Scientific Advancements and Best Practices for Diagnosing and Treating Autism and ADHD
8:30am - 12:30pm CST
Location: Virtual via Zoom
Fee: $15 full members; $60 partial members & nonmembers
Trainer(s): James Li, PhD
Continuing Education Hours: 4.0
Course Description
Autistic children are at a 22-fold higher risk of having attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) compared to non-autistic children. Yet, there is very little known about how to effectively treat autistic children with ADHD, considering that it was not until DSM-5 (published in 2013) that these two conditions were allowed be simultaneously diagnosed in the same individual. For example, the combination of autism and ADHD often presents with more functional and behavioral impairments (e.g., learning, behavioral disinhibition, impulsivity) than for children with either condition alone, such that these children tend to be more likely to be prescribed powerful psychotropic medications to manage their impairments. Yet, there has been no compelling evidence that autistic children with ADHD respond well to these medications. In fact, one study showed that autistic children responded especially poorly to medications that were originally designed for children with ADHD (see Handen et al., 2015). There is a dire need for a better standard of care when it comes to treating autistic individuals struggling with ADHD and other mental health conditions.
This session will first cover the latest cutting-edge research findings on the co-occurrence of childhood autism and ADHD, including emerging discoveries from genetics, brain imaging, and from motor, cognitive and behavioral measures. These findings will be integrated into discussions about diagnostic considerations for autism and ADHD from an emerging mental health framework that eschews the largely inflexible and often arbitrarily defined nosologies of the DSM for one that is more accepting of people’s differences (over deficits) and incorporates the inherent dimensionality of mental health (rather than considering mental health as being a black-or-white thing). The session will conclude with current best practices for treating co-occurring ADHD in autistic individuals from a neurodiversity perspective.
Learning Objectives:
- Understand the clinical significance of co-occurring autism and ADHD
- Evaluate new research findings on autism and ADHD, including from research that integrates genetics, brain imaging, motor, cognition, and behavioral measures
- Understand how to effectively identify autism and ADHD from a neurodiversity perspective
- Understand current best treatment practices for autism and ADHD from a neurodiversity perspective
About Your Trainer
James Li, Ph.D.
James Li, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He directs the Social and Behavioral Development Lab at the Waisman Center, which conducts research on the biological and psychosocial influences underlying the development of neurodevelopmental and externalizing problems in children. Dr. Li has over 100 peer-reviewed publications and presentations on these topics. His research has been recognized through a Young Scientist Research Award from the organization for Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (CHADD), as well through multiple federal research grants from National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institute for Child Health and Development (NICHD), and the National Institute for Mental Health (NIMH). In addition to his research, Dr. Li serves as a co-Chair for the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Workgroup of the Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP) consortium, an international collaboration of psychologists who are aiming to re-define mental health conditions from an empirical and scientific lens.
Dr. Li received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and completed his clinical internship at the Western Psychiatric Hospital at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. He also completed an NIMH T32 postdoctoral fellowship in Psychiatric and Statistical Genetics at the Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics.