Thomas E. Brown - A New Understanding of ADHD in Children and Adults: Executive Function Impairments

PRAISE FOR THIS BOOK

Dr. Brown more than fulfills his promise to provide 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, Brooke and Daniel Neidich Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Professor of Radiology and Physiology and Neuroscience, and Director, Center for Neurodevelopmental Disorders, New York University Langone Medical Center Child Study Center

Brown presents a comprehensive case for comprehending this disorder in terms of a wide range of executive functions, rather than on the basis of behavior and attention alone. Loaded with up-to-date research findings and synthetic in scope, this work is bound to challenge assumptions and pave the way toward new paradigms.

Stephen P. Hinshaw, PhD, Professor of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, and Editor, Psychological Bulletin

Tom Browns book is placing cognitive changes at the heart of ADHD and drawing out the implications for clinicians and researchers. It is a welcome corrective to the overemphasis on disruptive behavior and it is written so clearly that it can be recommended to everyone who wants to understand the nature of this serious problem for adults and children.

Eric Taylor, FRCP, FRCPsych, Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, University of London

A very intriguing read. Dr. Brown skillfully examines the diverse nature of executive functions, ADHD, and their overlap.

Timothy E. Wilens, MD, Associate Professor of Psychiatry,

Harvard Medical School, and Director of Substance Abuse Services,

Massachusetts General Hospital

Professionals and lay people looking for a synthesis of our current understanding of this condition will find Dr. Browns latest book a sensible, understandable, and very readable contribution.

Gabrielle A. Carlson, MD, Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics, and Director, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Stony Brook University School of Medicine

Dr. Brown presents a science-driven and cohesive way of re-conceptualizing the disorder, revitalizing the central role of executive functioning impairment in ADHD. This book translates recent advances in ADHD science into understandable words not only for mental health professionals, but for all those interested in this very prevalent disorder affecting individuals across the whole life cycle.

Luis Augusto Rohde, MD, PhD, President of the World Federation of ADHD, and Professor of Psychiatry, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

Tom Browns newest book pulls from the latest research in ADHD to present a new explanatory paradigm. 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, Osterman Professor of Child Psychiatry and Head, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Childrens Hospital of Chicago; Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Pediatrics, and Director, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

This book presents a highly useful and current summation of the major findings concerning ADHD and the role of executive functioning in it. Clinicians, students, and laypeople will find here much valuable information on the disorder, its assessment and diagnosis, and its management.

Russell A. Barkley, PhD, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics, Medical University of South Carolina

Thomas E Brown has produced a comprehensive reference. It extends our understanding of the impact of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder as that diagnosis assumes new borders in DSM 5.

Martha Bridge Denckla, MD, Professor of Neurology, Pediatrics, and Psychiatry, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and Director, Developmental Cognitive Neurology, Kennedy Krieger Institute

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. Dr. Brown is a dedicated doctor whos written yet another brilliant book.

Edward Hallowell, MD, author of Delivered from Distraction and The Childhood Roots of Adult Happiness

A NEW UNDERSTANDING OF ADHD IN CHILDREN AND ADULTS

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 educators and those affected by ADHD and their families, will find this to be an insightful and invaluable resource.

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 (Pearson), and author of the prize-winning book, Attention Deficit Disorder: The Unfocused Mind in Children and Adults. Dr. Brown is also editor of the textbook, ADHD Comorbidities: Handbook of ADHD Complications in Children and Adults. Visit the authors website at www.DrThomasEBrown.com.

A NEW UNDERSTANDING OF ADHD IN CHILDREN AND ADULTS

Executive Function Impairments

Thomas E. Brown

First published 2013

by Routledge

711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Simultaneously published in the UK

by Routledge

27 Church Road, Hove, East Sussex BN3 2FA

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2013 Taylor & Francis

The right of Thomas E. Brown to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.