Your mind really can go blank when you're awake. Here's what happens in your brain
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Instead, there are moments when the human mind seems empty of any content, and people seemingly aren't thinking of anything at all.
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'Mind blanking' is a newly explored and distinct mental state that isn't the same as a lapse of attention or a wandering mind, the research team writes. People aren't thinking about something else.
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Mind blanking is a common, daily life phenomenon linked to changes in states of arousal, the researchers report, and tends to occur towards the end of long and demanding attention tasks like exams, when people are sleep deprived or after an intense workout. Meaning that, 'when the brain is in a high- or low-arousal state, a mind blank is more likely to occur.'
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In experiments with healthy volunteers, the brain shows signs of 'deactivation' and an increase in sleep-like slow brain waves during a reported mind blank. Heart rates and pupil sizes decrease. A part of the brain appears asleep, 'which may represent a state of 'local sleep' rather than outright sleep,' the researchers write.
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The experience has been described as a 'lack of conscious awareness,' they noted, during which 'the individual is not focally aware of any stimuli, either internal or external,' a particularly dangerous state if it occurs during high-risk, inopportune moments, like driving.
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It may be the result of glitches in memory, language or attention. In experiments, people report feeling sleepier, and more sluggish, and they make more errors on attention tasks moments before their minds go 'nowhere.'
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While some people never report mind blanking, adults and children with ADHD (attention deficient hyperactivity disorder) report the experience more frequently than 'neurotypical people,' the researchers said.
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'Mind going blank' is also one of the core symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder. It's also related to strokes, seizures, traumatic brain injuries and an 'ultra-rare' sleep disorder (Kleine-Levin syndrome) that affects primarily teenage boys and that causes them to sleep up to 20 hours a day.
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It's not entirely clear what these 'blanks' represent, they said. However, 'We sought to better understand mind blanking by parsing through 80 relevant research articles — including some of our own in which we recorded participants' brain activity when they were reporting that they were 'thinking of nothing,'' Athena Demertzi, of the University of Liege, Belgium, said in a press release.
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If scientists can better understand what's happening in the brain, and if people could learn how to deliberately, instead of randomly, not think about anything, it could be an interesting strategy for dealing with anxiety, negative thoughts or other unpleasant emotions, lead author Thomas Andrillon, a cognitive neuroscientist at the Paris Brain Institute, said in an interview with National Post.
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The Province
4 hours ago
- The Province
Millions of posts, billions of views: The dangers of using TikTok to self-diagnose mental-health issues
Lack of access to professional help has more young people turning to social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram to self-diagnose mental-health issues. It's a trend that deeply concerns professionals, who fear misdiagnoses — or worse Using social media to self-diagnose mental-health issues is a trend that deeply concerns professionals, who fear misdiagnoses — or worse. Photo by Chinnapong / Getty Images During a visit to a friend's place, Zack Plourd found his friend's medication for Adderall, one of the most common medications for ADHD or attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Exclusive articles by top sports columnists Patrick Johnston, Ben Kuzma, J.J. Abrams and others. Plus, Canucks Report, Sports and Headline News newsletters and events. Unlimited online access to The Province and 15 news sites with one account. The Province ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on. Daily puzzles and comics, including the New York Times Crossword. Support local journalism. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Exclusive articles by top sports columnists Patrick Johnston, Ben Kuzma, J.J. Abrams and others. Plus, Canucks Report, Sports and Headline News newsletters and events. Unlimited online access to The Province and 15 news sites with one account. The Province ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on. Daily puzzles and comics, including the New York Times Crossword. Support local journalism. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors While Plourd had never sought a prescription for his self-diagnosed ADHD, he decided to try the Adderall. To his surprise, it helped with symptoms he'd struggled with, such as lack of focus, rambling when talking, and the constant need to keep his brain stimulated. So he asked his doctor for a prescription. As a result, he said, 'I can think. I can exist. I can do things now.' Plourd has self-diagnosed for years, based on content he's seen online and his real-life conversations. One of the first signs he identified with was people with ADHD talking about taking stimulants, such as caffeine, to focus. TikTok has thousands of videos that describe the habits of people with ADHD. Advice and clips on how to manage these habits and overcome the hardships of living with ADHD can be seen on several social media platforms. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Whenever Plourd sees these videos, he relates: 'I have those things. I do those things.' Plourd is typical of a growing number of people who diagnose themselves with a mental illness based on information on social media. Most of this content is found on TikTok, where youth and young adults are the most active users. It's a trend that deeply concerns professionals, who fear misdiagnoses — or worse. Sun-Ha Hong, an external faculty fellow at the Stanford Humanities Center with expertise in social media platform governance and AI, said social media platforms continuously feed the user content that is based on their interests. Their algorithms push content that keeps the user scrolling and keeps them on the platform longer. Essential reading for hockey fans who eat, sleep, Canucks, repeat. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'Because that's really what makes it profitable for them,' Hong said. 'So that may not always be the healthiest content for you.' Social media platforms' algorithms also redirect harmful content, such as content that promotes eating disorders, self-harm or even suicide. According to the Center for Countering Digital Hate, an international non-profit and non-governmental organization, TikTok recommends self-harm or suicide content within 2.6 minutes and eating disorder content within eight minutes to new teen users who express interest in mental health content. This recommended content, rather than helping users, can cause mental health issues, such as developing eating disorders, internalizing harmful body images or engaging in self-harm. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Content related to ADHD has gained traction on social media, particularly on TikTok. TikTok content creators such as Ontario's Olivia Lutfallah and Kansas's Connor DeWolfe have gained a large following from posting ADHD-related videos. Some of their videos have averaged more than 100,000 views. A few have had millions of views. Social media has become a tool to get information on all kinds of mental health conditions or neurodivergent tendencies, and the needs related to them. According to TikTok, which was launched in 2016, topics related to mental health, self-care and mental-health awareness have had more than 100 billion views as of October 2023. On Instagram, a search of the topic 'mental health' shows more than 57 million posts since 2010 while 'mental health support' has more than three million. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. According to the 2023 B.C. Adolescent Health Survey of youth in Grades 7 to 12, more than 8,000 adolescents out of 38,000 said they get their mental health information online. Online sources ranked third after consulting family or friends. In a 2024 study by the peer-reviewed Journal of Medical Internet Research , 21 youth respondents in B.C. noted that TikTok is seen as an 'easy way to access mental health information' with the added benefit of being free, relatable and engaging. The study found that youth engagement with the topic of mental health surged on TikTok during the pandemic, as it softened the effects of social isolation and provided access to mental health information and support. However, the study warned that 'TikTok can adversely impact mental health through repetitive exposure to mentally distressing content and misleading diagnosis and treatment information. Regulations against harmful content are needed to mitigate these risks and make TikTok safer for youth.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Advice and clips on ADHD can be seen on several social media platforms. Getty Images Photo by Michael M. Santiago / Getty Images Self-diagnosis is often the default for people who face high costs for private assessments and long waits for doctors who can diagnose them. A small-sample survey by the non-profit organization AutismBC showed 34 per cent of its member respondents self-diagnosed or self-identified as autistic, according to Suzanne Perreault, executive director of the non-profit organization, which has a membership of more than 10,000. Social media content can help people to understand more about themselves and to recognize 'the 'why' behind 'why I do what I do,'' said Perreault, who self-diagnoses as being on the autism spectrum. According to the B.C. Autism Assessment Network, the waiting time for a child to get an assessment is 80.6 weeks. After the assessment, it can take four to six weeks to receive the results. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Perreault said adults have more limited options, and the wait for an assessment is around two years. If one wants to get an assessment faster, the only option is to get it privately, which can cost up to $4,000. A 2023 study by Statistics Canada found almost half of the people who meet the diagnostic criteria for mood, anxiety and substance-use disorders have not spoken to a health professional about their mental health during the past year. And even fewer talked to a specialist such as a psychiatrist or a psychologist. That's at least in part because public facilities dedicated to mental health are hard to find and to access, said Dr. Edward Taylor, a UBC Okanagan researcher and mental health clinician who has worked with children and adolescents. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Taylor believes people turn to social media out of convenience and the comfort of anonymity, partly because the support system in B.C. is overburdened, which has created the 'lack of availability of a professional support system.' Both funding and the availability of training for mental health professionals are missing, he said: 'They go hand in hand here in British Columbia.' According to a 2023 study by Family Medicine and Community Health, B.C. is one of the provinces with the greatest shortage of family physicians, with 17.7 per cent of the population reporting they have no family doctor. That means approximately 940,000 British Columbians have no family physician. The lack of an adequate professional support system shows in the long waiting times in B.C. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'If it's difficult to find, difficult to get into, if there's a waiting list, you tend to just … move away from it,' Taylor said. With so many barriers to getting professional help, it's not surprising that so many people turn to self-diagnosis. But the trend of self-diagnosis is troubling, said Taylor. He warns there is a possibility of misdiagnosis, in some cases due to an overlap of symptoms. For example, depression and anxiety can cause someone to have symptoms resembling obsessive-compulsive disorder. These symptoms can also have the 'appearance of regular depression' but can be indicators of bipolar depression. Self-diagnosis can lead individuals to develop preconceived ideas of what they have and what medicine they need to get it treated, so that the doctor-patient relationship and trust is weakened, said Taylor. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'They go to a physician, but they come in with a predetermined idea that a certain medication is what they need before they have a professional diagnosis,' he said. For someone who doesn't know the distinction between different conditions, as a doctor would, the wrong treatment can lead to dangerous consequences. Medications that can treat a particular type of illness can hurt a misdiagnosed individual. A self-diagnosed patient may be well-informed and, in some instances, even be able to persuade a time-pressed physician to agree to treatments that prove to be inappropriate, Taylor said. An example is SSRIs or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, a common class of medication given to people with depression. There can be chemical differences between different kinds of SSRIs. For people who have bipolar depression, which can exhibit symptoms of 'regular depression,' the wrong medication may throw them into a manic attack. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. It's been more than a year since several states in the United States filed lawsuits against TikTok and Meta, alleging the platforms are intentionally or negligently designing products that harm youths' mental health. In Canada, four Ontario school boards launched a lawsuit against TikTok, Meta, and Snap, charging that the platforms were 'negligently designed for compulsive use' that disrupts student learning. In the court case, one of the allegations of the Toronto school board is that these social media giants employ 'exploitative business practices and have negligently designed unsafe and/or addictive products' that they promote to students. There are now 14 school boards in Canada suing the social media giants, according to the Schools for Social Media Change website. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Some platforms have said that they are making changes to their systems to safeguard users from harmful content. Meta has said it introduced automatic restrictions so searches related to harmful content are not shown, and that the user is redirected to experts for help. However, how platforms deem content to be harmful is mostly unknown to governments and independent researchers because social media platforms do not explain their algorithms. According to Stanford's Hong, most of what researchers know is based on results gathered from reverse engineering algorithms. 'We have to trust these companies when they are telling us, 'This is how it works,'' he said. In an in-app survey conducted by TikTok in September 2023, 63 per cent of 1,898 respondents in Canada said they find a sense of belonging on the platform. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The recent Journal of Medical Internet Research study, while cautioning about misdiagnosis and the adverse effects of self-diagnosis on mental health, conceded that 'findings suggest that TikTok can be a useful tool to increase mental health awareness, reduce stigma, and encourage youth to learn and address their mental health challenges while providing a source of peer connection and support.' 'It creates empowerment,' said Perreault. 'Create inclusive spaces, create spaces for listening and acceptance.' Perreault sees videos on social media as a 'gentle introduction' on the road from self-identification or self-diagnosis to a final diagnosis by a medical professional. As for Plourd, he applied to the government for disability benefits. He said approval would allow him to focus on improving his mental health or working toward his aspirations. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'Once the stress of 'can I pay rent this month or eat' [goes] away, that relieves a lot of anxiety,' he said. 'That means I can focus on getting healthy.' While he believes there is a different degree of validation that comes with getting an official diagnosis from a medical professional, he said it's important not to play down the validity of self-diagnosis. 'Because I know me better than most people do,' Plourd said. 'I live in here.' Thea Catipon is a 2024 recipient of the Langara College Read-Mercer Journalism Fellowship. This feature was produced through the Fellowship. Read More For more health news and content around diseases, conditions, wellness, healthy living, drugs, treatments and more, head to – a member of the Postmedia Network. Local News University News News Real Estate
Vancouver Sun
6 hours ago
- Vancouver Sun
Millions of posts, billions of views: The dangers of using TikTok to self-diagnose mental-health issues
During a visit to a friend's place, Zack Plourd found his friend's medication for Adderall, one of the most common medications for ADHD or attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. While Plourd had never sought a prescription for his self-diagnosed ADHD , he decided to try the Adderall. To his surprise, it helped with symptoms he'd struggled with, such as lack of focus, rambling when talking, and the constant need to keep his brain stimulated. So he asked his doctor for a prescription. As a result, he said, 'I can think. I can exist. I can do things now.' Start your day with a roundup of B.C.-focused news and opinion. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sunrise will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. Plourd has self-diagnosed for years, based on content he's seen online and his real-life conversations. One of the first signs he identified with was people with ADHD talking about taking stimulants, such as caffeine, to focus. TikTok has thousands of videos that describe the habits of people with ADHD. Advice and clips on how to manage these habits and overcome the hardships of living with ADHD can be seen on several social media platforms. Whenever Plourd sees these videos, he relates: 'I have those things. I do those things.' Plourd is typical of a growing number of people who diagnose themselves with a mental illness based on information on social media. Most of this content is found on TikTok, where youth and young adults are the most active users. It's a trend that deeply concerns professionals, who fear misdiagnoses — or worse. Sun-Ha Hong, an external faculty fellow at the Stanford Humanities Center with expertise in social media platform governance and AI, said social media platforms continuously feed the user content that is based on their interests. Their algorithms push content that keeps the user scrolling and keeps them on the platform longer. 'Because that's really what makes it profitable for them,' Hong said. 'So that may not always be the healthiest content for you.' Social media platforms' algorithms also redirect harmful content, such as content that promotes eating disorders, self-harm or even suicide. According to the Center for Countering Digital Hate, an international non-profit and non-governmental organization, TikTok recommends self-harm or suicide content within 2.6 minutes and eating disorder content within eight minutes to new teen users who express interest in mental health content. This recommended content, rather than helping users, can cause mental health issues, such as developing eating disorders, internalizing harmful body images or engaging in self-harm. Content related to ADHD has gained traction on social media, particularly on TikTok. TikTok content creators such as Ontario's Olivia Lutfallah and Kansas's Connor DeWolfe have gained a large following from posting ADHD-related videos. Some of their videos have averaged more than 100,000 views. A few have had millions of views. Social media has become a tool to get information on all kinds of mental health conditions or neurodivergent tendencies, and the needs related to them. According to TikTok , which was launched in 2016, topics related to mental health, self-care and mental-health awareness have had more than 100 billion views as of October 2023. On Instagram, a search of the topic 'mental health' shows more than 57 million posts since 2010 while 'mental health support' has more than three million. According to the 2023 B.C. Adolescent Health Survey of youth in Grades 7 to 12, more than 8,000 adolescents out of 38,000 said they get their mental health information online. Online sources ranked third after consulting family or friends. In a 2024 study by the peer-reviewed Journal of Medical Internet Research , 21 youth respondents in B.C. noted that TikTok is seen as an 'easy way to access mental health information' with the added benefit of being free, relatable and engaging. The study found that youth engagement with the topic of mental health surged on TikTok during the pandemic, as it softened the effects of social isolation and provided access to mental health information and support. However, the study warned that 'TikTok can adversely impact mental health through repetitive exposure to mentally distressing content and misleading diagnosis and treatment information. Regulations against harmful content are needed to mitigate these risks and make TikTok safer for youth.' Self-diagnosis is often the default for people who face high costs for private assessments and long waits for doctors who can diagnose them. A small-sample survey by the non-profit organization AutismBC showed 34 per cent of its member respondents self-diagnosed or self-identified as autistic, according to Suzanne Perreault, executive director of the non-profit organization, which has a membership of more than 10,000. Social media content can help people to understand more about themselves and to recognize 'the 'why' behind 'why I do what I do,'' said Perreault, who self-diagnoses as being on the autism spectrum. According to the B.C. Autism Assessment Network, the waiting time for a child to get an assessment is 80.6 weeks . After the assessment, it can take four to six weeks to receive the results. Perreault said adults have more limited options, and the wait for an assessment is around two years. If one wants to get an assessment faster, the only option is to get it privately, which can cost up to $4,000. A 2023 study by Statistics Canada found almost half of the people who meet the diagnostic criteria for mood, anxiety and substance-use disorders have not spoken to a health professional about their mental health during the past year. And even fewer talked to a specialist such as a psychiatrist or a psychologist. That's at least in part because public facilities dedicated to mental health are hard to find and to access, said Dr. Edward Taylor, a UBC Okanagan researcher and mental health clinician who has worked with children and adolescents. Taylor believes people turn to social media out of convenience and the comfort of anonymity, partly because the support system in B.C. is overburdened, which has created the 'lack of availability of a professional support system.' Both funding and the availability of training for mental health professionals are missing, he said: 'They go hand in hand here in British Columbia.' According to a 2023 study by Family Medicine and Community Health, B.C. is one of the provinces with the greatest shortage of family physicians, with 17.7 per cent of the population reporting they have no family doctor. That means approximately 940,000 British Columbians have no family physician. The lack of an adequate professional support system shows in the long waiting times in B.C. 'If it's difficult to find, difficult to get into, if there's a waiting list, you tend to just … move away from it,' Taylor said. With so many barriers to getting professional help, it's not surprising that so many people turn to self-diagnosis. But the trend of self-diagnosis is troubling, said Taylor. He warns there is a possibility of misdiagnosis, in some cases due to an overlap of symptoms. For example, depression and anxiety can cause someone to have symptoms resembling obsessive-compulsive disorder. These symptoms can also have the 'appearance of regular depression' but can be indicators of bipolar depression. Self-diagnosis can lead individuals to develop preconceived ideas of what they have and what medicine they need to get it treated, so that the doctor-patient relationship and trust is weakened, said Taylor. 'They go to a physician, but they come in with a predetermined idea that a certain medication is what they need before they have a professional diagnosis,' he said. For someone who doesn't know the distinction between different conditions, as a doctor would, the wrong treatment can lead to dangerous consequences. Medications that can treat a particular type of illness can hurt a misdiagnosed individual. A self-diagnosed patient may be well-informed and, in some instances, even be able to persuade a time-pressed physician to agree to treatments that prove to be inappropriate, Taylor said. An example is SSRIs or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, a common class of medication given to people with depression. There can be chemical differences between different kinds of SSRIs. For people who have bipolar depression, which can exhibit symptoms of 'regular depression,' the wrong medication may throw them into a manic attack. It's been more than a year since several states in the United States filed lawsuits against TikTok and Meta, alleging the platforms are intentionally or negligently designing products that harm youths' mental health. In Canada, four Ontario school boards launched a lawsuit against TikTok, Meta, and Snap, charging that the platforms were 'negligently designed for compulsive use' that disrupts student learning. In the court case, one of the allegations of the Toronto school board is that these social media giants employ 'exploitative business practices and have negligently designed unsafe and/or addictive products' that they promote to students. There are now 14 school boards in Canada suing the social media giants, according to the Schools for Social Media Change website. Some platforms have said that they are making changes to their systems to safeguard users from harmful content. Meta has said it introduced automatic restrictions so searches related to harmful content are not shown, and that the user is redirected to experts for help. However, how platforms deem content to be harmful is mostly unknown to governments and independent researchers because social media platforms do not explain their algorithms. According to Stanford's Hong, most of what researchers know is based on results gathered from reverse engineering algorithms. 'We have to trust these companies when they are telling us, 'This is how it works,'' he said. In an in-app survey conducted by TikTok in September 2023, 63 per cent of 1,898 respondents in Canada said they find a sense of belonging on the platform. The recent Journal of Medical Internet Research study, while cautioning about misdiagnosis and the adverse effects of self-diagnosis on mental health, conceded that 'findings suggest that TikTok can be a useful tool to increase mental health awareness, reduce stigma, and encourage youth to learn and address their mental health challenges while providing a source of peer connection and support.' 'It creates empowerment,' said Perreault. 'Create inclusive spaces, create spaces for listening and acceptance.' Perreault sees videos on social media as a 'gentle introduction' on the road from self-identification or self-diagnosis to a final diagnosis by a medical professional. As for Plourd, he applied to the government for disability benefits. He said approval would allow him to focus on improving his mental health or working toward his aspirations. 'Once the stress of 'can I pay rent this month or eat' [goes] away, that relieves a lot of anxiety,' he said. 'That means I can focus on getting healthy.' While he believes there is a different degree of validation that comes with getting an official diagnosis from a medical professional, he said it's important not to play down the validity of self-diagnosis. 'Because I know me better than most people do,' Plourd said. 'I live in here.' Thea Catipon is a 2024 recipient of the Langara College Read-Mercer Journalism Fellowship. This feature was produced through the Fellowship. For more health news and content around diseases, conditions, wellness, healthy living, drugs, treatments and more, head to – a member of the Postmedia Network.
Cision Canada
6 days ago
- Cision Canada
Kye Pharmaceuticals Announces the Approval of DYANAVEL® XR (amphetamine extended-release) Tablets and Oral Suspension for the Treatment of Adults and Children With ADHD Français
MISSISSAUGA, ON, Aug. 5, 2025 /CNW/ - Kye Pharmaceuticals Inc. ("Kye"), a leading Canadian-based commercial-stage specialty pharmaceutical company focused on licensing and commercializing innovative medicines for patients in Canada, is pleased to announce the Health Canada approval (notice of compliance) for Dyanavel ® XR (amphetamine extended-release) tablets and oral suspension. Dyanavel ® XR is indicated for the treatment of ADHD in adults 18 years of age and over as well as in children aged 6-12 years old. 1 Dyanavel ® XR is a long-acting psychostimulant. These types of treatments for ADHD are recommended as first line by the Canadian ADHD resource alliance (CADDRA) guidelines. 2 Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a chronic neurodevelopmental disorder leading to impairments in learning and behaviour. ADHD affects approx. 3-5% of adults and 5-9% of children and adolescents 3. Patients with ADHD experience difficulties regulating their attention or focus. Dr. Sam Chang MD, FRCPC, Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, Clinical Associate Professor, University of Calgary "ADHD is a complex neuro-developmental condition. The goal of treatment is having the patient realize their full potential. Dyanavel ® XR will provide an important new option for HCPs to optimize ADHD treatment in Adults and Children." Dr. Ghalib Ahmed MD, CCFP,FCFP, Assistant Clinical Professor-University of Alberta, Faculty of Medicine, General Practitioner-Chokka Centre, Secretary- CADDRA Board "Every person and family affected by ADHD deserves access to treatment options that reflect their unique journeys, needs, challenges, and goals." John McKendry, President and CEO of Kye Pharmaceuticals "Dyanavel ® XR, developed using the novel LiquiXR ® extended-release delivery technology is the first and only extended-release oral suspension and chewable tablet amphetamine approved in Canada. Alongside our recent launches of Quillivant ® ER Oral Suspension and Chewable Tablets, our team has the privilege of supporting the most extensive portfolio of branded ADHD medicines in Canada." About ADHD ADHD is a chronic neurodevelopmental disorder leading to impairments in learning and behaviour. ADHD affects approx. 3-5% of adults and 5-9% of children and adolescents 3. Patients with ADHD experience difficulties regulating their attention or focus. According to the Centre for ADHD Awareness, Canada (CADDAC), 50-80% of children diagnosed with ADHD continue to qualify for a diagnosis in adolescence and at least 65% continue to be impaired by symptoms in adulthood. 3,4 About Dyanavel ® XR - Tablets and Oral suspension Dyanavel ® XR (amphetamine, extended-release) - Tablet and Oral suspension is approved in Canada for the treatment of ADHD in children six to 12 years of age as well as in adults over the age of 18. The onset of action is significant at one hour post dose with a duration of therapy of 13 hours for both formulations. 1 DYANAVEL ® XR has a tablet and oral suspension formulations that use a drug delivery technology called LiquiXR ® made up of resin bound uncoated immediate-release drug and extended-release drug with variable coating. The combination of free drug, resin-bound uncoated drug and resin bound coated drug with variable thickness coating results in continuous release of amphetamine. This technology was developed by Tris Pharma. Dyanavel ® XR tablets can be chewed or swallowed. About Kye Pharmaceuticals Kye, headquartered in Toronto, is a leading growth-stage Canadian specialty pharmaceutical company committed to bringing value to Canadians by identifying, licensing, and commercializing novel prescription medicines that may not otherwise be available to patients across Canada. With a growing pipeline of innovative medicines, Kye's portfolio spans a range of therapeutic areas including cardiology, psychiatry, pediatrics, rare diseases, neuromuscular, hematology, and neurology. Kye Pharmaceuticals is a private company, founded in Canada and focused exclusively on the healthcare needs of patients in Canada. Kye aims to provide medicines that deliver better outcomes to our partners, Canadian healthcare professionals, and most importantly, patients across Canada. For more information, please visit Dyanavel XR (amphetamine extended-release) Oral Suspension and Tablets. Product Monograph. Kye Pharmaceuticals Inc., Mississauga, ON. CADDRA - Canadian ADHD Resource Alliance: Canadian ADHD Practice Guidelines, 4.1 Edition, Toronto ON; CADDRA, 2020. Available at (Accessed July 2025) (Accessed July 2025) (Accessed July 2025) SOURCE Kye Pharmaceuticals Inc.
