Basic Brain Biology and How It Influences ADHD, Anxiety and Depression with Sarah Cheyette, MD — 2025

Do you want to know why you think the way you do? Learn some of the basics of brain biology that help you understand how and when your attention turns on, and how anxiety and depression can influence your thinking. You will also learn the biology of how medications for ADHD affect your brain and how they work. Finally, how you can influence–for better, hopefully, but also for worse–your brain health with exercise, sleep, or other factors is also discussed.

ABOUT SARAH CHEYETTE, MD

Sarah Cheyette is a pediatric neurologist—a doctor who specializes in brains. She loves treating ADHD patients because it is so rewarding to make interventions that can change a trajectory toward success. She graduated cum laude in Cognitive Neuroscience from Princeton University and received her medical degree from the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine. Following specialty training in pediatrics at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and in pediatric neurology at Seattle Children’s Hospital, she recently practiced at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation, where she focused on treating ADHD in both children and adults. She has been a “Top Doctor” in San Francisco magazine.

She has written three books on ADHD, which explain its common behavioral symptoms, the biology behind it, and what research has revealed about it – as well as issues faced by parents when considering prescription medications and other treatment approaches.

Dr. Cheyette treats people with ADHD with medication and non-medication strategies such as those outlined in her books: ADHD and the Focused Mind (co-written with a karate master, Peter Johnson, and her husband, a psychiatrist Ben Cheyette, MD/PhD) Winning with ADHD aimed at preteens, teens, and young adults (co-written with Grace Friedman, a young woman who deals successfully with ADHD herself) ADHD & Me for children learning about ADHD.