Hello and welcome to the Zero to Finals podcast.

My name is Tom and in this episode I'm going to be talking to you about

attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or ADHD.

And you can find written notes on this topic at 0.0.5.com slash attention deficit

hyperactivity disorder or in the psychiatry section of the 0.0 to finals more medicine book.

And you can find questions to train your knowledge on this content and help you remember the

information for longer at

members.0 tofinals.com. So let's get straight into it.

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, is a neurodevelopmental disorder with the

core features of difficulty maintaining attention, excessive energy and

activity, and impulsivity. It's more than twice as common in males compared to females.

ADHD is thought to result from a combination of factors, genetic factors and their significant

heritability, meaning that it runs in families, pregnancy-related factors, for example, maternal

smoking during pregnancy, premature birth and low birth weight, and environmental factors.

The symptoms of ADHD start in childhood and should be consistent across settings.

When a person displays symptoms only at work or in school but is calm and focused at home,

this is suggestive of an environmental effect rather than an underlying diagnosis of ADHD.

Let's talk about the features. All the features of ADHD can be part of a normal spectrum of

behaviour. When many of these features are present and they are adversely affecting the person, ADHD may be considered.

Symptoms include a short attention span, being easily distracted, quickly moving from one activity to another,

losing interest in a task quickly, an inability to persist with and complete tasks,

constantly moving or fidgeting, impulsive behavior, disruptive behavior, and difficulty managing

...