Leading experts explored what Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is, how it affects children and young people and what research questions are currently under investigation.

The “ADHD: New Discoveries, Better Support” webinar, held on Tuesday 4 November, brought together clinicians, researchers and experts by lived experience to reflect on the clinical academic research taking place on ADHD. The King’s Maudsley Partnership is home to the world’s largest group of researchers and clinicians dedicated to understanding and improving outcomes for children with ADHD.

Professor Philip Shaw, Director of the King’s Maudsley Partnership for Children and Young People, who’s academic work is focused on ADHD, chaired the webinar.

Increasing choice and quality of treatments 

In recent years awareness and understanding of ADHD have increased, however the treatment and support options available to support children and young people with ADHD have not kept pace. Most treatments are medication-based, and while these can be effective, many families and young people want more choices — especially non-drug alternatives.

These thoughts were echoed by Tiegan Boyens a neurodivergent lived experience consultant who joined the panel. She reflected that it took her a long time to get an ADHD diagnosis due to misconceptions around ADHD such as that it manifests primarily in physical activity and in boys. She called on researchers to do more to investigate supporting children who have ADHD alongside other comorbidities. She also said she wants to see more non-drug based treatment options to be available.

Novel brain therapies 

Professor Katya Rubia is focused on pioneering non-drug treatments for children and adults with ADHD. She spoke about some of the recent discoveries in this area. She has been investigating non-invasive brain stimulation to see if these can mimic the effects of ADHD medication by targeting the same brain regions, but without the side effects of drugs. She shared promising findings using transcranial direct current stimulation in children and adults with ADHD and new findings around Trigeminal nerve stimulation (TNS) which are due for publication in Nature Medicine in the coming weeks. She also reflected on the challenges of the placebo effect in studies involving cutting edge technology.

More information on the ATTENS (ADHD trial of external trigeminal nerve stimulation) project can be found here: ATTENS 

Tools to support children’s sleep 

Almost 75% of children with ADHD have sleep problems. Parents and carers report that poor sleep makes their children’s daytime behaviour and schoolwork worse and affects the quality of life of the whole family. However there are limited options for support and medication is the most common intervention. Professor Samuele Cortese provided insight into the DISCA (Digital Sleep Support for Children with ADHD) study. This research project aims to help parents, carers, and health professionals to manage sleep problems in children with ADHD.

More information about DISCA including information on how families can sign up to get involved in the study can be found at Home | Disca Study 

How data is guiding our work 

Professor Johnny Downs who leads the CAMHS Digital Lab shared data around children with ADHD living in south London. The data tells us that early childhood factors and demographics including ethnicity and gender make an ADHD diagnosis more likely even though this doesn’t represent true prevalence. He found that children from non-white ethnic groups are almost 50% less likely to get a diagnosis. He reflected that services need to ensure they are engaging effectively with all local communities to ensure all children who need it can access support services for ADHD.  

Professor Downs also reflected the ambitions of the CAMHS Digital Lab to continue to build digital tools to support parents and carers whose child is on the waiting list, or who has received a diagnosis, for ADHD. This follows successful outcomes from providing digital support to parents and carers on the waiting list for services via the My Health-E app. There is a virtuous circle that parents and carers receive more support and guidance whilst on the waiting list and their participation helps build a richer bank of data to underpin research into ADHD.

More information on the CAMHS Digital Lab can be found on its website Home | CAMHS Digital Lab 

The webinar came just after ADHD Awareness Month, throughout which the King’s Maudsley Partnership has been highlighting it’s work on ADHD. The King’s Maudsley Partnership’s home will be in the Pears Maudsley Centre for Children and Young People, due to open in 2026. The Centre will have a one of it’s kind research facility enabling us to revolutionise our understanding ADHD and other neurodevelopmental conditions, and mental health conditions that affect children and young people.

For more information, please contact Helen Honstvet on helen.honstvet@slam.nhs.uk or sign up to our newsletter to keep up to date with the work happening across the Partnership. You can also watch the recording of the webinar on our YouTube channel.

Over the past 25 years, I’ve been lucky enough to meet thousands of children and young people with ADHD who have taken part in research. In that time, public awareness of ADHD has grown enormously. It’s now part of everyday conversations.  There have been great strides forwards in our understanding of the subtle brain and thinking differences that contribute to some of the experiences of living with ADHD – such as having problems staying focused.

But while awareness and understanding of ADHD have increased, the options available to support children and young people with ADHD have not kept pace. Most current treatments are medication-based, and while these can be effective, many families and young people tell us they want more choices — especially non-drug alternatives that are tailored to their child’s needs.

That’s where the King’s Maudsley Partnership comes in.

We are the world’s largest collaborative group of researchers and clinicians dedicated to improving outcomes for children and young people with ADHD. What makes us different is how we work: we don’t just study ADHD — we work with children and young people to ask the questions that matter most to them, and to find answers that can truly make a difference in their lives.

Our Approach

Our research spans three interconnected areas, each designed to drive innovation and real-world impact:

1. Discovery Science

We explore the societal and biological factors that influence ADHD – from cells to society, from neurons to neighbourhoods. Much of our current work focuses on how subtle differences in genes, the brain and thinking are tied to ADHD. We use cutting edge approaches particularly AI.

One exciting breakthrough we have already had involves using AI to predict how ADHD might develop over time. In a recent project, we combined genetic and brain imaging data to train a machine learning model that can predict — with over 80% accuracy — whether a child diagnosed with ADHD will continue to meet diagnostic criteria in adolescence. This kind of insight could be transformative for families and clinicians as they plan for the future and make decisions about care and support.

2. Collaborative Science

We’re redefining how ADHD is understood by working directly with young people. Together, we’re co-creating new ways to measure how ADHD affects daily life — especially in school. We also explore how ADHD overlaps with other neurodevelopmental conditions like autism, helping to build a more inclusive and accurate understanding of these experiences.

An example of this is our involvement within the Regulating Emotions – Strengthening Adolescent Resilience or RE-STAR Study. Many neurodivergent young people such as those with ADHD or autism traits develop depression during adolescence – but we currently don’t know which individuals are at risk, what underlying processes increase that risk or, perhaps most importantly, the best way to intervene to increase resilience to reduce that risk. RE-STAR will address these gaps by exploring the interplay between autism and/or ADHD traits, exposure to environmental stressors, and emotional responding in neurodivergent young people, in driving developmental pathways to depression.

3. Treatment Innovation

We’re developing and testing new interventions that go beyond medication. One area we’re exploring is brain therapies — treatments that aim to change brain activity in a safe, non-invasive way. Over decades of research we have identified the brain networks that function differently in some people with ADHD. Brain therapies targets these networks directly, rather than just managing behaviour.

We’re currently focusing on brain stimulation.  Here, a gentle, painless, tiny electrical or magnetic field is applied to specific brain regions to improve attention and self-control. We are still testing these treatments.  So far, we find they have minimal side effects and now we are looking to see if they offer longer-lasting benefits.

Other researchers are looking at how digital technologies, such as smart watches and mobile phone, can help youth with ADHD monitor how treatments impact on their attention and mood.  Another focus is using on-line resources to help improve the sleep of those with ADHD, again asking if this will improve quality of life.   

Pears Maudsley Centre 

The Pears Maudsley Centre for Children and Young People, will enable us to transform our understanding of ADHD. The new Centre will bring cutting-edge research, clinical care, and community engagement under one roof. Though our commitment to inclusion, and access to move inclusive technology we will be able to rebalance the inequalities that have existed in research until now.  

Want to learn more or get involved?

Join our free webinar ADHD: New Discoveries, Better Support on 4th November to hear more about the work happening on ADHD within the Partnership.

Stay connected with the King’s Maudsley Partnership as we continue to push boundaries, ask bold questions, and work alongside families and young people to shape the future of ADHD care. Email us at PMCYP@slam.nhs.uk to connect or follow us on our social media accounts.

It was a great opportunity to meet with clinical and academic colleagues at the Neurodevelopmental Conditions Community of Practice meeting. We had some thoughtful and engaging conversations about how we can work together to develop research that reflects clinical priorities and can be translated into practice to make a real difference for children, young people, and their families accessing CAMHS. 

This meeting built on the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry’s work to develop a translational research strategy, initiated in 2023. We started by looking back on the plans so far, setting out the strategy’s long-term ambitions and its focus on improving mental health outcomes for children and young people.  

Four areas for strategic priority were agreed: Prevention, Therapeutics, Personalisation, and Barriers to Care – selected for their strong potential to drive meaningful change.  

Each strategic area is structured around three translational research stages: 

• Discovery – Understanding the causes, progression, and outcomes of neurodevelopmental and mental health conditions. 
• Development – Designing and testing discovery-based interventions to prevent and treat child and adolescent mental health and neurodevelopmental conditions. 
• Implementation – Developing partnerships with schools, charities, community organisations, and national and international governmental bodies to support the effective implementation of interventions.  

Collaboration with other academic and clinical groups, along with sufficient resources, is essential to optimise research across each of these stages. 

Providing the glue linking these stages was the concept of the translational incubator

Multidisciplinary teams of researchers, clinicians and patients working on a particular problem at a particular stage of the translational cycle. For example, the first incubator will turn real-world clinical problems into clear research questions, then design studies to explore them. Another one will use the research findings to develop new or adapt existing interventions.   

Emotional dysregulation as a case study 

One of the most pressing challenges in child and adolescent mental health is emotional dysregulation (EDR)—a difficulty in managing emotional responses that often underpins a wide range of neurodevelopmental and mental health conditions. It’s also one of the most common reasons young people seek support from Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services. 

As part of our strategic discussions within the King’s Maudsley Partnership, emotional dysregulation emerged as a key area of focus—cutting across diagnostic boundaries and offering a promising opportunity for innovation in both research and clinical practice. A key part of this process will be the Neurodevelopmental Conditions Community of Practice, which will help bring the strategy to life. 

This led to a central question posed to the Community of Practice: 

How can precision science methods be used to better understand emotion dysregulation in neurodevelopmental and mental health conditions, and this understanding be applied to better target existing and new interventions? 

Initial ideas include: 

• Understanding the diversity of emotional dysregulation profiles within clinical populations. 
• Identifying sub-groups with distinct emotional regulation patterns and explore how these vary across different diagnostic groups. 
• Understanding the genetic, environmental, and neurocognitive factors that shape these profiles. 
• Using these insights to refine existing interventions or develop new, transdiagnostic approaches that are more targeted and effective. 

We had strong engagement from the Community of Practice about the idea of establishing an incubator working group to support the development of the proposed research in emotional dysregulation, with Dr Asilay Seker (Clinical Research Fellow in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry) chairing. It would be great to keep the momentum going, so if you’re interested in getting involved, whether you’re a clinician, researcher, young person or parent/carer with lived experience, or from a partner organisation, please do get in touch at KMPCYP@slam.nhs.uk. 

Credit: Dr Amanda Bye, Dr Asilay Seker & Professor Edmund Sonuga-Barke