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Books Written by Thomas E. Brown, PhD

Outside The Box
Outside the Box: Rethinking ADD in Children and Adults— A Practical Guide
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Outside the Box: Rethinking ADD/ADHD in Children and Adults—A Practical Guide identifies assumptions about ADD/ADHD that demand reevaluation in light of recent research. Building upon a current, science-based foundation, the book describes in practical terms how ADHD can be recognized at various ages; how it differs from more typical brain development; how it can significantly impair those affected; and how it can safely, and in most cases effectively, be treated in children and adults.

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The book extends Dr. Brown’s previous work utilizing current scientific research but also the experience and perspective of the author, a clinician who has devoted more than 35 years to studying this disorder formally and countless hours to engaging with and providing treatment for a diversity of children, teenagers, and adults with ADHD and related problems.

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The book’s audience includes laypersons and the wide variety of clinicians involved in assessing, treating, and/or monitoring the care of children and adults with this disorder (e.g., pediatricians, primary care physicians, psychologists, psychiatrists, neurologists, physician assistants, advanced practice nurses, and clinical social workers) and also educators, disability service providers, human resource specialists, and the adolescents and adults who seek more information about ADHD assessment and treatment for themselves or for family or friends.

Table Contents:

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  1. Introduction

  2. Basic Facts and the Central Mystery of ADHD

  3. A New Model of ADHD: Executive Function Impairments

  4. Differences Among Persons With ADHD

  5. Ways ADHD Can Impair Functioning at Various Age Levels

  6. How ADHD Impacts “Brain Googling” for Motivations

  7. How ADHD Develops, Sometimes Gets Worse, and Sometimes Improves

  8. How and Why Other Disorders Often Co-Occur With ADHD

  9. Assessing Children, Teenagers, and Adults for ADHD

  10. Emotional Dynamics in Individuals, Couples, and Families Coping With ADHD

  11. Practical Aspects of Medication Treatments for ADHD

  12. Practical Aspects of Nonmedication Interventions for ADHD

  13. Treatment Adaptations for ADHD With Various Complications

 

Available in paperback and in eBook formats

Smart but Stuck
Smart but Stuck: Emotions in Teens and Adults with ADHD
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Current diagnostic criteria for ADHD do not explicitly include problems with emotions, but many with ADHD have much difficulty with recognizing, responding to, and managing their emotions—both positive and negative.  This book explains why many with ADHD struggle so much with emotions and what can be done about it.

“Smart but Stuck” offers a series of true stories about intelligent teens and adults who had gotten “stuck” in failures at school, work, or in getting along with friends and family because of their ADHD. It shows how they got “unstuck” by dealing with ups and downs of emotions they didn’t know they had.

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In this book you will meet and get to know 11 teens and adults including:

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• Sue, who earned high grades until middle school, then lost motivation for schoolwork and became disorganized and oppositional in 9th grade, frustrating teachers and family while losing hope for herself.

• Mike, a college student who was put on academic probation. His dad always told him he’s smart but just lazy, and now he’s starting to believe it.

• Steve, a computer programmer whose ADHD struggles have led to him losing his job—and his wife. He’s good at programming computers, but not at programming himself.

• Sarah, who’s had trouble keeping track of things and getting work done since she hit menopause. She’s puzzled, since she never had such a hard time when she was younger.

For information on how to order this book:

From the United States, click here​

From the United Kingdom and other European countries, click here

A New Understanding of ADHD
A New Understanding of ADHD in Children and Adults
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For over 100 years, ADHD has been seen as essentially a behavior disorder.  Recent scientific research has developed a new paradigm which recognizes ADHD as a developmental disorder of the cognitive management system of the brain, its executive functions.  This cutting-edge book pulls together key ideas of this new understanding of ADHD, explaining them and describing in understandable language scientific research that supports this new model.  It addresses questions like:

 

  • Why can those with ADHD focus very well on some tasks while having great difficulty in focusing on other tasks they recognize as important?

  • How does brain development and functioning of persons with ADHD differ from others?

  • How do impairments of ADHD change from childhood through adolescence and in adulthood?

  • What treatments help to improve ADHD impairments?  How do they work? Are they safe?

  • Why do those with ADHD have additional emotional, cognitive, and learning disorders more often than most others?

  • What commonly-held assumptions about ADHD have now been proven wrong by scientific research?

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Psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, and other medical and mental health professionals, as well as those affected by ADHD and their families, will find this to be an insightful and invaluable resource.

 

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction

  2. 35 Myths about ADHD and Why they are Wrong

  3. A New Paradigm for an Old Disorder:  ADHD as Impaired Executive Functions

  4. What Research Reveals about the Causes and Unfolding Nature of ADHD

  5. How the New Model Changes Assessment of ADHD in Children and Adults

  6. How Treatments for ADHD Affect the Brain and Improve Executive Functions

  7. Why Many Learning and Psychiatric Disorders so often Co-occur with ADHD

  8. References

  9. Index

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For information on how to order this book:

From the United States, click here

From the United Kingdom and other European countries, click here

ADD: The Unfocused Mind
Attention Deficit Disorder: The Unfocused Mind in Children and Adults
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Myths about Attention Deficit Disorder abound. This disorder often goes unrecognized, and even when diagnosed may be inadequately treated. In this up-to-date and clearly written book for the general public as well as professionals in medicine, mental health and education, Dr. Brown describes his new way of understanding ADD. Drawing on recent findings in neuroscience and a rich variety of case histories from his clinical practice, he describes what ADD syndrome is, how it can be recognized at different ages, and how it can best be treated.

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This is the first book to address the perplexing question about ADD: how can individuals, some very bright, be chronically unable to “pay attention,” yet be able to focus very well on specific tasks that strongly interest them? Dr. Brown challenges the “willpower” explanation and explains how inherited malfunctions of the brain’s management system prevent some people from being able to deal adequately with challenging tasks of childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. His book is an authoritative and practical guide for physicians and psychologists, parents and teachers, and the 7 to 9 percent of persons who suffer from ADD or ADHD.

For information on how to order this book:
From the United States, click here
From the United Kingdom and other European countries, click here

ADHD Comorbidities Handbook
ADHD Comorbidities: Handbook for ADHD Complications in Children and Adults
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Many books address various aspects of ADHD – but only ADHD Comorbidities: Handbook for ADHD Complications in Children and Adults comprehensively describes the multiple ways in which other psychiatric and learning disorders complicate ADHD in both children and adults.

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This practical book features comprehensive, research-based information on ADHD and its full range of comorbidities – including anxiety disorders, mood disorders, learning disorders, substance abuse, sleep disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, autism spectrum disorders, oppositionality and aggression, Tourette syndrome, and developmental coordination disorder.

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The book offers a new paradigm for understanding ADHD, viewing it not as a simple behavior disorder, but as a complex developmental impairment of executive function, the management system of the brain. In accessible language, more than 30 researcher-clinician contributors summarize how to recognize ADHD and its comorbidities at various stages of development, from preschool age to adolescence to adulthood. Clinicians will find practical help “and acquire valuable guidance on tailoring medications and other interventions” to optimize treatment outcomes for patients of all ages with complex cases of ADHD.

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