Our Projects

Our ongoing activities include

• researching studies and new information on ADHD to expand the website’s content
• sending out addresses and incorporating feedback on them
• Regular maintenance and troubleshooting of existing equipment

In addition, we are planning and pursuing—among others—the following projects (listed in descending order of priority).
Currently, in addition to Ulrich Brennecke, more than 15 other people are actively involved in the creation, maintenance, and organization of ADxS.org. In addition, the advisory board currently consists of 21 members.

We want to remain independent of advertising and continue to offer a free and open information portal and forum on ADHD.
We do not accept donations from pharmaceutical companies.

Please support the operation of ADxS.org and our projects with a donation:
Donate here.
Donations to the nonprofit organization ADxS e.V. are tax-deductible in Germany.

1. Just for You: Front-End Projects¶

We refer to front-end projects as those that are immediately visible or usable by readers. Back-end projects (see below), on the other hand, tend to involve internal infrastructure and tools for the team.

1.1. ADxS App for iOS and Android¶

We are developing a mobile app to help with the dosing and administration of ADHD medications and to track correlations between activities and ADHD symptoms.

• Medication Timer
  • Support for multiple entries per day
  • Follow-up timer starts automatically from the time of the first dose
  • Rebound Alert
• Medication kits
  • Sets of various medications
  • Can be customized depending on the day of the week or occasion (e.g., vacation)
  • Medication timer included in the set
• Assistance with monitoring the administration of ADHD medications
  • Medication Record
  • Documentation of Symptom Progression
    • Suggested symptoms to monitor from the symptom test
    • Actively monitoring the progression of symptoms
  • Log of Daily Events
  • Analysis to visualize the relationship between medication use and symptom progression
• Medication Reorder Reminder
  • Calculating how long the current supply of medication will last
  • Reminder to reorder in a timely manner

Long-term goal:

• An analysis of which active ingredients or medications alleviate which symptoms and to what extent, as well as which side effects they cause

The Highest Level of Data Protection by Design

• No personal data: no email address, no IP address, no name

Stage:

• Development to begin in the winter of 2024/2025
• First version (not all features included yet) planned for 2026
• Gradual development over several years

The development process proved to be considerably more difficult than expected, especially in areas closely related to hardware.
For example, iOS has only allowed apps to trigger an alarm—such as the one needed for a medication reminder—since iOS 26.

1.2. ADxS Research AI Bot¶

• AI bot for internal research, trained on all available documents related to ADHD
• Support for research whose results are published on ADxS

1.3. Directory of ADHD Treatment Providers and Diagnostic Specialists¶

There is a glaring shortage of doctors and psychotherapists who treat or diagnose ADHD. Some people with ADHD wait over a year for an appointment.
Many doctors and therapists are well-informed. However, we also frequently receive reports of serious misstatements about ADHD, which can prevent people with ADHD from receiving appropriate treatment. Given that untreated ADHD is associated with a reduction in life expectancy of 8 to 11 years, a roughly fourfold increased risk of depression and anxiety disorders, and numerous other severe Consequences, this is extremely dangerous.
We are therefore constantly working to improve and expand the address database, send addresses to people with ADHD, and incorporate feedback regarding the addresses.

1.4. ADxS Video Podcast¶

We have begun preparations for an ADxS video podcast.
We now regularly record video podcasts here to explore interesting topics related to ADHD through conversations or interviews.
As is customary at ADxS, we’ll take a closer look at individual topics.

Once we have gathered a sufficient number of videos, we will publish them.
This video series will then be expanded on a regular basis.

1.5. ADxS Online Coaching¶

ADxS plans to provide an online platform for certified coaches and therapists.
The online group coaching sessions and online group therapy sessions are offered and led by appropriately qualified coaches and therapists.
ADxS itself will not offer coaching.

The goal is to reduce the significant shortage of coaching and therapy slots.
Our goal is to offer an alternative to people with ADHD who live in rural areas or cannot find a qualified coach or therapist nearby.
We hope to offer affordable entry-level opportunities through appropriate group programs.
In addition, group coaching sessions should be able to address very specific topics for which there might not be sufficient demand locally.

1.6. Links on the left side of the forum to relevant ADxS.org posts¶

With 17,100 users (as of January 2026), adhs-forum.adxs.org is one of the largest German-language forums on ADHD.

In each thread, links to relevant pages on ADxS.org are already displayed in the opening post. This makes it easier to find reliable information, including source citations, on the topics or questions discussed.
Through these links, knowledge from ADxS.org flows into the forum. This knowledge accumulates among the more experienced users, who then pass it on to newer users.
This enhances the forum’s level of knowledge and the quality of its discussions.

In February 2026, we significantly improved the fit of these links.
In the next step, we plan to display links to each post so that participants in ongoing discussions can quickly access relevant information.

1.7. Add graphics to ADxS.org texts¶

ADxS.org is full of information.
We want to make these easier to understand by using graphics.
We are already working with a graphic designer on this.
Unfortunately, this work is very time-consuming.

1.8. Peer Reviews¶

We are always looking for experts who are willing to review the content of ADxS from a technical perspective.
To date, the following chapters have been reviewed by a clinical psychologist:

• Origin
• Symptoms
• Consequences
• Stress

We want to have all the chapters reviewed by several experts.

1.9. Translation Reviews¶

ADxS.org is published in German. The English version is generated using Deepl.
We are working with native English speakers to refine the English translation.
In addition, we are in talks regarding support from professional translators.

In addition, we are seeking to connect with native speakers of other languages in order to make ADxS.org available internationally:

• Mandarin Chinese
• Hindi (India)
• Spanish
• Arabic
• French
• Bengali
• Portuguese
• Indonesian

The time required is about 20 to 30 hours per language. No prior medical or psychological training is required.

1.10. Online Tests¶

1.10.1. More Online Tests¶

We plan to continuously expand the ADxS.org test battery.
An online screening test for histamine intolerance is currently being developed.

1.10.2. Caching Online Tests¶

Although ADxS’s online tests are not medically validated screenings, some of them are quite extensive. The V5 symptom test consists of 169 questions and takes just under half an hour to complete.
With the technology currently in use, the content is lost if the Internet connection is lost while editing.
We want to modify the tests so that user input is always cached to prevent data loss.

1.11. Visual Categorization for Reader Groups¶

With 1.5 million words spread across 435 published pages (as of January 2026), ADxS.org is likely the most comprehensive monograph on ADHD worldwide. It is certainly not the best—there are good reasons why a reference book of this scope would cost several hundred euros. ADxS.org is a collection of relevant information. The summaries and evaluations of the various topics will require several more years of refinement.
Well, we have plenty of time—and goals ;-)

However, there is no longer a standard (in the sense of “familiar”) format for presenting structured content on this scale, especially since ADxS.org has set itself the goal of being equally readable for readers with different needs (beginners, advanced users, experts, and researchers). By way of comparison: as of January, the German-language Wikipedia has around 3 million pages with a total of about 6 billion words. Wikipedia is not structured.

We want to avoid spreading the content across different web addresses, because then every new piece of information would have to be entered in multiple places. That would simply no longer be feasible.
Instead, we want to distinguish the content visually. At present, we prefer to use different-colored backgrounds to indicate the level of prior knowledge the text is intended for.
This will require a comprehensive expansion of the existing editor system.

1.12. Reading Aid (similar to Bionic Reading)¶

Bionic Reading is a general term for a specific form of graphic representation of text that makes it easier to read. For more information, see Reading Aids on the page Everyday Strategies for People with ADHD in the Treatment chapter.

Many people with ADHD benefit from this type of presentation.
While there are free Bionic Reading add-ins available for popular browsers, readers would first have to install them. Not all users know how to install add-ins.
In addition, 70% of our readers access ADxS.org on their cell phones, where such add-ins are not available.
Above all, however, the Bionic Reading add-ins we tested make the ADxS.org pages load very slowly (perhaps because of their size).

To make the most of this feature, it would therefore be helpful to include a graphical presentation in a custom CSS file that readers can activate on the website itself if they wish.

1.13. Option to comment and discuss directly on the content at ADxS.org¶

It would be nice if discussion threads could be linked directly to the part of a text on ADxS.org that the discussion pertains to.
So far, there is no technical solution for this.

Comments and forum threads are currently only available at the bottom of web pages.
We have an idea of how this could be implemented technically.
However, implementation will be time-consuming, which is why this project is fairly low on the priority list.

1.14. “Changes Since…” Comparison View on ADxS.org¶

Given its depth of detail and length, ADxS.org isn’t the kind of site you’d revisit regularly.
ADxS.org is constantly being expanded and improved.

For people with ADHD and other specific issues, as well as experts and researchers, it might be helpful to visually display on a single page all changes made since a date set by the reader. The display should then resemble Word’s Track Changes mode: text added since a preset date is highlighted in color and underlined, while text deleted since then is highlighted in color and struck through.

1.15. Web/Document Search Using Word Graphs / Co-occurrence Graphs¶

We would like to analyze the specialized information and source texts available to us using co-occurrence graphs (word graphs/word clouds) in order to visually illustrate the contextual relationships within the overall search results.
We would welcome any assistance, ranging from advice on whether (and, if so, how) this can be implemented using existing tools to the actual programming of a corresponding display.

Example of a word graph

1.16. Solver application for neurophysiological processes (MATLAB?)¶

We would like to experiment with modeling neurophysiological processes within a solver structure.
It would be interesting to see to what extent MATLAB or another existing solver might be suitable for this. We would love to talk to someone who is well-versed in MATLAB or other solver software.
Skills: MATLAB or other solver software.

In 2025, we took the first steps on this project by creating a property database and determined that it was generally suitable for the purpose.

2. Behind the Scenes: Backend Projects, Strategic Issues¶

The technology behind ADxS.org is much more complex than it appears from the outside. Since our requirements threatened to overwhelm WordPress and there was no off-the-shelf CMS that could easily meet the needs of ADxS.org, developing our own CMS was a time-consuming but future-proof solution. Currently, it allows us to implement the following:

• Multilingualism
  • Scheduled automated translations
  • Written in a primary language
  • Different text content for different languages
• Footnote database
• Glossary Management
• Two separate user management systems
  • No email integration for test accounts (radical privacy by design)
  • With email integration for forum accounts
• Online tests
  • complex sets of questions (in some cases)
  • complex analyses
  • Connection to a test account
• Autosaves (protection against data loss when editing posts)

The following projects relate to the further development of the technical infrastructure.

2.1. Editorial Display of Footnotes¶

ADxS.org places great importance on providing detailed citations for all information, with sources that are readily accessible.
ADxS.org currently (as of June 2026) has 14,922 different sources integrated into 20,083 footnotes. About 95% of all sources are primary literature (studies, reviews, meta-analyses) and are directly linked, so they can be accessed from within the text. When you hover your mouse over a footnote symbol in the text, the tooltip displays the linked source.

The editor used to create and edit texts on ADxS.org does not display footnotes as footnote symbols, as they appear on the website, but instead shows the full footnote. This disrupts the flow of the text.((It then looks as if this italicized text were the footnote supporting the respective statement. And this is the link associated with the footnote. Many titles are significantly longer, so footnotes are, on average, about this long.))((It becomes even more confusing when multiple footnotes support a single statement. In that case, several footnotes like these appear one after another. And this is the link associated with the footnote. For now, let’s stick with an example that has two footnotes for a single statement.)) To make the text easier to edit, the editor should have the same layout as the website. This requires additional tools to insert and edit footnotes.

2.2. Footnote Database from ADxS.org¶

As of June 2026, ADxS.org has integrated 14,922 different sources into 20,083 footnotes.
The database should be cleaned of duplicates (identical entries with different spellings).

2.3. Automatically number page headings¶

If an additional outline heading is inserted on a page, the numbering of all subsequent headings must be adjusted manually.
This is a tedious and time-consuming process that is also prone to errors. We would much rather invest that time in researching the content.

2.4. Find-and-Replace Tool for Entire Pages / All Pages¶

Sometimes terms need to be—or should be—standardized across all pages to use a specific spelling. This currently requires tedious manual work.
A cross-page replacement tool would save us a lot of time and help improve consistency in terminology across all pages.

2.5. Multi-author system with revision history and approval¶

Currently, the editor does not have a permissions system that would allow different authors to contribute to the content on ADxS.org and enable others to track or approve changes.
So far, external authors have been sending their texts by email. We then have to enter these texts into the system.
It is clear that the number of authors will increase. To meet this need and ensure that the maintenance of ADxS.org’s content is not hindered, we need to expand ADxS.org to include an author rights system (similar to that of a wiki).

2.6. Management¶

ADxS’s readership is growing every year. In January 2026, we had 122,000 unique readers on our website and an additional 174,000 unique readers on our German-language forum.
Similarly, the number and scale of projects that are planned or currently underway are growing.
At the same time, the organizational workload has been growing and has now reached a level that calls for professionalization. ADxS therefore expects to create its first paid executive position—based on a “minijob”—in late 2026 or early 2027.

2.7. Expand the Advisory Board¶

By 2025, the advisory board had grown to 22 members.
We aim to expand the advisory board to include 40 to 50 experts.

3. Most Recently Implemented¶

June 2026: Feedback reminders sent¶

In exchange for a commitment to provide feedback on the addresses we contact, we send out mailing lists of doctors, therapists, and others who work with individuals with ADHD (and soon also with ASD) to those who request them.
Every 6 to 12 months, we send a reminder to those who haven’t provided feedback yet.
This time, approximately 3,600 recipients will receive a reminder.

June 2026: Website design updated¶

We have redesigned the website’s layout.
In addition, the side menu can now be collapsed on the desktop, so that the entire screen is available for reading.
On a cell phone, the menu now appears above the text and shows the reader the entire outline.

March 2026: Links from the forum to the website¶

The links from forum threads containing suggestions for potentially relevant ADxS websites now appear below each forum post and are of much higher quality.

2026/01: Address feedback entered¶

In January 2026, just under 1,000 pieces of feedback were entered into the address database.

January 2026: ADxS Web AI Bot Updated¶

The previous AI bot had changed its interface.
A new AI bot with a more user-friendly interface has been developed and launched.

January 2026: ADxS Search Engine Updated¶

In January 2026, we updated our search engine. This now allows users to search for multiple terms simultaneously within pages as well as within page segments (sections of pages separated by H2 headings).
This makes it much easier to fine-tune the search results.

December 2025: ADxS.org menu structure optimized for mobile phones¶

70% of readers visit ADxS.org on their cell phones.
The menu structure is not ideal for cell phones. After selecting a chapter from the menu, the menu does not remain open, so the individual pages within the chapter are not visible. To view them, you must click the menu a second time. Readers who are unfamiliar with the scope of ADxS.org may therefore get the impression that the summary/introduction page is the entire content of the chapter.
In the fall of 2025, the menu was redesigned so that it remains fully visible on a cell phone when a chapter is clicked for the first time.

December 2025: Donation banner optimized¶

The donation banner technology was outdated and has been updated to allow for more text and display the payment fields directly within the banner

2025 Address database expanded to include autism¶

Upon request via email—and in exchange for a commitment to provide feedback at a later date—we will send an email to the provided address ( ) listing the 90 addresses of doctors and psychologists who specialize in or may specialize in ADHD and are located nearest to the specified ZIP code.

The number of mailings from the ADxS address database doubles every year:

• 2020: 99
• 2021: 243
• 2022: 599
• 2023: 2,749
• 2024: 4,500
• 2025: 4,900

Based on the shipping figures for 2026 so far, it is expected that around 6,000 address inquiries will be answered in 2026.
To send this volume of email messages, we had to develop complex software to assist us in this process, even though we continue to handle every request personally.

By the end of 2025, we will have expanded the address database to include information on the diagnosis and treatment of autism. As soon as we have enough data on this topic, we will also enable filtering for this category.

2025 Address feedback entered¶

In the early years, the feedback received from the recipients was entered into the database entirely by hand.
Given the growing volume of mailings, this is no longer possible.

In addition, the response rate was initially—let’s just say—in need of improvement.
To that end, we’ve developed a feedback form where users can submit their feedback.

To make it even easier to provide feedback and enter it into the database, we have enhanced the form so that it can be accessed via a link included with every email sent. This way, users only need to enter their feedback instead of a full address.

About a year and a half after sending out the letters, we follow up every 6 months to remind recipients to provide the promised feedback, since, as described above, this can save lives.
This required the development of a complex email dispatch control system.

Nevertheless, we continue to receive feedback simply via email. While some users are able to read a table, they are apparently not willing to enter their feedback into it.
Until now, this feedback had to be entered manually by an employee, because otherwise hundreds of pieces of feedback would have been lost.

In early 2025, as part of the overhaul of the address database, the feedback form was also expanded to make it easier to provide feedback and to save ADxS costs.

2025/01: Address feedback entered¶

In January 2025, 350 pieces of feedback were entered into the address database.

December 2024: ADxS Web AI Bot¶

We have developed an AI bot that can answer questions about ADHD as an alternative to searching the ADxS.org website, while providing links to the relevant sources on ADxS.org.

• Ask the ADxS bot questions
• Get detailed answers
• Answers that include links to the relevant passages on ADxS.org as sources, for direct verification and further reading

December 2024: Optimize the donation banner¶

The donation banner now features a visual donation total display and graphical improvements.

November 2024: Glossary as an Alphabetical Dictionary¶

ADxS.org uses many technical terms that require explanation; these are defined in the glossary.
If a technical term that is defined in the glossary appears in the text, the word is underlined. You can hover your mouse over it to view the definition while reading.
At the end of 2024, these glossary terms were also organized alphabetically and presented as a keyword index.

November 2024: Duplicate management added to the address database¶

Since users can enter addresses manually, it is inevitable that addresses will be duplicated due to typos or circumstances—such as moves or name changes—that are not immediately apparent.
Since there are multiple IDs for a single address in Ulaiuf—all of which users can provide feedback on—a duplicate management system had to be developed to merge the addresses so that readers could still submit feedback for the consolidated address using any of the address’s IDs.

October 2024: Address Lookup Expanded to Include Filters¶

In October 2024, we expanded the selection options so that address requests can now be filtered by category and target audience:
Category: Doctors, Psychotherapists, Coaches, Occupational Therapists, Speech-Language Pathologists, Clinics, Clinic Outpatient Departments, Other
Target audience: Children / Teens, Adults

In addition, the output format has been changed so that addresses are easier to read on a cell phone.

October 2024: English-language forum issue¶

While ADxS.org is available in both German and English, the forum was long limited to German.
Since Reddit does not allow links to websites in its forum—which would result in technically accurate answers becoming excessively long and would also create “duplicate content,” thereby causing search engines to penalize ADxS.org—the English-language version of the forum was the logical consequence.
We also believe that a connection between the forum and ADxS.org offers significant benefits, because the knowledge from ADxS.org can be integrated into the forum, where more experienced users can pass it on to newer users.
The English-language forum will also benefit from the links on ADxS.org.
We were finally able to recruit a native English speaker who will serve as a moderator for the English-language forum, making it possible to launch the English-language forum.

October 2024: Our Own Server Hardware¶

ADxS received its own server in October 2024. We were able to negotiate very favorable special terms for hosting it in a professional data center in Germany.
Given the organization’s growth, having our own server made sense in order to facilitate collaboration within the team.
Address distribution requires dedicated hardware and cannot be done using cloud storage.
A used, 2 1/2-year-old Dual-Xeon server with 64 GB of memory was purchased, including a Windows Server system, Terminal Server licenses, an Exchange Server, and Office licenses.
The purchase was discussed with five IT specialists from the Executive Board, the IT team, and the moderator team, as well as with the auditor, and was unanimously approved by all.

August 2024: ADxS Address Database Expanded by 30,000 Addresses¶

ADxS therefore collects contact information for and feedback on practitioners and diagnosticians specializing in ADHD so that people with ADHD can get an idea of their respective expertise.

As of mid-2024, the ADxS address database included approximately 2,500 addresses in Germany, 800 addresses in Austria, and just under 300 addresses in Switzerland that were provided to us as practitioners or diagnosticians for ADHD.
In 2024, more than 700 new addresses were added in Germany.

In the summer of 2024, as part of a large-scale project, we collected more than 30,000 addresses of doctors and psychotherapists in Germany who, based on their area of expertise, could treat or diagnose ADHD. We hope this will drastically reduce the average wait times for a diagnosis or treatment.

August 2024: Advisory Board Communications¶

After resolving a number of technical challenges, an internal communication forum for the advisory board was implemented in August 2024.

August 2024: ADxS Word Mark¶

ADxS has become the most-read German-language online platform for information on ADHD.
To prevent third parties from making unauthorized use of the increasingly well-known name ADxS and thereby misleading readers, ADxS was registered as a word mark for the EU and Switzerland in 2024.
The trademark was registered with WIPO in August 2024.

May 2024: SEO Optimization of Title and Description¶

To improve ADxS’s search engine rankings, the page titles and descriptions need to be optimized.
Incidentally, ADxS will continue to refrain from creating keyword-optimized texts and will publish only content that is substantively meaningful.

May 2024: Search displays the section of a page that was found¶

Some of the ADxS.org pages are very long—up to 60 or 70 DIN A4 pages.
If such a page appears in a search results list, the reader must search the page a second time.

The solution was to divide the pages internally into sections that are searched separately from the main search.
The results lists now link directly to the sections found, which are displayed within the complete page structure.

May 2024: Forum links show the section of a page that was found¶

Thanks to this same technology, the links below the first posts in a forum thread now point to the relevant sections of the page rather than just to the respective pages on ADxS.org

April 2024: Dosage Guide Table¶

The dosing guide, which is freely available to registered users in the forum’s download section, has been significantly expanded.

December 2023: Detailed analysis of the symptom test and the third-party assessment test¶

The results of the symptom test and the third-party assessment test can be downloaded as a detailed report in PDF format.
For each symptom, the analysis shows which questions were used to assess it and how the participant answered them.
While this does not make symptom tests and third-party assessment tests diagnostic tools, it can provide another perspective for understanding one’s own behavior.

April 2023: Mailing Lists for Austria and Switzerland by ZIP Code¶

Since April 2023, addresses in Austria and Switzerland have also been sent with a specified ZIP code removed,

August 2022: English-language edition of ADxS.org¶

Thanks to our in-house CMS, we can edit and manage all texts on a single central page in one language (German). Texts that appear only in the English-language or only in the German-language version are marked and maintained on the respective central page. This saves us from having to maintain multiple pages.
The English-language edition is machine-translated. Even though the translation isn’t perfect, several native speakers who reviewed the texts didn’t immediately realize that it was a machine translation. A manual translation of the current volume (over 1.5 million words) would normally cost a six-figure sum. The effort required to regularly maintain and expand the texts would be completely unfeasible.
In that sense, the automated English translation may not be perfect, but at least it exists. The only alternative would be no translation at all.
In January 2026, about 20% of the page views were for the English-language version,

January 2022: WordPress Replaced with a Custom CMS¶

The size and complexity of ADxS.org threatened to overwhelm the WordPress database.
Even back then, the WordPress test database was virtually impossible to analyze due to the impractical WordPress format.
On top of that, WordPress wanted to switch from a page editor to a block editor, which would have made it practically impossible to maintain ADxS’s extensive pages.
In addition, there were a number of requests for enhancements that, as we could foresee, would have been very difficult to implement using WordPress.

After careful consideration of the options—between larger, existing CMSs and the option of building our own CMS—we chose the latter, which was developed using PHP and Laravel.
We haven’t regretted this decision for a single second so far.

As part of this process, the editor was switched from HTML to Markdown in order to significantly reduce the previously enormous effort required for typesetting and layout in the event of future print editions of ADxS.org.