Synopsis: Translational Developmental Psychobiology is at the forefront of presenting a novel approach to thinking about psychopathologies, introducing extraneous variables such as child abuse to be integrated within the diagnostic criteria. This confounding variable is often overlooked or misattributed to fall into the category of depression when adults present symptoms of ADHD with late onset of the disease. Although overlapping symptoms and brain mechanisms are shared between the two groups, brain networking models provide evidence for neural pathways targeting distinct regions of the brain to elicit different rumination constructs represented in thought disorders. Due to the rigid structure of criteria model, ADHD is confined to being labeled as a childhood disorder, not comorbid with anxiety; in this book, evidence refutes these claims, presenting neurobiological and psychological evidence as to how and why ADHD can develop in adulthood, and that anxiety is unmistakably a comorbid construct in the development of this disorder in adulthood.
In this work, it is argued that child abuse can predisposition adult ADHD, with emergent properties appearing first in early adulthood as a product of early abuse from the parental caregiver, activating sympathetic nervous system arousal; should this be re-experienced in early adulthood years, the brain crystallization for emotional self-regulation comes to an end in the brain's hard-wiring, and adult onset for ADHD is now set in stone forevermore. Adult ADHD is born. Anxiety as a precursor variable, furthermore, comes with the territory along this developmental path, and ultimately, the message is clear: change the criteria model for diagnosing adult ADHD so they can get the proper treatment that they need, rather than confined to depression and prescribed antianxiety or antidepressant medication because they do not have childhood records of pre-existing ADHD because it was developed as a product of child abuse, setting the stage for vulnerabilities to acquire this disorder in the early adulthood years.
Autobiography: Amy Twilegar is a post-graduate student with her Master's degree in Psychology and plans to one day be a college professor as well as a researcher in the field of Translational Science. In her pursuits for doctoral studies, she looks forward to continuing to share her research, paving the way for new insights to be considered in the advancement of scientific literature and practical use. As an ambitious entrepreneur in publishing her work, she proudly presents this book as an extension of her last, Psychology Within the Context of Psychiatry: Closing the Translational Gap (published in 2024) to raise awareness for contextual variables that may oftentimes be harder to measure or overlooked, based on extenuated meta-analyses to finding ways that likely can benefit the scientific community and help people along the way. She is a goal-driven individual, and her passion in furthering her career in the field of psychology is evident by the quality of work she presents, which will undoubtedly be recognized for its originality and newfound approaches to thinking about psychology as it relates to biological systems, with which her ideas can further utilize changes to improving the lives of many, and will continue to do so for years to come.
