1. It can be difficult to be friends and interact with people who have ADHD due to their high energy and distractibility

• REALITY: With proper behavioural control and skills training to decrease the amount of externalizing inappropriate behaviours, people with ADHD are able to make and maintain long-lasting friendships. Stigma and peer rejection seems to mostly occur due to the assumption that people with ADHD should be able to control their behaviours like any other person (Swords et al. 2011). However, education on how those with ADHD think and function can reduce this stigma and make people aware of the difficulties one can experience due to their ADHD, and why it can be challenging for an individual with ADHD to control their behaviour. While children and adolescents with ADHD often understand social dynamics and how to act in a given situation, they have issues applying this knowledge.

2. It is difficult to understand people with ADHD because they can be confusing and overwhelming to deal with

• REALITY: When undergraduate students learned information that taught them about both the biological and environmental influences that can cause ADHD, there was a decreased likelihood for these students to blame individuals with ADHD for the problems they experience (Ching and Ma, 2021). These undergraduates also displayed a decreased likelihood to hold onto fixed, entity beliefs that individuals with ADHD will never be able to manage or control their symptoms, and a decreased likelihood that they would socially distance themselves from interacting with individuals that have ADHD (Ching and Ma, 2021). It is possible to learn and understand how those with ADHD think. By not doing proper research, these stigmas may prevent one from wanting to learn and understand how a person with ADHD functions differently than the norm.

3. More boys than girls have ADHD on average

• REALITY: More boys have the hyperactive-impulsive type of ADHD, while more girls have the hyperfixation-inattentive type of ADHD –which isn't noticed until much later on in a child's development. The difference in presentation leads to girls being diagnosed much later than boys, or not being diagnosed at all. According to Dr. Julie Schweitzer and Dr. Faye Dixon, there appears to be a 50/50 split in ADHD diagnosis between boys and girls upon evaluation from adolescence up to adulthood and that the under-diagnosis of girls is a major reason for the disparity between boys and girls (Schweitzer & Dixon 00:00:26-00:02:25).

4. Increased sugar intake can cause ADHD

• REALITY: One of the more popular misconceptions about ADHD is that eating more sugar can lead to/cause ADHD. However, there has been tons of research demonstrating that this is NOT the case. Any study that finds an association between sugar intake and ADHD has indicated that the magnitude of the effect is very weak.

  • A study by Kim and Chang (2011) found no significant association between the total volume of simple sugar intake from snacks and ADHD development

  • A study by Del-Ponte et al. (2019) found no association between sucrose consumption and ADHD in children between 6 and 11 years of age.

5. Higher levels of lead can lead to ADHD

   • REALITY: Another very common misconception about ADHD is that it can be caused by low levels of lead. Again, there are many research articles indicating that this is NOT true. As for the articles that do find an association, the correlations are weak. Also, correlation does not equal causation, so we cannot say for sure that higher levels of lead will cause ADHD

     • A study by Huang et al. (2016) found that blood lead was not associated with Inattentive symptoms or overall ADHD behaviour

6. A poor diet leads to ADHD

   • REALITY: It is a common misconception that people with a poor diet, especially children who are not given a nutrient-rich diet, are at an increased risk to develop ADHD. However, research has shown that this is not actually the case. While children with ADHD tend to have a worse diet on average, this finding is more of a result of having ADHD versus it being a factor that contributes towards ADHD (Borge et al. 2021).

     • A study by Bowling et al. (2017) did find that children with ADHD on average had worse diets but that this was still the case even if they were using medication to help manage their symptoms. It is likely that the impulsivity, inattention, and poor self-regulation due to deficient inhibitory control that is seen in ADHD symptoms are the main factors towards why those with ADHD may have poorer diets as well as possibly a need for stimulation (Reinblatt et al. 2014)

"You don't look like you have ADHD"

• Approximately 25% of individuals with ADHD also have a comorbid anxiety disorder diagnosis. Having both of these disorders at the same time can make it harder for individuals to receive the proper treatment and diagnoses since the presentation of symptoms of ADHD and anxiety often overlap (Reimherr et al., 2017).

• The combination of ADHD and anxiety can also delay the time it takes to receive a diagnosis because their symptoms of ADHD may go unnoticed by them, their friends, and/or family (D'Agati et al., 2019). However, the reality is that individuals with both anxiety and ADHD often face more struggles throughout their lives than those with only one diagnosis (Reimherr et al., 2017).

• In a study by D'Agati, et al. (2019), they found that individuals with both ADHD and anxiety faced more significant issues with sleep, social relationships, and academic problems.

1. Which treatment(s) are most effective in treating ADHD?

Of the 409 responses, here is what we found:

• Cognitive Therapy + Medication (# of votes = 165)

• Medication (# of votes = 46)

• Behavioural Therapy + Medication (# of votes = 174)

• Psychodynamic Therapy (# of votes = 24)

Correct Answer

Many participants correctly answered that Behavioural Therapy + Medication is the most effective treatment for ADHD. Interestingly, however, there appears to be a common misconception that Cognitive Therapy + Medication is the best treatment.

For children with ADHD that are younger than 6: The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends parent training as a type of behavioural management as a first-line treatment, before medication is considered (CDC, 2021).

For children over the age of 6: The most common recommendations include a combination of medication and behavioural therapy together -- mainly parent training in behaviour management, behavioural interventions in the classroom, peer interventions that focus on behaviour, and organizational skills training (CDC, 2021).

Because ADHD affects the child's ability to pay attention, sit still, and maintain social relationships, behavioural therapy is a way to manage these behaviours (CDC, 2021). Behaviour therapy does this by reinforcing positive behaviours and decreasing/eliminating problem behaviours (CDC, 2021).

2. What are the first descriptors that come to mind when you think of ADHD?

We created a word cloud of the most commonly listed descriptors that came to participants' minds when they thought about ADHD. The bigger the word, the more commonly submitted it was.

3. What are some ways you can think about how ADHD affects people's lives outside of school?

We created a word cloud of the most commonly listed ways participants' thought about how ADHD affects lives outside of school. The bigger the word, the more commonly submitted it was.