Evaluation of the Relationship Between Medication, Eye Movements, and Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) Functions in Children and Adolescents With ADHD

An increasing number of children are being diagnosed with ADHD, and the demand for ADHD medication has been rising. Although ADHD medication is often effective, this is unfortunately not the case for all children and adolescents with ADHD; furthermore, the majority of those who use the medication experience side effects of some kind. There are currently no known factors that are clearly linked to whether ADHD medications will be effective or cause significant side effects. The healthcare system therefore has limited ability to provide recommendations on ADHD medication at the individual level, which means that most children and adolescents with ADHD try medication. Studies show that 35% of children aged 4-11 and 53% of 12-17-year-olds discontinue ADHD medication within a year. Perhaps these children and adolescents could have avoided fruitless treatment attempts if the healthcare system had been able to provide better recommendations regarding when ADHD medications are most likely to be effective and tolerable treatment options. This, combined with reports of rising mental health issues and an avalanche-like increase in demand for child and adolescent psychiatric services, makes it particularly urgent to develop methods for offering effective interventions to the right patients as specifically as possible. Previous studies have not consistently identified factors (neither genetic nor other factors such as gender, age, symptom severity, symptom profile, or comorbidities) that are linked to the efficacy or side effects of ADHD medications. In this project, we will investigate whether the efficacy and side effects of ADHD medications are linked to eye movements or activity within the autonomic nervous system. The autonomic nervous system is the part of our nervous system that is not under our conscious control. It controls many bodily functions such as pupil size, heart rate, blood pressure, and reactions to stress. Eye and pupil movements are measures of where an i