The role of sleep in ADHD: possibilities for prevention of ADHD?

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Personalized medicine aims to provide the right treatment for the right person at the right time, as opposed to the currently employed ‘one-size-fits-all ' approach. This development relies on identification of ADHD subgroups using biomarkers. One important ADHD subgroup is characterised by impaired vigilance regulation, as quantified by the EEG and this sub-group responds well to stimulant medication and neurofeedback. Recent insights suggest a clear association between reduced sleep duration and ADHD complaints in this sub-group of ADHD patients. A recently published model explains how different treatments e.g. chronobiological treatments and neurofeedback impact on this neural circuitry and mediate ADHD symptom improvement. AIM: To test this recently published model predicting a relationship between solar intensity and ADHD prevalence. METHOD: A literature survey on studies using identical methods to estimate the prevalence of ADHD in different geographical areas and compare those to worldwide solar intensity data. RESULTS: A clear relationship between solar intensity and the worldwide prevalence of ADHD was found, explaining 34-57% of the variance in ADHD prevalence, where a lower prevalence of ADHD was found in areas with high solar-intensity. CONCLUSION: The preventative effect of high solar intensity may be related to improvement of circadian clock disturbances. These findings likely apply to a substantial sub-group of ADHD patients and have major implications for our understanding of the etiology and possibly prevention of ADHD.