Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in children likely to develop other psychiatric disorders as adults

Updated on: Tuesday, March 05, 2013

Children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are more likely to develop other psychiatric disorders as adults, a new study has claimed.

They also appear more likely to commit suicide and are often incarcerated as adults, although the numbers were small, said researchers.

The first large, population based study from Boston Children's Hospital and Mayo Clinic followed children with ADHD into adulthood and found that it often doesn't "go away", and that children with ADHD are more likely to have other psychiatric disorders as adults.

"Only 37.5 per cent of the children we contacted as adults were free of these really worrisome outcomes," said William Barbaresi, of Boston Children's Hospital, lead investigator on the study.

ADHD is the most common neuro developmental disorder of childhood, affecting about 7 per cent of all children and three times as many boys as girls.

The long running study followed all children in Rochester, Minnesota who were born from 1976 through 1982.

That amounted to 5,718 children, including 367 who were diagnosed with ADHD; of this group; 232 participated in the follow up study. About three quarters had received ADHD treatment as children.

The researchers found 29 per cent of the children with ADHD still had ADHD as adults and 57 per cent of children with ADHD had at least one other psychiatric disorder as adults, as compared with 35 per cent of controls.

The most common were substance abuse/dependence, antisocial personality disorder, hypomanic episodes, generalised anxiety and major depression.

Of the children who still had ADHD as adults, 81 per cent had at least one other psychiatric disorder, as compared with 47 per cent of those who no longer had ADHD and 35 per cent of controls.

Seven of the 367 children with ADHD (1.9 per cent) had died at the time of study recruitment, 3 of them from suicide. Of the 4,946 children without ADHD whose outcomes could be ascertained, only 37 children had died, 5 by suicide.

Ten children with ADHD (2.7 per cent) were incarcerated at the time of recruitment for the study.

"We suffer from the misconception that ADHD is just an annoying childhood disorder that's overtreated," said Barbaresi.

"This couldn't be further from the truth. We need to have a chronic disease approach to ADHD as we do for diabetes. The system of care has to be designed for the long haul," Barbaresi said.

The study was published in the journal Pediatrics

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in children likely to develop other psychiatric disorders as adults

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