Two articles in the August issue of Archives of General Psychiatry address the importance of dopamine for ADHD. This comes shortly after a report about pregnant women who were exposed to nicotine during their second and third trimesters, months of brain development. The study (N=204) in the July issue of Child Psychiatry and Human Development showed their children had more symptoms of ADHD. In a July conversation with Terry Gross on Fresh Air, Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute of Drug Abuse, displayed a gift for making science comprehensible to nonscientists when she discussed dopamine dysregulation with consequences for ADHD and addiction.
