A 33-year prospective study of male children diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) at age 8 has identified long-term repercussions of the diagnosis. Researchers at New York University Langone Medical Center found that children diagnosed with ADHD have worse educational, occupational, economic, social, and marital outcomes than their peers. Also found were higher rates of ongoing ADHD, antisocial personality disorder, substance use disorders, adult-onset psychiatric disorders, psychiatric hospitalizations, and incarcerations.“The multiple disadvantages predicted by childhood ADHD well into adulthood began in adolescence, without increased onsets of new disorders after 20 years of age,” they wrote online in the October Archives of General Psychiatry. “Findings highlight the importance of extended monitoring and treatment of children with ADHD.”
For more information about the disorder, see ADHD Comorbidities: Handbook for ADHD Complications in Children and Adults, available from American Psychiatric Publishing here. To read about the economic consequences of adult ADHD, see Psychiatric News here.
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