Studies have shown that people with ADHD are likely to die much earlier than their peers

A study of more than 30,000 British adults diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) found that they died on average earlier than their peers in the general population – around seven years earlier for men and around nine years earlier for women .

The study that was published on Thursday in The British Journal of Psychiatry, he is considered the first to exploit all-cause mortality data to estimate the life expectancy of people with ADHD. Previous research has identified a number of risks associated with the disease, including poverty, mental health disorders, smoking and substance abuse.

The authors warn that ADHD is largely underdiagnosed and that the people in their study – most of them diagnosed as newborn adults – may be among those most seriously affected by the condition. Still, they called their findings “extremely concerning,” highlighting unmet needs that “require urgent attention.”

“This is a gigantic number and a worrying number,” said Joshua Stott, professor of clinical psychology and aging at University College London and an author of the study. “I think it’s more likely to be about health inequities than anything else. But that’s quite a gigantic health inequality.”

The study did not identify the causes of premature death among people with ADHD, but it did find that people with ADHD were twice as likely to smoke or abuse alcohol than the general population and that they had significantly higher rates of autism, self-harming behavior and personality disorders than the general population . population. As adults, Dr. Stott said, “they have a harder time controlling their impulses and engage in more risky behavior.”

He said health care systems may need to adapt to better serve people with ADHD who may have sensory sensitivities or difficulty managing time or communicating with doctors during low visits. He expressed hope that addiction and depression treatment methods could be adapted to the needs of ADHD patients

“As far as systems go, it’s malleable,” he said. “It doesn’t have to be this way.”

Previous research has shown an unusual number of premature deaths among people with ADHD. A 2022 meta-analysis published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics found that deaths from unnatural causessuch as accidents or suicide, were 2.81 times higher among people diagnosed with ADHD than in the general population.

AND 2019 study which used actuarial tables to predict life expectancy, found that adults diagnosed with ADHD in childhood had an 8.4-year shorter life expectancy compared to the general population, which the authors attributed to reduced education and income, higher smoking and alcohol consumption and reduced sleep.

Russell Barkley, lead author of this study, said the data clearly shows that ADHD should not be viewed as a childhood disorder like bedwetting, but as a lifelong problem.

“For me, the best analogy is diabetes,” said Dr. Barkley, professor emeritus of clinical psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University. “It’s a disorder that needs to be managed, just like high blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes. It needs to be treated throughout life.

The novel study examined 9,561,450 primary care patients in the UK’s National Health Service, of whom 30,039 were diagnosed with ADHD. For comparison purposes, each person in the ADHD group was compared to 10 peers without the disorder. Among people with ADHD, 193 men and 148 women died during the observation period, which lasted from 2000 to 2019.

Stephen Hinshaw, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, who studies ADHD but was not involved in the novel British study, called the study an “essential discovery” and the first analysis of the deaths of people diagnosed with the disorder. He stated that it was a pity that the causes of death of the subjects were not taken into account.

“There are risk factors that need to be worked on,” he said. “This is a key limitation of the study because it would be really essential to know, should prevention focus be on suicide? Better diet and exercise? Depression?”

In recent years, the diagnosis of ADHD has changed as clinicians have recognized that many older adults, especially women and people of color, went undiagnosed early in life and could benefit from treatment. As the number of people diagnosed for the first time has increased among older people, the incidence has remained stable among children, at about 11 percent in the United States and 5 percent in the United Kingdom.

Dr. Stott expressed hope that as demographic changes intensify, health care systems will make greater efforts to identify the needs of neurodiverse patients. He added that in decades past, caregivers may have looked down on them, calling them “naughty kids at school.”

“If as a child they keep telling you ‘sit down, stop being rude’ – if you talk to people with ADHD, this is their experience – stop talking, go out and sit outside,” he said. “All of this reduces your chances in life in many ways.”