People with ADHD are likely to die much earlier than their peers, study finds

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

The study, published Thursday in the British Journal of Psychiatry, would be the first to use all-cause mortality data to estimate life expectancy for people with ADHD. Previous studies have highlighted a range of risks associated with this disease, including poverty, mental health disorders, smoking and substance abuse.

The authors cautioned that ADHD is significantly underdiagnosed and that the people in their study – mostly diagnosed as young adults – could be among the most severely affected. Nonetheless, they described their findings as “extremely concerning,” highlighting unmet needs that “require urgent attention.”

“This is a large and worrying number,” said Joshua Stott, professor of aging and clinical psychology at University College London and author of the study. “I think it’s probably more about health inequality than anything else. But this is a pretty big inequality in health.

The study did not identify causes of early death in people with ADHD, but found that they were twice as likely as the general population to smoke or abuse alcohol and had much higher rates of autism, self-harming behavior and personality disorders than the general population. population. As adults, Dr. Stott said, “they have more difficulty managing their impulses and engage in riskier behaviors.”

He said health systems may need to adapt to better serve people with ADHD, who may have sensory sensitivity or difficulty managing their time or communicating with clinicians during brief appointments. He said he hopes treatments for substance abuse or depression could be tailored to ADHD patients.