people? How about the ability to start tasks that require mental engagement, and to sustain working on tasks. And would ADHD medication help with any of these? Or is withdrawing or regulating device use more effective?
So, there are many ways how the device-induced ADHD-like experience could differ from neurodevelopmental ADHD. And I believe in a video titled “The *Actual* Neuroscience of the ADHD Brain” it would be good if this would be mentioned.
I also have my doubts that professional licensed diagnosticians would diagnose people with device-induced ADHD-like “symptoms” with ADHD, and go on to treat them with ADHD medications. I imagine that some are misdiagnosed. But in general, diagnosticians look at the circumstances and behaviors in enough detail to make these distinctions.
@@ZacharyCortex Unfortunately, my previous reply here was lost. It took me half an hour to write, and I won’t repeat that.
But in summary, device-induced ADHD-like signs and symptoms have received very little attention from research. It is unclear if these people have the whole range of symptoms of ADHD, some of which are not yet in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, but may be included in the next edition. Such as: emotional disregulation, executive function problems such as time management problems (“time blindness”) and difficulties getting started on tasks or sustaining attention to tasks, forgetfulness, rejection sensitivity dysphoria, impulsivity, etc. It is also unclear if treatment with ADHD medications helps, or whether device withdrawal or regulation of device use may be a better “treatment”.
Also, a large subgroup of people with ADHD suffer from being distracted by their own thoughts wandering off by themselves, while they try to pay attention to other things. People with these symptoms have trouble to consistently follow what is happening on a screen, or what they are being told in a conversation. (I am one of them.) So, doom-viewing TikToks is not easily possible. - These symptoms have been summarized under the name Cognitive Disengagement Syndrome (CDS), and formerly under the misnomer Sluggish Cognitive Tempo (SCT). Currently, this is part of the ADHD diagnosis, ADHDers may or may not have this. (Some people believe it should be a separate condition, because it is possible to have only ADHD or only CDS, and treatments may be different.)
I doubt that licensed ADHD diagnosticians will diagnose people with device-induced ADHD-like “symptoms” with ADHD, and go on to treat them with ADHD medications, when there is no evidence for that to be effective and better than other options. I imagine that some inadvertently will get falsely diagnosed. But generally, from what I read and hear in self-help groups and have experienced in my own ADHD assessment, diagnosticians go into enough circumstances and details to discern device-induced distractibility / inattentiveness from ADHD.
You have to be really careful applying any sense of causality here. A lot of people with ADHD enjoy modern forms of info sharing (like social media, including TH-cam) because we are able to better consume the information and learn. Even suggesting causality can apply stigma where it's neither needed or scientifically backed.
Hi, I am still a student, but I'm really interested in neuroscience. Thanks for making some actual evidence based content...
Hello! Thank you so much for the comment I really appreciate it! You are very welcome! Please share with any other students who you think would also find the channel interesting!
I must say this is a very informative and interesting video to watch on. As I'm currently working on my master's project in analyzing EEG signals to identify patterns associated with ADHD. Indeed this is an area that need much more research and information similar to autism where early diagnosis and root cause the disorder is much needed to treat these disorders and provide more supports for children.
Thank you very much! Very interesting what have you found in your project? Please feel free to share this video with anyone on your course you think may also find this video interesting!
This is all very interesting, thank you very much.
I've just been diagnosed, I live in France, I'm 63 years old.
I have one comment of a practical nature that might be helpful in the context of what you say about the potential for over diagnosis. It's a simple fact that it's just so hard to get a diagnosis. Sure there are private options, but they are so expensive that a huge part of the population don't have access to them. It seems to me that any consideration of a skew in diagnosis should at least take account of how many people there are in the Uk and France, for example, who are on waiting lists measured in years rather than in months and weeks. Hard, I would say, to be clear about the issue in this respect. When I first mentioned my concerns to my GP, he commented that he thought that the condition was over-diagnosed, and then said that he didn't know much about it in detail. Seems more like a rumour than a fact based claim to me at present.
Thanks for this comment I'm glad you found the video interesting. This is a good point for me to incorporate into my world view. I think a part of the 'controversy' of the overdiagnosis question is that there are a lot of people out there who say they have AHDH in a self-diagnosed manner (similar to people saying they have OCD). I think another interesting consideration I hadnt thought about (thank you for including your age) is how diagnosis is probably considered differently for young children in school as opposed to adults. I wonder if doctors are more cautious to diagnose adults than children where the symptoms manifest 'more clearly'. I think in school ADHD is laid more bare as everyone is asked to do the same thing but for adults they are likely to have already found their niche in life where they excel (as I imagine you have) so ADHD can become less 'obvious'. Just speculating now, no data or research for this!
Hi, thanks for your reply. I take your point about people self diagnosing. If a solicitor who represents themselves has a fool for a client, a patient who diagnoses themselves surely has a fraud for a doctor!
Joking asside, in some senses your observation makes the viewpoint that ADHD is overdiagnosed even less helpful, as it may be partly based on impatience with those who wrongly self diagnose. But that's unhelpful as it potentially masks the real problem. It seems to me, given the proportion of the population that is thought to be affected by the disorder, to be highly likely that we are woefully behind the curve in diagnosing adult ADHD, so in reality it's more likely under diagnosed; so why not talk more about that possiblity? There simply hasn't been enough resource to catch up to the extant needs, as the waiting lists clearly show, no?
I seriously doubt people who don't have ADHD or autism would even watch more than 5 minutes of these types of videos, unless they're learning for a loved one. I relate to so much of the content, which is familiar in the videos, I'm hooked and need more information. Self diagnosis is the only way you get anything fixed, whether it's this or kidney failure. Obviously if people are finding things in these videos that speak to them, they'll seek help or more knowledge. Be happy, you're doing a wonderful service to us late diagnosed.
What a lovely comment to wake up and see! Very happy if this video is helpful to even a few people to learn more!
Social media use doesn't cause ADHD but it can cause attention problems. Social media usage can increase symtomps or their intensity, and ADHD people are probably more prone to getting addicted to social media. Social media can also cause an increase in diagnoses (not ADHD itself), as it is a place that is used both to educate and advocate for ADHD and to bait people to think they have it to sell booklets, diets, apps and more. It's all a mess really. But as I said in a reply there are loads of people that have ADHD and not a diagnosis due to bias in research, education and medical practice. While the percentage of people with ADHD can increase slightly, the percentage of diagnoses will probably increase until it plateaus while the aforementioned problems are solved.
Sincerely, and audhder hoping to study neuroscience to help solve said problems
Thanks for the comment! I think there is some reasonable evidence that social media really does worsens symptoms of adhd to the point of diagnosis, but not for everyone. Otherwise very interesting!
Isn’t A in ADHD stands for attention Deficit :l
Thank you for doing good research on your part
You are very welcome, thank you for your comment!
Here are some of the reasons why ADHD diagnoses are rising now:
* Awareness. When I was a child in the 70s and 80s, inattentive children were not referred to doctors. Every one of my elementary school reports talks about “needs to work more consistently”, even “easily distracted”, but I was never referred, nor did people talk about it. When there was news from the USA on the radio about schools getting criticized for drugging hyperactive children to make them more “docile”, this was taken as a warning and a horrible story. In Germany, even hyperactive children were rather reprimanded than treated.
* Better understanding of ADHD, how it proceeds over a lifetime, and its comorbidities, like autism. When I was a child, only children were ever diagnosed (worldwide) with ADHD. Adult ADHD was not being recognized. This changed for the first time in 1994, with the publication of the book “Driven to distraction” by Hallowell and Ratey. (Two psychiatrists that specialize in ADHD and have the condition themselves.) Around that time, (either in 1989 or 1994, I don’t remember), adult ADHD was first mentioned in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (the “DSM”), which is used by psychiatrists in the US to diagnose these conditions. (And influential world wide.) Afterwards, research of adult ADHD got taken much more seriously. And in 2013, the latest edition of the DSM made it possible for the first time to diagnose a person with both ADHD and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Research had shown that not only is there a high rate of comorbidity between the two, but also that the genetic markers for the two overlap. Previously, research did identify a small set of single genes as the cause of autism in some children. So, people thought that ADHD and ASD cannot be present in the same person - it would be too much of a coincidence that they have two very specific mutations at the same time. But subsequent research showed that for most people with ASD, a larger set of genes (maybe 100 or more) are associated with the condition. And similar results were found for ADHD, with some of the genes overlapping with the ones found for ASD. This was reflected in the 2013 edition of the DSM. - On top of that, a subgroup of people diagnosed with depression and/or anxiety discovered after going from treatment to treatment and from clinician to clinician, that ADHD and/or ASD better describes their problems, and that their depression / anxiety was a result of living with these untreated and unaccommodated conditions.
Thanks for the comment!
Thank you for writing all this down, it’s so nice to see correct information being shared. 🙏😍 Can so relate to all this. I’ve read the book from the 2 doctors, it’s great . It has helped me a lot! ( Late diagnosed 54 old ADHD woman here) 🤓
@@ZacharyCortexwould you please consider making a video just about the topic on the so-called „ overdiagnose on ADHD“? Which in my opinion ( and many studies and research which I can’t name, sorry, don’t remember where I read and heard it) . Because when it comes to adults ,it’s really an overdiagnose of depression, because it’s much easier to to diagnose! ( see my other comment above! ) ADHD is STILL underdiagnosed, especially among adult women.
I have combinated ADHD, Bipolarity and TOC
Thanks for the comment! I plan on doing videos about these sometime soon too!
The current estimates for the number of research papers on ADHD is about one million papers. This includes gems with tens of thousands of participants, even across countries, or on health data of the whole population of Sweden (yep, they have this kind of data there), but also studies with smaller and small sample sizes. Nobody can read all of these papers.
But if you want a good overview over current publications, I would like to recommend the youtube channel of Dr. Russell Barkley, a retired ADHD researcher. He goes over a selection of new ADHD research papers every week. And I find his presentations very interesting. Note that he has received money for presentations to pharma companies over his career, but was never involved in the development of pharmaceutical treatments (or other ADHD treatments, as far as I know). Nor does he sell anything on his channel.
thanks for the comment!
Yes, Dr. Barkley is one of the absolute best for proper ADHD information!! 👌please do listen to him!
self diagnosis could be bad but for me it was actually good, because im smart unlike most internet fellows who are "oh i relate to this spesific thing so i must have it" i was "oh i relate to this lets see what else they say, oh i relate to this too, so lets search what it is, oh i relate on most of these and that explains a lot, so i must... go see a doctor"
and it didnt happened randomly i was suspecting that i was diffefernt on most ways and i start searching, turned out i also have autism with adhd.
but apparently im too smart to show it.
its not the same for some people, all those %'s could exclude a 10 to 15% of people who actually has it and some could also be mis-daignosed.
so nuh i dont believe half of what the internet says.
Thanks for the comment! Yeh for sure there will be some people who self-diagnose correctly. What I try to get across in the video is the stats are skewed because some are self-diagnosing correctly and some incorrectly. Thanks for sharing and have a good day :)
Great Channel very simple yet very informative thank you sir
Thank you very much! Really appreciate the comment :) Please share with anyone else you think may like the content too!
W explanation w British man I'm from the miyeast by the way
Thank you very much for the comment! The study I talked about showed Mid East to be very high levels of ADHD! Is that your experience living there day to day?
@ZacharyCortex yes
Everything starts with being more self-aware! And that’s a real thing that ADHD person need to be better at!
Thanks for the comment!
This is so interesting, I think I would have put money on the fact that I thought incidence of ADHD was increasing.. do you think with the rise of social media and apps like tiktok, these numbers will shoot up again in the next analyses?
Thanks for the comment! I think there is likely to be an impact in the next 5-10 years as the new generation growing up having probably higher levels of ADHD, though interesting diagnosed rates are not as high as everyone seems to think.
Since there are loads of people that have ADHD and not a diagnosis, the number of diagnoses will probably increase until it plateaus. This will happen as we solve the problem of bias in research, education and medical practice.
this is very interesting
Thanks for the comment!
Very good Video😀. Music is good too😉😁
Thank you so much I really appreciate that :)
First of all, thank you very much for a very informative video, and for using evidence based information.👌Most of what you are saying is correct and it’s nice that you point out that some information is confusing or not really useful. That’s right, there needs to be much more research studies on ADULT ADHD, that’s for sure. Even though this condition has been there for soooo long!! 🙄(1775, thank you for making that number big and visual🙏😃👌).
But I do not agree with the general opinion that ADHD is being overdiagnosed at the moment. It’s the opposite, it’s being under-diagnosed, especially for girls and women. The doctors and psychiatrists etc today are still not informed enough about adult ADHD. They know enough about ADHD for kids , but not for adults.
BUT! DEPRESSION is being overdiagnosed. A lot of people ( again, often women) get diagnosed with depression, when in fact they have ADHD ( or autism or xyz) . Because it's easier to just say it’s depression, because that is such a broad spectrum! So many ADHD symptoms can be seen as depression, if you are not informed enough!
This happened to me. I am a 54 year old woman, I was diagnosed with depression in 2014, I spent years in therapy. Finally, I got diagnosed with ADHD 6 months ago. It took about 2 years to get the diagnosis, a lot of doctors didn’t believe me. I more or less had to inform my doctor (neurologist) about the criteria for having ADHD as an adult woman. He was so fixated on the fact that I didn’t get diagnosed as a kid, that’s why he was convinced at first that I was bipolar. I broke down and had to spend 6 weeks in a psychiatric clinic, and it got worse . And then 6 months later, he finally listened to me and gave me the medication. It has helped me so much. 🙏
Having ADHD almost killed me. It’s not fun having ADHD! if I had gotten the diagnosis earlier, my life would have been much easier…
So it’s very tiring tiring to hear „it’s just a trend“, „ we all have adhd“ there is overdiagnose etc.
Thank you for reading this far.
Hello! Thanks so much for your comment and for sharing these details. I'm glad you liked the video!
The over/under-diagnosed question is one i went down the rabbit hole on in researching this video. I definitely agree that is is underdiagnosed in certain groups (like women over 40), but I do think there is still evidence that it is overdiagnosed in children - especially with the motives of teachers to just label 'energetic' behaviour in school as ADHD.........maybe the truth of it is that ADHD is BADLY diagnosed. It is insufficiently diagnosed by family doctors when patients go to them with a wide range of symptoms that can look like depression, and also overdiagnosed (through self-diagnosis or bad testing) in other groups. Either way its definitely something where more research is needed. I like the idea of doing a video to explore this further! A fundamental issue is I like to explain technical research papers more than give my own opinions about stuff, and there just isnt much good research on this topic to present to my subscribers! But watch this space I will keep an eye on all the research in this area!
I have a daughter who ages 4.5 years. She is suffering in ADHD. She can't speak properly. Is it the effect of this? Is ADHD curable? I am so worried. When she leads the normal childhood life??
Thank you very much for the comment. I so sorry to hear this it must be really difficult. All I can advise is to see you family doctor / GP as they will be able to get you to the people who can try help. If you have tried this then maybe go back and ask again! I wish you daughter all the best
I would need more information but if she spoke very late it could also be autism. Please speak to a medical professional.
It was hard to watch this video and pay attention
Thanks for the comment! Yeh I did think about the fact that people with attention difficulties would struggle to watch it. Hope you found it a bit interesting!
This guy barely knows or understands what he’s talking about
Thanks for the comment! I talk about science papers. You are welcome to tell me where I have misunderstood, or misrepresented research!
I mean... Zach literally cites everything he says and shows the source on screen.
Granted, I haven't read the papers myself, but just claiming "NUH UH, he's talking crap" without elaborating why doesn't help anyone.