American Journal of Medical Genetics Part B (Neuropsychiatric Genetics) 147B:112 –113 (2008)
Brief Research Communication
The ADHD Resource: Creation of an Online Tool for Attention
Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Information and Research
N.C. Martin*
School of Psychology, Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
With the ever growing quantity of information
generated by research into attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and the growth
of international cooperation and collaboration, a
need has arisen for a simple reference resource.
The ADHD Resource was created to be this tool. It
has been designed to act as the first point of
reference for researchers in the field. It has also
been created to facilitate the collaborative effects
amongst the research groups.
ß 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
KEY WORDS: ADHD; genetics; database
Please cite this article as follows: Martin NC. 2008. The
ADHD Resource: Creation of an Online Tool for Atten-
tion Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Information and
Research. Am J Med Genet Part B 147B:112–113.
EARLY DAYS
The website was originally created in HTML as a few static
pages covering recent publications, results of some candidate
gene analyses and details of upcoming relevant conferences.
All of the sections were updated manually and sporadically
during pauses in other research work. In detail the sections
were comprised of:
. Candidate Genes
o This section contained summaries of the evidence for or
against several candidate genes which have been
investigated for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
(ADHD). For each update a search on PubMed [National
Library of Medicine, 2007] was performed for the most
recent genetic studies of ADHD. A short list of genes was
then compiled and the evidence for and against each
noted. A mix of well established and novel candidates
was then selected with a short summary of the status for
each. Well-established candidates were included to show
if new evidence supported or disagreed with the previous
conclusions and novel candidates were included to help
direct future research and possible replication. In
addition to the literature references and status summa-
Grant sponsor: Curtin University of Technology, Perth,
Australia.
*Correspondence to: N.C. Martin, School of Psychology, Curtin
University of Technology, GPO Box U1987, Perth 6845, Western
Australia, Australia. E-mail: n.martin@curtin.edu.au
Received 28 January 2007; Accepted 15 June 2007
DOI 10.1002/ajmg.b.30588
ß 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
ries, links were added to GeneCards [Rebhan et al., 1997]
to show the chromosomal position and structure of the
candidate locus. As an alternative form of visualization
links to Ensembl [Hubbard et al., 2007] were also added.
. Recent Publications
o References for this section came from two sources. One
was the mailing list for the ADHD Network which is an
international collaboration of researchers into the
genetics of ADHD and its surrounding issues. As new
papers are published a PDF version is usually sent to
everyone on the mailing list. After reading the paper, a
short summary was written and the summary added to
the website along with a link to the paper and full details
of the reference. The other method of finding references
was through searching on PubMed. Again a brief
summary of each paper was then written and added to
the site along with the reference details and a link to the
PubMed abstract or the full online version of the paper.
. Conferences
o A Google [Google Inc, 2007] search was performed to find
the dates, venues, and contact details of any scientific
meetings on ADHD. A list of these details was then
complied and all the details, including a web link if
available, were added to the site.
. Useful Links
o This section contains several links to useful external
resources. This is probably the most static page of the
entire site.
. Feedback
o A form was supplied for visitors to leave feedback/
suggestions of things to add/remove in the site.
Every update of the site was entirely manual and thus highly
labor intensive and could take more than a week to perform.
The publications section was particularly difficult as all of the
details from previous updates had to be moved onto other pages
to make way for the most recent information. Links then had to
be created so that past and present versions of the reference
page could be accessed.
THE PRESENT
During 2006 grant funding was secured from Curtin
University to begin updating and upgrading the site. The first
step was moving it to a new server and new address at http://
adhd.curtin.edu.au.
All of the original sections have been updated but the
publications section has been significantly upgraded and the

candidate genes section completely re-written. A Perl script
has now been created which periodically searches PubMed for
relevant publications. The results of this search are then sorted
and entered into a MySQL database. The old HTML pages for
this section on the site have now been replaced by a CGI script.
This script allows retrieval of all of the relevant papers by
publication month and dynamically generates each page of
results. This has virtually eliminated all of the manual effort
required to update the references page and so the site can be
kept up to date much more easily.
The candidate gene section is now in the form of a brief
review of candidate gene studies with a link for the most recent
paper discussing the gene. This change is in line with the
philosophy of the site to provide a starting reference point
rather than an all encompassing resource. The aim is to update
this page on a bi-annual basis to highlight novel candidate
genes as well as confirm the status for well-replicated existing
loci.
A new section has been created for the ADHD Molecular
Genetics Network [Faraone, 2003]. The ADHD network is an
international collaborative group who meet annually to discuss
work on the molecular genetic basis of ADHD. The section for
the network is password protected so that only organizations
who participate in the collaborative effort can access the
information. It contains the presentations given at the annual
meetings along with various communications sent out to
members of the network. There are also online forums for each
specific topic area of the network where members can interact
with each other.
As it currently stands the website fulfils its role as a first
point of reference for ADHD research. The candidate
genes section gives an overview of the status of several loci
and provides links to further information to find out more
about each gene. Placing this information together on a single
page in a convenient form allows the user to get a quick idea of
the overall picture of genes associated with ADHD without
having to trawl a variety of information sources for the same
information. The publications section compliments this in that
it presents the user with the literature in manageable chunks
which are much easier to extract relevant information from
rather than requiring repetitive, carefully designed searches
to extract the data from the larger repositories.
THE FUTURE
There are many plans for improvements and extensions to
the current site. In the near future it is planned to switch the
forum software to provide better presentation, functionality,
and privacy for each of the forums. It is also planned to
enhance the site by providing a personal registration page and
personalized log in for members of the ADHD network rather
than the very generic system which is currently in place. It is
also planned to add an area where new files can be uploaded
onto the server to share with other members of the network to
facilitate collaboration.
The ADHD Resource 113
In the longer term a variety of extensions are being planned.
The first is to move the site to a dedicated server of its own.
Once this is achieved a web-based interface will be developed to
allow registered users to upload small data files and perform
analyses such as modeling using Mx [Neale, 1997] or LCAP
[Neuman et al., 1999]. If this feature is successful then the next
stage will be to create a simple data format that each of the
groups can easily convert their data to. Once this format has
been established a facility for uploading and combining
datasets will be developed thus allowing meta-analyses and
data merging to be performed on the server. Tools in addition to
those mentioned above will also be incorporated to provide a
full analytical suite of software.
Finally new online questionnaires for measuring ADHD and
its comorbidities will be developed, with consultation with
clinicians and researchers, to provide an efficient means of
collecting international datasets.
All of these features will be unique to The ADHD Resource
and should see it become a premium tool to researchers and
clinicians in the field. In particular it will be of great utility in
facilitating cross-institutional collaboration and cooperation.
At this stage it will become more of a scientific research tool
rather than a reference resource as it is in its current form.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This project is supported by a Curtin Research Fellowship
from Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Australia.
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