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Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder — master index¶
Last curated: 2026-10-19 · status: audited, then swept (11 pages awaiting re-audit) · 7 curated + 11 draft wiki pages · 491-paper bibliography · 6 landmark notes · 17 guideline/secondary-guidance records · statistics sheet · 9 verified organizations (8 active, 1 historical) · 26 open questions + 14 unconnected-dots junctions
Scope note. “ADD” is historical terminology commonly mapped to the current predominantly inattentive presentation; this condition covers all presentations and the full lifespan, including adult ADHD (Leffa 2022, PMID 35397064).
The condition in five sentences. ADHD is a clinically diagnosed neurodevelopmental disorder defined by developmentally atypical, persistent and impairing inattention and/or hyperactivity-impulsivity across settings; diagnostic tools may support assessment but do not replace clinical synthesis (Wolraich 2019, PMID 31570648; Peterson 2024, PMID 38523599). Prevalence is method-dependent—1.6% in registers, 5.0% in surveys, 4.2% in one-stage clinical studies and 4.8% in two-stage studies—while adult estimates diverge between persistent (2.58%) and symptom-defined (6.76%) ADHD (Popit 2024, PMID 39381949; Song 2021, PMID 33692893). Liability is highly heritable and polygenic, with the first large GWAS identifying 12 loci but providing no individual diagnostic test (Faraone 2019, PMID 29892054; Demontis 2019, PMID 30478444). Stimulants show the largest short-term average symptom effects, with nonstimulants, behavioral care, CBT, school supports and digital interventions targeting different needs; durable functional evidence remains thinner than acute efficacy evidence (Cortese 2018, PMID 30097390; Liu 2023, PMID 36794797). The major frontier is not proving that ADHD exists, but improving recognition without diagnostic inflation, matching treatment to patient-priority function, and resolving long-term benefit and harm in underrepresented groups (Hinshaw 2022, PMID 34231220; Li 2024, PMID 38470385).
Start here: overview. Research frontier: OPEN-QUESTIONS.md. Build history: LOG.md.
Reading paths¶
- Clinical path — overview → diagnosis → differential diagnosis → guidelines → pharmacologic and psychosocial/digital treatment → safety
- Developmental path — history and presentations → epidemiology/course → childhood/adolescence → adult ADHD → girls/women
- Science path — genetics/neurobiology → cognitive phenotypes → biomarkers → clinical trials
- Human/outcomes path — patient experience → long-term outcomes → statistics
- Unknowns path — OPEN-QUESTIONS.md → the Open questions section of each page → clinical trials
Pages¶
| Section | Page | Scope | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Foundations | overview.md | Lifespan definition, burden, mechanisms and treatment map | curated |
| Foundations | history-nosology-and-presentations.md | ADD terminology, DSM evolution and presentation stability | curated |
| Clinical | diagnosis-and-assessment.md | Developmental history, multi-informant assessment and instrument accuracy | curated |
| Foundations | epidemiology-and-lifespan-course.md | Ascertainment-specific prevalence, persistence and remission | draft |
| Science | genetics-and-neurobiology.md | Heritability, GWAS, circuits, catecholamines and development | curated |
| Science | cognitive-and-functional-phenotypes.md | Executive function, reward, timing, emotion and heterogeneity | curated |
| Lifespan | childhood-and-adolescent-adhd.md | School, family, development and pediatric treatment | curated |
| Lifespan | adult-adhd.md | Recognition, work/relationship burden and adult treatment | draft |
| Lifespan | girls-women-and-hormonal-context.md | Under-recognition, masking and reproductive stages | draft |
| Clinical | comorbidity-and-differential-diagnosis.md | Autism, learning, mood, anxiety, sleep, substance use and mimics | curated |
| Treatment | pharmacologic-treatment.md | Comparative efficacy, sequencing and quantified safety | draft |
| Treatment | psychosocial-and-digital-treatment.md | Parent/classroom care, CBT, skills and digital therapeutics | draft |
| Outcomes | long-term-outcomes-and-quality-of-life.md | Education, work, injury, mortality and quality of life | draft |
| Clinical | guidelines.md | AAP, NICE, Australian, Canadian and international comparison | draft |
| Frontier | biomarkers.md | Imaging, EEG, peripheral, genetic and digital validation | draft |
| Frontier | clinical-trials-landscape.md | Drugs, psychosocial care, digital and neuromodulation trials | draft |
| Human | patient-experience-and-advocacy.md | Stigma, identity, access, accommodations and organizations | draft |
| Human | red-flags-and-safety-concerns.md | Crisis, mimics, misuse, cardiovascular, growth and sleep safety | draft |
Literature layer¶
| Artifact | Contents |
|---|---|
| BIBLIOGRAPHY.md | 491 unique live-PubMed-verified papers with tags and cited-by pages |
| notes/ | 6 landmark notes: GWAS, MTA, medication network, adult prevalence, digital therapeutic and female lifespan review |
| guidelines/REGISTRY.md | Worldwide guideline registry, supersession chains, disagreements and watch list |
| statistics/STATISTICS.md | Method-labeled prevalence, diagnosis, genetics, efficacy, safety and outcome figures |
| patient-voice/ | Ethical method, 9 verified organizations (8 active, 1 historical), 12 cross-source themes and annotated sources |
Curation state¶
The condition was built on 2026-08-28 and independently audited on 2026-08-30. At that audit, all 18 wiki pages were curated: every cited PMID and NCT ID resolved live, reference metadata and substantive claim pairings were checked, numerical transcriptions were reconciled, and dated absence searches were rerun. The audit added one newly retrieved biomarker paper, bringing the bibliography to 455 records, and corrected stale guideline and organization status claims.
2026-10-12 sweep. The first periodic literature sweep (records entered in PubMed 2026-08-28 to 2026-10-12) added 32 records and edited 10 pages, which are demoted to draft pending an independent audit. The main finds were the FDA approval of centanafadine on 24 July 2026, a Cochrane review of amphetamine haemodynamic effects, causal and long-horizon null results for medication and school attainment, US 2023–24 diagnosed-prevalence trends with stable severe prevalence, and the APSARD adult guideline entering final review. See LOG.md.
2026-10-19 sweep. Four journal records were added after live identifier and retraction checks: three metadata-only additions and one full-text-checked Swedish cohort, which opened OQ-26 on causal reproductive outcomes. Registry results were read without inferring a comparative effect, centanafadine’s Schedule III rule is recorded as pending OIRA review, guideline currency was checked, and official statistics/patient materials were updated. Five wiki pages changed and remain draft; 11 pages now await independent review in total. Search manifest; details and access limits in LOG.md.