Special issue on adult EF

Executive function is the brain’s management system: the part that helps you start tasks, hold steps in mind, switch gears, and stop yourself from doing the wrong thing at the wrong time. A new special issue in *Brain Sciences* is asking researchers to send in studies on how those skills break down, and how they can be treated, in adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. (mdpi.com) That focus matters because attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder is still widely treated as a childhood condition even though major reviews describe it as a neurodevelopmental disorder that affects adults too. The National Institute of Mental Health says adults can struggle with work, appointments, organization, and finishing large projects, not just classroom behavior. (nature.com) (nimh.nih.gov) The “executive” part of executive function is not about intelligence. It is closer to air-traffic control: keeping several planes from colliding when your day includes deadlines, bills, emails, childcare, and sleep deprivation. (nimh.nih.gov) In adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, that control system often shows up as missed appointments, unfinished forms, impulsive spending, or trouble shifting between tasks. A 2025 review in the *International Journal of Molecular Sciences* says adult symptoms often center on inattention, emotional dysregulation, and executive dysfunction more than the classic hyperactive picture many people associate with children. (mdpi.com) This is not a tiny population. A 2024 United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report said worldwide estimates suggest about 2% to 5% of adults experience attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms, and the agency published national estimates to track diagnosis, treatment, and care gaps in U.S. adults. (cdc.gov) Clinicians have already had to adapt. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guideline in the United Kingdom covers recognition, diagnosis, and management of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in adults, which tells you adult care is no longer a side note in the field. (nice.org.uk) What the journal is doing now is narrower than a general adult attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder call. The guest editors are specifically asking for work on incidence, characteristics, evolution, daily-life impact, and the factors that shape adult presentations, which is how a field tries to move from broad awareness to more precise subtypes and treatment targets. (mdpi.com) Special issues also act like a temporary meeting point. *Brain Sciences* says these collections are meant to gather researchers and readers around one topic, which often pulls scattered studies on cognition, symptoms, and treatment into one place where clinicians can actually compare them. (mdpi.com) That matters for adults because care often depends on practical function, not a checklist alone. The Royal College of Psychiatrists’ 2023 good-practice guidance for adult attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder emphasizes functioning, impairment, co-occurring conditions, and structured assessment, which lines up with the journal’s push toward real-world adult profiles rather than one-size-fits-all labels. (rcpsych.ac.uk) The likely result is not one dramatic breakthrough paper. It is a denser map of how adult executive-function problems differ across jobs, relationships, ages, and treatment settings, which is exactly the kind of evidence health systems need before “adult attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder care” becomes more than a leftover extension of pediatric practice. (mdpi.com) (nice.org.uk)