Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Why study neurodevelopmental disorders?

More than 300,000 children and youth in Ontario are living with autism, ADHD and other neurodevelopmental disorders. 

The symptoms of these disorders – anxiety, depression, compulsive activity, social isolation, to name just a few – place a huge emotional cost on children and their families. The costs to society include lost productivity and potential, plus life-time bills to the medical system. There are few medications to treat these disorders, and those that exist are only partially effective.

Why study different neurodevelopmental disorders together?

Neurodevelopmental disorders are not clear-cut, easy to-segregate conditions. There is often considerable variability in how these disorders are expressed and sometimes individuals can have more than one neurodevelopmental disorder.

POND Network: Province of Ontario Neurodevelopmental Disorders Network

  • The POND Network aims to understand the unique and common biology across neurodevelopmental disorders, including: autism spectrum disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, Rett syndrome, Down syndrome, Tourette syndrome, fragile X syndrome, and intellectual disability. This network has created a clinical trials network that specializes in childhood neurodevelopmental disorders – a first in Canada – to speed up the development of new and more effective medications and psychosocial interventions.

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  • POND Network – Province of Ontario Neurodevelopmental Disorders Network

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The Impact of Our Work

In partnership with OBI, POND is conducting a research priority setting initiative following the guidelines of the James Lind Alliance (UK). The purpose is to learn from people living with neurodevelopmental disorders, their families, carers, and service providers about how research can best serve them. The survey generated over 1200 questions from 300 respondents across the province. All questions from the survey were then checked against existing evidence to see if they have already been answered by research. Any questions left unanswered were then ranked by the neurodevelopmental disorder community and a top 10 list of prioritized research questions was created. This list will be shared with POND researchers as well as other research funding organizations. The final report will be completed in early 2018.