Thinking About a Placement? Here’s What I Learned in an ADHD Lab

7 April 2026

Thinking About Applying for a Placement? 
 
As a psychology undergraduate, career prospects can feel  
broad, intimidating and downright disorienting.  So, a placement can be a good way to translate academic understanding into what it’s actually like to work in a field.   
The absolute highlight of my placement has been speaking to women with ADHD about their experiences.
This made me realise I definitely want to go into something client-facing. It also gave me a better idea of the day-to-day in research, which made the prospect of 
graduate studies less daunting. In this way, the extra year it added to my degree feels well worth it. When thinking about where to apply, I found a good place to start is asking yourself why you got into studying psychology and why it matters to you.  

Neurodiversity 

For me, being interested in people and psychology is often centered 
around individual differences. Neurotypes are no exception. Neurodiversity reflects that we all function in different ways, with differing needs. 
ADHD is an example of this that is often missed in girls, in part because of internalising symptoms and compensation strategies making it less outwardly ‘obvious’. Not recognising this presentation often results in a lack of support and worse outcomes. When a diagnosis is made, there is still a lack of pharmacological research on treatment in women, despite hormonal transitions - like those during the menstrual cycle - affecting symptoms and mood. 
The Measuring Adult ADHD and Menstruation Study (MAAM) addresses this gap. It 
investigates how symptoms may vary across the menstrual cycle in individuals on ADHD medication. This has the potential to improve available treatment options and symptom management, which drew me to a placement working on the study.  

ADHD Lifecourse Lab and the MAAM Study 

My placement is on the QMUL campus in the ADHD Lifecourse Lab, led by Dr Jessica Agnew-Blais. The central focus is exploring ADHD across the lifespan, with an emphasis on women and girls. The MAAM study clearly aligns with these aims and now has 56 participants enrolled. They will wear Oura rings for three  
months to track activity, sleep and basal body temperature  (to infer cycle phases), while completing daily questionnaires on medication, mood and symptoms.  
Justyna, the research assistant, walked me through the process of moving from 
recruitment to data collection. We first assessed eligibility through screening calls and two clinical interviews: the DIVA (for ADHD) and the MINI (for neuropsychiatric 
assessment), as ADHD is often highly comorbid with other conditions. For enrollment, we used the database REDCap to create participant IDs, store relevant data, and send out surveys on demographics, health behaviours, as well as screenings for PMDD and autism. In the final stage, we paired the Oura rings and questionnaire app with the platform RADAR-base. This sends through data which we can monitor in real time in the platform Grafana, ensuring questionnaires are completed and rings stay synced.  
Interestingly, three people were ineligible because they already increased their 
medication dose in the luteal phase of their cycle. In other words: potential applications like tailoring treatment to include booster doses at certain cycle phases, are already being done by some women with ADHD. 

Hiding In Plain Sight

Something that especially stuck with me was the ‘Hiding in Plain Sight’ conference. 
Clinicians and researchers got together and shared their work on ADHD in women and girls. At the end of the event they update their clinical and research priorities. At the very top of the list was: ‘promoting early identification of ADHD in girls’.  
Considering the reality of later diagnosis for girls, one point particularly resonated with me. Since ADHD is diagnosed considering functional impairment, it is often not until all well-being is drained that women’s symptoms are finally noticed.  
Thinking of all the creative, wonderful, funny - but often exhausted - neurodivergent women in my life, this rang true. It reinforced the importance of exploring the diverse ways ADHD manifests across ages and genders, so that some groups are not left to struggle without support, until many areas of life feel unmanageable. 
If you’re also interested in this kind of research check out the lab’s webpage at 
www.adhdlifelab.com. 

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