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Among women, 34 per cent of those with ADHD reported they were sexually abused before they turned 18. In contrast, 14 per cent of women without ADHD reported that they had experienced childhood sexual abuse. Twice as many women with ADHD reported that they had experienced childhood physical abuse than women without this condition (44% vs 21%). "These findings suggest there is a silent epidemic of abuse among people and particularly women with ADHD," says co-author Esme Fuller-Thomson, professor and Sandra Rotman Endowed Chair at U of T's Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work and the Faculty of Medicine. Fuller-Thomson's research also noted that a greater percentage of men with ADHD than men without ADHD reported that they were sexually abused (11 per cent vs six per cent) or physically abused (41 per cent vs 31 per cent) during their childhood. Investigators examined a nationally representative sample of 12,877 women and 10,496 men in the 2012 Canadian Comm...

Described for the first time in 1845, but came to the fore only in recent decades, ADHD is a disorder affecting children, generally diagnosed before age seven, with important effects persisting into adulthood. Its main features are frantic hyperactivity, serious difficulties in concentrating on activities, easiness to get distracted and marked impulsivity. Not to be simply confused with a "lively" childhood, it is a neuropsychiatric disorder causing difficulties with peers and, possibly, leading to learning problems. Yet, while currently available pharmacological treatments follow a symptomatic approach, little is known on the causes of the disease. Now a group of researchers from the Neuromed Institute identified a molecular mechanism that, when dysregulated, causes the typical symptoms of children affected by ADHD. It is the PI3K gamma enzyme, involved in intracellular signaling. Already known for some time, this molecule has been studied primarily in the context of th...