ABSTRACT
This chapter summarizes changes in the diagnostic criteria for the disorder, including its recognition as a neurodevelopmental rather than an externalizing disorder of childhood. It highlights Executive Function (EF) deficits, and particularly those associated with Working Memory mechanisms and subsystem processes. The chapter explains accumulating evidence derived from neuroimaging and electroencephalogram studies that reveal significant developmental delays and widely distributed hypoactivity in frontal/prefrontal cortical regions that underlie and contribute to EF deficits in children with Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). It explores the impact of the disorder on children's daily activities, and its accumulating effects on long-term functioning in late adolescence and early adulthood. The chapter provides a succinct overview and critique of the gold standard treatments for ADHD—viz., psychostimulant medication and psychosocial interventions—as well as novel, non-empirically validated treatments such as computer-based cognitive training and neurofeedback. Developmental changes in symptom presentation and the relative contribution of these symptoms to functional impairment between childhood and early adulthood are well documented.
