ADHD and chronic pain, an overlooked connection

ADHD-related traits may intensify chronic pain through anxiety and negative thinking

University of Tokyo

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A theoretical model of the correspondence between ADHD and chronic pain, based upon previous research in the field. ©2026 Kasahara et al. Adapted from Battison et al. (2023), licensed under CC BY 4.0

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Credit: Adapted from Battison et al. (2023), licensed under CC BY 4.0

A new study, led by researchers from the University of Tokyo, involving nearly 1,000 patients in Japan suggests that attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)-related traits may be associated with and may contribute to chronic pain. The connection seems solid but indirect: ADHD-related traits appear to impact how people perceive pain through increased anxiety, depression and negative thought patterns. This research presents potential avenues for new tailored treatments and rehabilitation for those with ADHD and chronic pain. 

Chronic pain is long-lasting pain that evades common treatments and affects millions of people around the world. Among the issues relating to it is the fact that pain is not a purely physical phenomenon, so treatments may involve multiple modes of intervention and need to be highly tailored to an individual. To aid this way of treating chronic pain, researchers look at it from different angles, including how specific groups of people may face it. This has led to some research on potential impacts of neurodevelopmental conditions such as ADHD. 

“In our latest study, we looked at patients with severe chronic pain who were being treated at specialized pain centers across Japan, and examined how often ADHD- and autism-related traits were present in this population,” said Dr. Satoshi Kasahara from the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Relief Center at the University of Tokyo Hospital. “We found that ADHD-related traits were more common in these patients than in the general population, about 2.4 times higher. These traits were also closely linked to pain severity, as well as to psychological factors such as anxiety, depression and negative ways of thinking about pain.” 

Their findings support the idea that pain is not merely physical in nature, but that mental and neurological traits may play a bigger role than thought. There’s also a strong implication that ADHD has been overlooked in this context. Many adults with ADHD are undiagnosed and don’t often get diagnosed even when attending diagnosis for things like chronic pain. Kasahara and his team think that their research could be useful for clinicians, as a positive or negative ADHD diagnosis may help narrow down avenues for treatment for chronic pain patients. 

“This research began from everyday clinical experience. In our practice, we frequently encounter patients with chronic pain who do not respond well to conventional treatments. Among these patients, many show characteristics commonly seen in ADHD, such as inattention, hyperactivity or impulsivity, and difficulties with emotional regulation,” said Kasahara. “This led us to consider whether ADHD-related traits might be more common in this population than previously recognized, and whether they could be contributing to the persistence and severity of pain.” 

As researchers and clinicians, the team aim to move beyond simply identifying associations and wish to examine if and how treating ADHD can help reduce chronic pain. They are considering conducting prospective and interventional studies for this. Appropriately identifying and addressing ADHD in patients with chronic pain may also help improve a patient’s overall condition. 

“For example, approaches such as cognitive behavioral therapy and rehabilitation programs that include exercise have been widely used, and are considered effective in improving anxiety, depression and negative ways of thinking about pain, which in turn can help reduce chronic pain,” said Kasahara. “In addition, some patients with ADHD-related traits may not fully recognize these traits themselves, and this can contribute to difficulties in daily life and interpersonal relationships. In such cases, psychoeducation, helping patients understand their own characteristics and learn how to better manage their behavior, can also play an important role. These kinds of approaches may be just as important as medication, and a comprehensive approach that combines medical, psychological and rehabilitative care is likely to be the most effective.” 

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Journal: Satoshi Kasahara, Shuichi Aono, Kozue Takatsuki, Shin-Ichi Niwa, Shoji Yabuki, “Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Autism Spectrum Disorder in Chronic Pain: A Study in Japanese Pain Centers”, Scientific Reports.

Funding: This research was funded by the Health and Labor Sciences Research Grants, 19FG2001. 

 

About The University of Tokyo: 

The University of Tokyo is Japan's leading university and one of the world's top research universities. The vast research output of some 6,000 researchers is published in the world's top journals across the arts and sciences. Our vibrant student body of around 15,000 undergraduate and 15,000 graduate students includes over 5,000 international students. Find out more at www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/ or follow us on X (formerly Twitter) at @UTokyo_News_en. 

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Journal

Scientific Reports

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Autism Spectrum Disorder in Chronic Pain: A Study in Japanese Pain Centers

Article Publication Date

23-Apr-2026

 

Atlantic island narrowly escaped ‘stealthy’ eruption

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São Jorge Island as viewed by drone. Part of the island rose by 6 cm, confirming that magma had entered the shallow crust

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Credit: Ricardo Ramalho

Thousands of earthquakes affecting Portugal’s São Jorge Island in the Azores in March 2022 were triggered by a vast sheet of magma (molten rock) rising from more than 20km below Earth’s surface and stalling just 1.6km beneath the island, finds a new study led by UCL (University College London) researchers.

Much of this ascent occurred with little seismic activity, with most earthquakes occurring after the magma stopped ascending. The magma rose over just a few days – there was enough of it to fill 32,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools, the study suggested.

Lead author Dr Stephen Hicks, based at UCL Earth Sciences, said: “This was a stealthy intrusion. Magma moved quickly through the crust, but much of its journey was silent, making it difficult to forecast whether an eruption would occur.”

For the study, published in the journal Nature Communications, an international team reconstructed the detailed underground movement of magma using seismometers on land and on the Atlantic seafloor to precisely map where earthquakes were occurring, as well as data from satellites and GPS to see how the ground moved at the time.

Satellite observations showed that the volcano's surface rose by 6 cm, confirming that magma had entered the shallow crust. However, the intrusion stalled before reaching the surface, resulting in what scientists define as a “failed eruption”. Such intrusions help to grow islands and this study’s unprecedented sharp earthquake maps show how this happens.

The magma rose through one of the island’s main fault systems, the Pico do Carvão Fault Zone. By studying geological traces left by ancient earthquakes, scientists had previously found that this fault system has produced large earthquakes in the past. But instead of a single large earthquake, the unrest from rising magma produced many small earthquakes clustered along this fault. 

The team concluded that the fault helped guide magma upward, and may also have allowed gases and fluids to escape sideways, lowering pressure in the magma and helping halt its ascent.

Lead author Dr Pablo J. González, from the Spanish National Research Council (IPNA-CSIC) in Tenerife, said: “The fault acted like both a highway and a leak. It helped magma rise, but may also have prevented an eruption.”

The findings show that large magma intrusions can occur rapidly and with limited warning, and that major geological faults can strongly influence whether magma erupts or stalls underground, key insights for improving volcanic hazard forecasting.

Dr Ricardo Ramalho, a co-author from Cardiff University, said: “This study supported local authorities in assessing a potential volcanic threat, highlighting the value of combining onshore and offshore geophysical data for accurate detection and localisation of seismic events and ground deformation.”

Professor Ana Ferreira, a co-author from UCL Earth Sciences, said: “Securing urgent NERC funding to access equipment from its Geophysical Equipment Facility (GEF), alongside additional support from Portugal, was a tremendous collective effort and a clear example of transnational cooperation between academic and civil institutions in Portugal, the UK, and Spain.”

The work was funded by research grants from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC; UK), the European Research Council (ERC), Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT; Portugal), Agencia Estatal de Investigación (Spain), and the Regional Government of the Azores, with field assistance for the offshore deployment provided by the Portuguese Navy (Marinha Portuguesa). Geophysical equipment was provided by NERC’s Geophysical Equipment Facility (GEF).

The following institutions were involved in the work: UCL, Spanish National Research Council (IPNA-CSIC), Cardiff University, University of Manchester, Universidade de Lisboa (Portugal), Instituto Politécnico de Lisboa (Portugal), University of Évora (Portugal), University of Beira Interior (Portugal), Centro de Informação e Vigilância Sismovulcânica dos Açores (CIVISA; Portugal), Research Institute for Volcanology and Risk Assessment (IVAR), University of the Azores (UAc), University of Algarve (Portugal), Instituto Português do Mar e da Atmosfera (IPMA; Portugal), AIR Centre (Portugal), C4G (Portugal).

Earthquakes and magma movement under São Jorge Island [VIDEO] 

Journal

Nature Communications

DOI

10.1038/s41467-026-71668-6 

 

in Eastern Africa, the cradle of humankind is tearing apart

Researchers have found that Earth’s underlying crust in the Turkana rift zone has been significantly thinned, presaging Africa’s eventual breakup—and with that finding, they offer a new perspective on human evolution

Columbia Climate School

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Late Miocene fossil-bearing strata of Lothagam in West Turkana

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Credit: Christian Rowan

Eastern Africa’s Turkana Rift is both a hotbed for fossil discoveries of our earliest ancestors and a literal hotbed of volcanic activity caused by shifting tectonic plates. Now researchers have found that Earth’s underlying crust in the region has been significantly thinned, presaging Africa’s eventual breakup—and with that finding, the researchers offer a new perspective on how Turkana’s world-famous fossil record of human evolution came to be.

The findings were published in Nature Communications.

Scientists have long been fascinated by the Turkana Rift, a 500-kilometer-wide, low-lying region that spans Kenya and Ethiopia. This rift is part of the larger East African Rift System, which runs from the Afar Depression in northeastern Ethiopia to Mozambique in the south, with the African tectonic plate on one side and the Arabian and Somali plates on the other. At the Turkana Rift, the African and Somali plates are drifting apart at a rate of about 4.7 millimeters per year. In the process, known as rifting, Earth’s crust is stretched horizontally, causing it to buckle and fracture, thus releasing magma from deep below.

Not every rifting episode ends in continental breakup. The Turkana Rift, however, appears destined for that fate.

“We found that rifting in this zone is more advanced, and the crust is thinner, than anyone had recognized,” says study lead author Christian Rowan, a Ph.D. student at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, which is part of the Columbia Climate School. “Eastern Africa has progressed further in the rifting process than previously thought.”

Rowan and colleagues used a unique dataset of high-quality seismic measurements collected by industry partners and acquired in collaboration with the Turkana Basin Institute, a research organization founded by the late paleoanthropologist Richard Leakey to further the study of human evolution and its geological context in Kenya. By studying how acoustic waves used in the measurements were reflected by subsurface layers, then combining their interpretations with other deep subsurface imaging, the researchers visualized the structure of sediments and how deep the top of the crust is within the Turkana Rift.

Along the rift’s axis, the crust—the rocky outermost layer that rests atop Earth’s shifting mantle—is about 13 kilometers thick. That is significantly thinned compared to the more than 35-kilometer-thick crust farther from the rift’s center and is a telltale signature of a process called “necking.”

The name comes from the shape. Rowan likens the significant thinning of Earth’s crust being stretched by shifting tectonic plates to the “neck” of a piece of saltwater taffy pulled from each end—its middle is thinned and elongated even as the ends of the taffy remain unchanged. “The thinner the crust gets, the weaker it becomes, which helps promote continued rifting,” Rowan says. Eventually the crust breaks apart.

“We’ve reached that critical threshold” of crustal breakdown, says Anne Bécel, a geophysicist at Lamont and co-author of the study. “We think this is why it is more prone to separate.”

But this will play out in geological time, so “critical” is relative. The Turkana Rift started pulling apart about 45 million years ago, and the researchers estimate that necking began after an episode of widespread volcanic eruptions roughly 4 million years ago. It will take a few million more years before necking gives way to oceanization, the next stage in rifting, when magma will surge through the cracks and create a new seafloor for water that pours in from the Indian Ocean to the north.

The researchers also found evidence of an earlier period of rifting that did not culminate in continental breakup but left the crust weakened and thinned, thus contributing to the present rifting phase. “It challenges some of the more traditional ideas of how continents break apart,” says Rowan.

The Turkana Rift is the first identified active continental rift undergoing necking, making it important for the study of tectonic processes associated with this critical phase of continental separation. “In essence, we now have a front row seat to observe a critical rifting phase that had fundamentally shaped all rifted margins across the world” says co-author Folarin Kolawole, who is also with Lamont. Those rifting processes in turn connect to other Earth systems; understanding them helps scientists reconstruct past landscapes, vegetation and climate. “Then we can use that knowledge to understand what’s going to happen in our future, even on shorter time scales,” says Bécel.

Their findings also have implications in a very different domain: the study of human evolution. The Turkana Rift has yielded more than 1,200 hominin fossils spanning the last 4 million years. That’s one-third of all such fossils found in Africa, and many paleoanthropologists have argued that this scientific ‘Garden of Eden’ was a hotspot of evolution for humanity’s ancestors. Rowan and colleagues think their findings may suggest a different narrative.

Following widespread volcanism around 4 million years ago, necking initiated subsidence of the Turkana Rift, where fine-grained sediments favorable for fossil preservation rapidly accumulated. “The conditions were right to preserve a continuous fossil record,” says Rowan.

It’s possible, then, that the Turkana Rift was not uniquely important in the evolution and diversification of our hominin ancestors, but rather a place where conditions lent themselves to documenting them.

That is still only a hypothesis, “but other researchers can now use our results to explore those ideas,” says Rowan. “In addition, our results can be fed into tectonic models that are coupled with climate to really explore how shifting tectonics and climates influenced our evolution.”

The research team includes Paul Betka from Western Washington University and John Rowan from the University of Cambridge.

Homo erectus crania from the Turkana Rift. Left: WT 15000, 'Turkana Boy' from West Turkana. Right: ER 3733 from East Turkana

Credit

Photo: John Rowan

Journal

Nature Communications

DOI

10.1038/s41467-026-71663-x 

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

In Eastern Africa, the Cradle of Humankind is Tearing Apart

Article Publication Date

23-Apr-2026

 

Songbird’s extreme desert migration mapped

Lund University

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Every year a small songbird, no heavier than a letter, crosses the Sahara Desert, the Mediterranean and the Arabian Desert on its migration. New research from Lund University in Sweden now reveals how the tiny bird manages this arduous journey: by flying night after night - and doing nothing during the day.

The thrush nightingale is a songbird is a long-distance traveller that arrives in Sweden in late April or early May and heads south again in August or September. They spend the winter in tropical regions, mainly in south-east Africa. In autumn, they move southwards via Egypt and east Africa. In spring, they take the journey back via the Arabian Peninsula. 

In a new study using advanced, ultra-light sensors, the researchers have been able to track the birds’ behaviour during migration in detail. The results show a clear pattern. Thrush nightingales undertake four to five consecutive night-time flights, interspersed with daytime breaks where they barely move at all. In this way, the birds minimise their energy consumption during the hottest hours of the day and avoid the most intense heat in desert environments.

“This is extreme behaviour. They push themselves several nights in a row and basically shut down completely during the day,” says Pablo Macías-Torres, researcher at Lund University.

The study also provides new insight into the careful preparation for the approximately 18,000-kilometre-long round migration. During their stops in desert areas, the birds, weighing in at around 25 grams - do not replenish their energy; instead, they survive on reserves built up in advance.

“These birds take no chances. Their entire strategy is based on having stored up enough energy before venturing into the most inhospitable parts of the route,” says Anders Hedenström.

Being able to track small migratory birds at this level of detail has long been a challenge. The breakthrough is due to the miniaturisation of sensor technology, which now makes it possible to study behaviour directly in free-flying individuals. The researchers have analysed eleven complete migrations from ten songbirds (captured outside Lund), both in autumn and spring over three years, providing an unusually comprehensive picture of the species’ strategy.

“The next step is to understand how changing environments affect the songbirds’ ability to complete the journey. This will be crucial in a world where both climate and habitats are changing quickly, concludes Pablo Macías-Torres.

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Journal

Biology Letters

DOI

10.1098/rsbl.2026.0055 

Article Title

Migrating by night, inactive by day: ecological barrier crossing in a migratory songbird

Article Publication Date

22-Apr-2026

 

Scientists create a magnet with almost no magnetic field

A new paper in Nature Chemistry describes a molecular material that combines a stable internal magnetic structure with almost no external magnetic field. This could prove relevant for energy efficient electronics and spintronics

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Technical University of Denmark

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The illustration shows the structure of the new material Cr(pyrazine)₃, in which chromium atoms (purple) are connected in a regular three‑dimensional network by organic pyrazine molecules including nitrogen (blue) and carbon (grey). The structure repeats uniformly in all directions, forming a symmetric crystalline lattice. This regular and uniform structure underpins the stability and consistency of the material’s magnetic properties throughout the crystal. Illustration: DTU.

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Credit: DTU

An international research team led by DTU has developed a new magnetic material that features a stable internal magnetic structure, almost no external magnetic field, and retains these properties above room temperature.

These characteristics may be important for future generations of electronic technologies, for example within fields where magnetic properties are used instead of electrical charge to process information—so‑called spintronics. The results have been published in the prestigious scientific journal Nature Chemistry.

The material belongs to a rare class known as compensated ferrimagnets. In such materials, the magnetic moments inside the structure point in different directions. Internally, magnetism is very strong, but the magnetic moments almost cancel each other out. As a result, the material exhibits only a very weak external magnetic field. This sets it apart from conventional magnets, which generate unwanted magnetic interference or “noise” that makes them difficult to integrate into electronic circuits.

“We now have a material with a very well‑ordered magnetic structure, but without the magnetic field that usually causes problems in electronics,” says Professor Kasper Steen Pedersen from DTU Chemistry, who led the development of the new material in collaboration with researchers from DTU Chemistry, the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (France), Institut Laue‑Langevin (France), the University of Copenhagen, Jagiellonian University (Poland), and Universidad Andrés Bello (Chile).

Less disruptive magnetism

In today’s electronic components, information is mainly carried by electrical charge. In spintronics, by contrast, information is carried by the spin of electrons, which in principle can enable faster components and significantly lower energy consumption. One of the major challenges addressed by the researchers behind the present study has been the need for magnetic materials that do not simultaneously disturb their surroundings.

“Magnetic materials are difficult to work with when you want to pack many functions closely together. But when a material emits almost no magnetic field, it becomes possible, in principle, to place components much closer together without unwanted interference,” says Kasper Steen Pedersen.

“This opens an entirely new level of control. When magnetism is embedded in a molecular material, we can use chemistry to tune both magnetic and electronic properties.”

The new material is built as a metal–organic network in which metallic centres are connected by organic molecules. This molecular structure makes it possible to design and adjust the material’s properties chemically. This approach differs from the metal alloys and oxides that currently dominate magnetic electronics.

More specifically, the material consists of chromium atoms linked by the organic molecule pyrazine, which is well suited for binding metal atoms together. In this case, the pyrazine occurs as a radical with one unpaired electron, allowing it to contribute directly to the material’s magnetism.

Fundamental research with wide-ranging potential

Experiments show that the near‑perfect magnetic compensation remains stable over a wide temperature range and persists well above room temperature. This makes the material particularly interesting, as almost all related materials only exhibit such a balance at specific temperatures. As a result, the new material may potentially be applicable in a much broader range of contexts.

The researchers emphasise that the work represents fundamental research and that the material’s functionality has not yet been tested in concrete components or for any specific application. Nevertheless, the technological perspective of the discovery is clear.

“We have not created a finished technology, but we have shown that it is possible to achieve a combination of properties that many researchers have been looking for over many years,” says Kasper Steen Pedersen.

“That makes the material interesting as a platform for future development.”

The next step will be to investigate whether the material can be chemically tuned towards other properties like electrical conductivity, and whether it can be fabricated as thin films suitable for integration into electronic components.

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Journal

Nature Chemistry

DOI

10.1038/s41557-026-02131-8 

Article Title

Persistent compensated ferrimagnetism in the molecular framework Cr(pyrazine)3

Article Publication Date

23-Apr-2026