'Behind the Veil…  Journeys in Chronic Healthcare with Dr Stan Landau and Team'

The CDE Academy is proud to invite you to register for our next Journal Club Webinar. Each session is real-time, online and CPD-accredited.

All our topics are carefully selected to be of interest to all members of the wider interdisciplinary diabetes team.

‘When Focus Falters… ADHD across the Diabetes Care Continuum’

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is often regarded as a childhood condition, yet its reach extends across the lifespan. Up to two-thirds of those diagnosed in youth continue to experience impairing symptoms in adulthood, often accompanied by depression, anxiety, and substance use, as well as other psychiatric and medical comorbidities. Among these, type 2 diabetes has emerged as a striking ‘partner condition’. Recent evidence suggests individuals with ADHD carry more than double the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, an association that can be partly explained by psychiatric comorbidities as well as lifestyle factors that complicate self-care.

For those working in the provision of care for people with diabetes, this convergence of ADHD and diabetes highlights a pressing challenge: how to guide clients not only through their immediate health needs but also across the transitional thresholds of life. Studies of healthcare transitions demonstrate that adolescents with chronic conditions such as ADHD and diabetes, often fall into gaps between paediatric and adult care. Interventions such as structured education programmes, and transition clinics together with multidisciplinary support improve readiness and independence, yet their implementation remains uneven.

At a deeper level, this topic we will cover in our live session calls us to reflect on a paradox of modern medicine. While we excel at prolonging life and managing complex medical conditions, we sometimes struggle to help individuals weave these medical threads into the fabric of ordinary living. Managing blood glucose while navigating inattention, or balancing medication adherence against the turbulence of adolescence, reminds us that medicine cannot be practiced in silos. It is a shared journey through the complexities of body, mind and identity, and the environments in which they exist.