ADHD does not present identically in each demographic by Kareena Dharia

 ADHD does not present identically in each demographic.

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, also known as ADHD is one of the most commonly known behavior disorders today. The reason people are so familiar with ADHD is because globally there are nearly 400 million people who are affected. However, the problem with ADHD is that the criteria for all patients is the exact same while ADHD symptoms can vary based on gender, race, age, and culture. As with many other disorder criteria the guidelines fit a very specific group of individuals, which are cacuasisan boys in the age group of 13-18. This clearly doesn’t adhere to all races, but nonetheless it even manages to leave out every single age group. In an article published by Scientific America, author Lisa Rapaport speaks on how ADHD symptoms can present themselves for the very first time in adulthood, and how these symptoms can look very different then they do in children. She writes, “ People with adult ADHD may have more inattentive symptoms like being forgetful or having difficulty concentrating, where children with ADHD may have more hyperactive symptoms.” Here we see that with the age demographic ADHD presents itself in multiple manners. 

In the paper, “Top-down attention modulates auditory-evoked neural response in neurotypical, but not ADHD, young adults” Kwasa et al (2021), it is assumed that people when participating in tough auditory task that requires strong top-down attention, people with ADHD have a greater difficulty with performance and have weaker neural signatures of attentional control. Kwasa explains that the primary methodology included an auditory experiment using stimuli, streams of human speech, and trails with specific tasks. It was found that task performance is affected by stimulus features and attentional focus but not an individual's ADHD status. At the end of the study Kwasa explains how the results demonstrate how people vary widely in how they can use attention to modulate sensory responses based on tasked goals. 

ADHD is a broad disorder that attempts to umbrella many symptoms and criteria under one name. The disorder presents itself in a multitude of ways, and this needs to be accounted for in our healthcare systems today. Healthcare today is right at the brim of being more inclusive when it comes to diagnosis criteria for almost all disorders. However, they still have a long way to go in order to be fully inclusive of all people. ADHD is a great place to begin with inclusivity because of how many people it affects globally, and how common the behavior disorder is.

Works Cited 

24, M. (2018, May 24). Can ADHD appear for the first time in adulthood? Scientific American. Retrieved May 4, 2022, from https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/can-adhd-appear-for-the-first-time-in-adulthood/ 

Kwasa, J.A., Noyce, A.L., Torres, L.M., & Shinn-Cunningham, B.G. (2021). Top-down attention modulates auditory-evoked neural responses in neurotypical, but not ADHD, young adults. bioRxiv.