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How useful is Methylphenidate for treating attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children and adolescents?

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most commonly diagnosed and treated psychiatric disorders in children and adolescents. Young people with ADHD find it hard to sit still and concentrate and often do things without thinking them through; this can make it harder for them to do well at school and get on …

Award-winning book ‘Neurotribes’ examines the history and myths of autism

A few weeks ago, Steve Silberman’s Neurotribes became the first science book to win the prestigious Samuel Johnson prize. In his book, Silberman discusses the change in people’s attitudes towards autism over the years and urges us to refrain from making categorical assumptions about what distinguishes ‘normal’ from ‘abnormal’ behaviour. It is also refreshing to see …

BBC commissions new series on unemployment and people with neurological conditions

Job opportunities and the employment prospects of young people with neurodevelopmental disorders are poorer than for their peers. This is the conclusion one is led to after reviewing research findings from both the UK and USA. For example Roux and colleagues (see study details below) found only just over half of young adults with an autistic …

Our Future Leaders

One of the many remits of CANDAL is to train future leaders in Mental Health and Neurodevelopmental  Research. We were were very proud therefore at the recent Nottingham Graduation ceremony to graduate two CANDAL PhD students.   Dr Bethan Davies  PhD thesis was focused on the Development of an online intervention to increase mental health literacy …

Physical activity helps cognition in Tourette Disorder

A number of us from the Candal Team recently met with clinicians, researchers and allied healthcare professionals at the 1st World Congress on Tourette Syndrome and Tic Disorders (June 24-26, London).   Amongst other current research topics discussed in relation to the symptomatology and management of Tourette Syndrome (TS), we presented results from a recent …

Harnessing technology in youth mental health

With the advent of technology, mobile phone applications (apps) have become an essential part of the everyday lives of most young people and offer exciting opportunities to support their mental health needs. A recent scoping review exploring the use of technology to deliver mental health services found that not only were they enthusiastically supported by …

CANDAL is helping to support the development of a new play for children about Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

Professor David Daley and the CANDAL team are currently acting as scientific advisors to Wendy Harris, Artistic Director of tutti frutti productions a highly successful, Arts Council England funded l Leeds-based charity producing new theatre for children and family audiences. The new show that CANDAL is advising on is currently in script development and is …

A 14-year old Pioneer Member of Youth Parliament for Nottinghamshire!

As the nation prepares to head to the polls, I would like -on behalf of the CANDAL team- to congratulate fourteen-year old Dylan Wilson on his success in being elected as the Pioneer (Disabled) Member of Youth Parliament (MYP) for Nottinghamshire. The UK Youth Parliament has 600 MYPs aged 11-18 who are are elected in annual …

Tourette’s Syndrome and the likelihood of experiencing other psychiatric disorders

Young people with Tourette’s Syndrome (TS) their parents and clinicians are all aware of how often TS is accompanied by other disorders such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Until recently evidence to support this idea has come mainly from small studies and anecdotal evidence. A recently published study (February 2015: …

Greater clarity about the evidence for non-pharmacological interventions for ADHD

For several years some CANDAL members have been working with the European ADHD Guidelines Group on a series of meta-analysis exploring the evidence base for non-pharmacological interventions for ADHD. The first review Songua-barke et al (2013) published in the American Journal of Psychiatry showed a very clear pattern of results across three psychological interventions ( …