Increasing Health Literacy on ADHD: A Cross-Disciplinary Integrative Review Examining the Impact of ADHD on Brain Maturation, Composition and Function and Cognitive Processes Across the Life Course.

Abstract

There is a significant need to improve ADHD health literacy. This cross-disciplinary integrative review was conducted to synthesise the evidence on the impact ADHD has on brain maturation, composition and function as well as cognitive processes, across the life course. Although results are highly heterogenous, ADHD appears to be associated with (1) a significant delay in cortical maturation and differences in neuroanatomy that do not appear to fully resolve in adulthood, (2) atypical brain function, and (3) atypical cognitive processes. The cognitive processes implicated include working memory, inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility, alerting attention, reward processing, long-term memory, reaction time, time perception and estimation, planning, and complex decision making/problem-solving. We aim to use this data to develop a 'framework/checklist" that parents, adults and clinicians can use to identify the possible mechanisms that may be contributing to an individual with ADHD's challenges. This information can also be used to inform the content of ADHD education programs to ensure participants receive empirically-determine information from high quality review studies and meta-analysis that accurately reflects the rigor and limitations of study findings.