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Study focuses
on adults with ADHD
(June
2006 Issue)
By Pamela Berard
A recent study suggests an estimated 4.4 percent of adults ages
18 to 44 in the United States experience symptoms and some disability
from Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.
The National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R) was funded
by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and principal
investigator was Ronald C. Kessler, Ph.D., professor at the Department
of Health Care Policy of Harvard Medical School.
The survey found that adults with ADHD were more likely to be male,
previously married, unemployed and non-Hispanic white.
The incidence of ADHD among children has been estimated at various
percentages, from three to five percent up to eight percent and
is also more prevalent among boys. The 4.4 percent finding among
adults is "not terribly surprising," according to Kessler.
"There haven't been (many studies on adults) but it was pretty
much in the ballpark of what we suspected," he says. "Our suspicion
is that 4.4 percent is a conservative estimate."
By definition, someone diagnosed with ADHD had to have the symptoms
start before age eight. "So everybody (confirmed as suffering from
ADHD) in this study had it as a child.
"A lot of them didn't know they had it," he continues. "After we
talked to them, it was clear they had these symptoms. In many cases,
they were never diagnosed and had never been treated."
The study concluded that efforts are needed to increase the detection
and treatment of ADHD among adults. According to the study, research
is needed to determine whether treatment would reduce disorders
that co-occur with adult ADHD.
ADHD is highly comorbid, Kessler says. People with ADHD could also
have problems with alcohol or drugs, depression or anxiety. Some
of those who were identified as having ADHD in the study had not
been diagnosed or treated for ADHD, but had received treatment for
alcohol or drug dependency or depression and anxiety.
"One question would be, 'If one was successful in treating the
ADHD in childhood and preventing it from persisting into adulthood,
would we be able to prevent these things?' And the answer is, we
don't know," he says. "It's hard to know what causes what."
One area of interest to researchers is the workplace cost of ADHD
and depression. The costs are so great "that it's actually a smart
business move for employers to invest and expand in outreach detection
and treatment efforts." The indirect cost of these disorders is
considerably higher than the treatment, Kessler says.
An employer who has a worker with ADHD could find the employer
to be something close to $5,000 less productive annually, he says.
Investing, for example, "$800 in treatment and getting $5,000 in
productivity back is a pretty smart thing to do from an investment
standpoint," he says, noting that treatment could cut down on issues
such as accidents, lack of productivity or absences.
Kessler adds that he is currently involved in a workplace intervention
effort with Massachusetts General Hospital.
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