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We refer to ADHD as a neurodevelopmental disorder. So it’s a condition that arises from a young age. I see adults with ADHD, but you don’t develop ADHD as an adult either. You’ve had it as a child and it’s either resolved or it’s persisted as it does in about a third of people into their adult life. Or, it’s never existed. You do not acquire ADHD as an adult. And when we refer to neurodevelopmental disorders, what we’re really saying is that it’s just the way that the brain is wired. We know a bit about different pathways in the brain that appear to be implicated in the onset of ADHD. One goes from an area of the brain called the ventral tegmental area to the prefrontal cortex. And that’s involved in initiation, planning of movement, moderating or social behavior. And a second pathway comes from the substantia nigra through to the basal ganglia. So that’s involved in reward as well as movement. And the first pathway normally inhibits the second, but there’s a deficiency of dopamine in that first pathway that seems to be implicated in ADHD’s onset. When we then think about the treatments, the treatments effectively give an external source of dopamine which helps to overcome the issue without first pathway. So where there are issues around lack of concentration, poor focus, that gets corrected.
