As if having a hyperactivity attention deficit disorder is not bad enough: a new research this week suggests that people with ADHD live shorter lives than expected.
The scientists of the University College London in the United Kingdom conducted the study, which compared the health records of similar people with and without ADHD. They discovered that people who had ADHD tended to be more sick and die before their counterparts. The findings indicate that those with the condition often do not receive the support they need, the researchers say.
ADHD It is a complex disorder characterized by symptoms such as restlessness, impulsivity and having trouble staying focused, especially in everyday tasks. The condition is caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors, such as exposure to lead or other toxins at the beginning of life. ADHD tends to appear for the first time in childhood, but many people are only diagnosed as adults or never diagnosed at all. While the condition generally does not disappear with age, the symptoms of a person can change as they age.
It is known that people with ADHD are a greater risk of other health problems, such as obtaining Enough asleep and use of substances issues; It is also more likely to experience stressful life events such as prolonged unemployment. Some studies have also suggested that patients with ADHD are more likely to die early than the general public. However, scientists behind new research argue that not enough previous work has been done to quantify the impact of ADHD on people’s life expectancy.
Hence the new study. The researchers analyzed the primary care data of around 30,000 adult residents of the United Kingdom diagnosed with ADHD. These people were compared to a larger group of residents without ADHD but were similar in age, sex and the doctors who visited.
The researchers found that people with ADHD were more likely to have a variety of other common physical and mental health conditions, including diabetes, high blood pressure, anxiety and depression. They also had higher mortality rates in different age groups, which was observed both in men and women. In general, researchers estimated that diagnosed ADHD was linked to a reduction in 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 are extremely worrying, and highlights the unsatimulated support needs that require urgent attention,” scientists wrote in their article, published Thursday The British Journal of Psychiatry.
The researchers point out that only people with diagnosed ADHD could study, which is probably a lower content. Only about 0.32% of people in their sample were diagnosed with ADHD, while other investigations suggest that approximately 3% of the population has the condition. People with diagnosed ADHD may be more likely to have other health problems than not diagnosed cases, researchers say. This gap could mean that they are overestimating the toll that ADHD in general is having in people’s life expectancy. The researchers also lacked data on the specific causes of people’s death, so this study cannot tell us exactly as ADHD is increasing the risk of people’s death.
Said this, it is clear that people with ADHD face unique social and health challenges, and that it is not enough to diagnose and help people with ADHD as soon as possible, the authors say.
“It is crucial that we discover the reasons behind premature deaths so that we can develop strategies to prevent them in the future,” said principal researcher Liz O’Nions in a statement of UCL.