Synopses & Reviews
Stimulant drugs are widely used in the treatment of ADHD in children and adults. Hundreds of studies over the past 60 years have demonstrated their effectiveness in improving attention span, increasing impulse control, and reducing hyperactivity and restlessness. Despite widespread interest in these compounds, however, their mechanisms of action in the central nervous system have remained poorly understood. Recent advances in the basic and clinical neurosciences now afford the possibility of elucidating these mechanisms. The current volume is the first to bring this expanding knowledge to bear on the central question of why and how stimulants exert their therapeutic effects. The result is a careful, comprehensive, and insightful integration of material by well-known scientists that significantly advances our understanding of stimulant effects and charts a course for future research. Part I presents a comprehensive description of the clinical features of ADHD and the clinical response to stimulants. Part II details the cortical and subcortical neuroanatomy and functional neurophysiology of dopamine and norepinephrine systems with respect to the regulation of attention, arousal, activity, and impulse control and the effects of stimulants on these systems. Part III is devoted to clinical research, including recent studies of neuroimaging, genetics, pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic properties of stimulants, effects on cognitive functions, neurophysiological effects in humans with and without ADHD and in non-human primates, and comparison of stimulants and non-stimulants in the treatment of ADHD. Part IV is a masterful synthesis that presents alternative models of stimulant drug action and generates key hypotheses for continued research. The volume will be of keen interest to researchers and clinicians in psychiatry, psychology, and neurology, neuroscientists studying stimulants, and those pursuing development of new drugs to treat ADHD.
Review
"This book is an ambitious, even courageous, attempt to pull together evidence from the basic and clinical neurosciences that may ultimately help explain how stimulant drugs act to reduce the behavioral and cognitive symptoms associated with attention-deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)." --Contemporary Psychology
Synopsis
Stimulant drugs are widely used in the treatment of ADHD in children a nd adults, yet their mechanism of action have been poorly understood. This volume is the first to integrate advances in the basic and clinic al neurosciences in order to shed new light on this important question . The chapter topics span basic research into the neuroanatomy, neurop hysiology and neuropsychology of catecholamines, animal models of ADHD, and clinical studies of neuroimaging, genetics, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, and the cognitive pharmacology of stimulants. The r esult is a careful, comprehensive, and insightful synthesis by a group of well-known scientists that significantly advances our understandin g of stimulant effects and charts a course for future research.
Table of Contents
Part I: Phenomenology 1. Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: Clinical Features, Mary V. Solanto
2. Clinical Effects of Stimulant Medication in ADHD, Lawrence L. Greenhill
Part II: Basic Neuroscience
Introduction, Amy F.T. Arnsten
3. The Catecholamine Innervation of Primate Cerebral Cortex, David A. Lewis
4. Stimulant Effects on Striatal and Cortical Dopamine Systems Involved in Reward-Related Behavior and Impulsivity, Jane R. Taylor and J. David Jentsch
5. Psychostimulant Actions on Dopamine and Limbic System Function: Relevance to the Pathophysiology and Treatment of ADHD, Anthony A. Grace
6. Arousal- and Attention-Related Actions of the Locus Coeruleus-Noradrenergic System: Potential Target in the Therapeutic Actions of Amphetamine-Like Stimulants, Craig W. Berridge
7. Dopaminergic and Noradrenergic Influences on Cognitive Functions Mediated by Prefrontal Cortex, Amy F.T. Arnsten
8. A Review of Rodent Models of ADHD, Sherry A. Ferguson
9. The Spontaneously Hypertensive Rat as a Model of ADHD, Terje Sagvolden
Part III: Clinical Neuroscience
Introduction, Mary V. Solanto
10. Neuroimaging Studies of ADHD, F. Xavier Castellanos
11. Pharmacokinetic and Pharmacodynamic Properties of methylphenidate in Humans, James Swanson and Nora Volkow
12. The Cognitive Pharmacology of Stimulants in Children with ADHD, Colin B. Denney and Mark D. Rapport
13. Comparative Psychopharmacology of Methylphenidate and Related Drugs in Human Volunteers, Patients with ADHD, and Experimental Animals, Mitul A. Mehta, Barbara J. Sahakian, and Trevor W. Robbins
14. Comparing the Effects of Stimulant and Non-Stimulant Agents on Catecholamine Function: Implications fot Theories of ADHD, Steven R. Pliszka
Part IV: Integration
15. The Neuroscience of Stimulant Drug Action in ADHD, Mary V. Solanto, Amy F.T. Arnsten, and F. Xavier Castellanos
Appendix:. The Behavior of Children Receiving Benzedrine, Charles Bradley
Index