As if having an attention deficit hyperactivity disease is not bad enough: new research this week suggests that people with ADHD live shorter lives than expected.
Scientists at University College London in the UK conducted the study that compared the health records of similar people with and without ADHD. They found that people who had ADHD tended to be sick and die earlier than their counterparts. The findings indicate that those with the condition often do not receive the support they need, the researchers say.
Adhd There is a complex disorder characterized by symptoms such as uneasiness, impulsivity and problems to remain focused, especially on daily tasks. The condition is caused by a mixture of genetic and environmental factors, such as exposure to lead or other toxins early in life. Adhd tends to first appear in childhood, but many people are only diagnosed as adults or never diagnosed. While the condition usually does not go away with age, the symptoms of man can change as they grow old.
It is known that people with ADHD are a higher risk of other health problems, such as not receiving pretty good sleep and substance use problems; They are also more likely to experience tight living events as long -term unemployment. Some studies have also suggested That ADHD sufferers are more likely to die early than the general public. However, the scientists behind the new research argue that not enough work was done to quantify the impact of ADHD on people’s lifetime.
That’s why the new study. The researchers analyzed data on primary care of about 30,000 adult residents of the UK diagnosed with ADHD. These people were compared to a larger group of residents without ADHD but who were similar by age, sex and the doctors they visited.
The researchers found that people with ADHD are more likely to have various other common physical and mental health conditions, including diabetes, high blood pressure, anxiety and depression. They also had higher death rates across different age classes, which was seen in both men and women. Overall, the researchers estimated that diagnosed ADHD was linked to a life expectancy of 6.78 years for men and 8.64 years for women.
“The evidence that people with diagnosed ADHD live shorter lives than they should be extremely critical, and highlights unsatisfactory support needs that require urgent attention,” the scientists wrote in their article, issued Thursday in The British Journal of Psychiatry.
The researchers realize that they could only study people with diagnosed ADHD, which is probably a sub -calculation. Only about 0.32% of people in their sample were diagnosed with ADHD, while other research suggests that about 3% of the population has the condition. People with diagnosed ADHD may be more likely to have other health problems than non -diagnosed cases, the researchers say. This gap could mean that they overestimate the tax that ADHD generally has on the lifetime of people. The researchers also lacked data on the specific causes of people’s death, so this study cannot exactly tell us. as Adhd raises the risk of people from early death.
All said, it is clear that people with ADHD face unique health and social challenges, and that they are not done enough to diagnose and help people with ADHD as soon as possible, the authors say.
“It is important for us to find out the reasons for premature deaths so that we can develop strategies to prevent these in the future,” said Principal Investigator Liz O’Nions statement from UCL.
