1. Adults With ADHD Face a Sharply Higher Risk of Late-Life Cognitive Decline
Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh analyzed health records and genetic data from more than 187,000 adults aged 50 and older in the NIH's All of Us Research Program. 6.7% of people with ADHD developed mild cognitive impairment or dementia, compared with 3.4% of those without ADHD — after adjusting for age, sex, and health conditions, people with ADHD had more than four times the risk. People with the highest genetic risk scores for ADHD also had a 35% greater chance of developing dementia even without a diagnosis. Published October 7 in JAMA Psychiatry. This is observational research: the association does not prove that ADHD causes dementia.
Source: University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine — ADHD Tied to Higher Risk for Dementia, Pitt Research Finds
2. Working Around Men May Make Women Feel Worse About Mistakes
Over 1,400 employees in the UK financial services sector were surveyed about how they view mistakes at work, in a study published October 8 in Frontiers in Organizational Psychology led by Dr. Grace Lordan at the London School of Economics. Women were more likely than men to feel uncomfortable admitting mistakes and less inclined to see them as learning opportunities — and the gap was sharpest in teams that were at least three-quarters male, while it disappeared where women were in the majority. The study relied on self-reports about hypothetical scenarios in one male-dominated sector, so the findings may not generalize broadly.
Source: Phys.org — Working around men may make women feel worse about mistakes, study finds
3. Fat-Storing Gene Emerges as Possible Contributor to Anorexia Risk
Researchers sequencing the protein-coding DNA of 154 anorexia patients with strong family history, repeated treatment failure, or unusual clinical features found that about 11% carried rare, potentially damaging variants of PLIN4 — a gene mostly active in fat and muscle rather than the brain — compared with about 3% of a healthy reference population. The finding, published October 8 in Frontiers in Psychiatry, points to altered fat metabolism as a possible piece of anorexia susceptibility, outside the brain-centered theories that dominate the field. The sample was small and highly specialized, so the result needs replication in larger, independent populations.
Source: Medical Xpress — Fat-storing gene emerges as possible contributor to anorexia risk