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LONG-TERM STUDY FINDS CHILDHOOD ADHD IS A MAJOR RISK FOR YOUNG ADULT ANTISOCIAL, ADDICTIVE, MOOD AND ANXIETY DISORDERS
A new study reinforces earlier findings that attention
deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), once considered a
childhood disorder, has damaging effects that last well into
early adulthood.
Joseph Biederman and colleagues conducted a 10-year
prospective study of more than 100 boys with ADHD,
comparing them to controls without the disorder. The
researchers identified both ADHD and non-ADHD children
from two sources, an academic medical center and a health
maintenance organization. When the study began, the
children were between the ages of 6 and 18, and each
underwent a three-stage diagnostic process to ensure the
validity of their ADHD or non-ADHD categorization. The
follow-up assessment involved interviews with both the
study subjects and their mothers.
Biederman and colleagues report, "This 10-year follow-up
found that, by a mean age of 21, ADHD youth were at high
risk for markedly elevated lifetime prevalences of antisocial,
addictive, mood and anxiety disorders....
These longitudinal
results into young adult years confirm and extend our
previous follow-up findings by mid-adolescence
documenting a wide range of psychopathology among
ADHD children grown up."
ADHD subjects had higher levels of psychopathology
despite the fact that 93% had received treatment for the
disorder at some point during their lives. Of those, 86% had
received both medication and counseling, while 6% received
medication alone and 1% received counseling alone.
The study supports earlier research by Salvatore
Mannuzza and Rachel Klein, whose investigation of the
outcomes of adults diagnosed in childhood as hyperactive
found that, compared to controls, the ADHD subjects
"complete less schooling, hold lower-ranking occupations,
and continue to suffer from poor self-esteem and social
skills deficits." Mannuzza and Klein also found that
significantly more ADHD subjects than controls exhibited
antisocial behaviors. Similarly, a 1997 study by Eric Taylor
and colleagues
(see related article, Crime Times, 1997, Vol. 3, No. 3, Page 1)
found that childhood hyperactivity, even when
not combined with conduct problems, strongly predicted
later violence, social problems, academic
underachievement, and defiant and disruptive
behaviors.
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"Young adult outcome of attention deficit hyperactivity
disorder: a controlled 10-year follow-up study," Joseph
Biederman, Michael Monuteaux, Eric Mick, Thomas
Spencer, Timothy Wilens, Julie Silva, Lindsey Snyder, and
Stephen Faraone, Psychological Medicine, Vol. 36,
2006, 167-79. Address: Joseph Biederman, Massachusetts
General Hospital, Yawkey Center for Outpatient Care, YAW-
6A-6900, 32 Fruit Street, Boston, MA 02114.
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