A New Understanding of ADHD in Children and Adults: Executive Function Impairments

by Thomas E. Brown

Overview

For over 100 years, ADHD has been seen as essentially a behavior disorder. Recent scientific research has developed a new paradigm which recognizes ADHD as a developmental disorder of the cognitive management system of the brain, its executive functions. This cutting-edge book pulls together key ideas of this new understanding of ADHD, explaining them and describing in understandable language scientific research that supports this new model. It addresses questions like:

- Why can those with ADHD focus very well on some tasks while having great difficulty in focusing on other tasks they recognize as important?

- How does brain development and functioning of persons with ADHD differ from others?

- How do impairments of ADHD change from childhood through adolescence and in adulthood?

- What treatments help to improve ADHD impairments? How do they work? Are they safe?

- Why do those with ADHD have additional emotional, cognitive, and learning disorders more often than most others?

- What commonly-held assumptions about ADHD have now been proven wrong by scientific research?

Psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, and other medical and mental health professionals, as well as those affected by ADHD and their families, will find this to be am insightful and invaluable resource.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415814249
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	04/25/2013
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Thomas E. Brown, PhD, is Associate Director of the Yale Clinic for Attention and Related Disorders and Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, developer of the Brown ADD Scales for Children and Adults, and author of the prize-winning book, Attention Deficit Disorder: The Unfocused Mind in Children and Adults. Visit the author’s website at www.DrThomasEBrown.com.

Table of Contents

Introduction. 35 Myths about ADHD and Why They are Wrong. A New Paradigm for an Old Disorder: ADHD as Impaired Executive Functions. What Research Reveals about the Causes and Unfolding Nature of ADHD. How the New Model Changes Assessment in Children and Adults. How Treatments for ADHD Affect the Brain and Improve Executive Functions. Why Many Learning and Psychiatric Disorders so often Co-Occur with ADHD.

Editorial Reviews

“Dr. Brown provides an accessible summary that describes and integrates new facts and perspectives on ADHD. The book is comprehensive, current, and engagingly written. It will be a terrific resource for parents, educators, and clinicians as well as for patients themselves." - F. Xavier Castellanos, MD, Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Professor of Radiology and Physiology & Neuroscience, NYU Langone Medical Center Child Study Center

"Research results are distilled to debunk myths and offer sound guidance on evaluation and effective treatment. This book is a must-read for any education, health, or mental health professional who encounters children or adults with ADHD. Its direct and clear language makes the explanations and conclusions accessible to parents and adult patients, too.” - Mina K. Dulcan, MD, Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Pediatrics & Director, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

“Clinicians, students, and laypeople will find here much valuable information on the disorder, its assessment, diagnosis, and management.” - Russell A. Barkley, PhD, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics, Medical University of South Carolina

"Tom Brown is one of the true pioneers in our growing understanding of ADHD. Both a clinician and a researcher, he continues to deepen and enlarge our knowledge of ADHD with this brilliant book." - Edward Hallowell, MD, author of Delivered from Distraction, The Childhood Roots of Adult Happiness

From the Publisher