Study: ADHD often persists into adulthood

Children with ADHD often grow up to be adults with ADHD, a new study suggests.

Of the 232 young adults in the study who had childhood attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, 29 percent still had it at an average age of 27. And 57 percent had at least one other mental health issue, such as depression or chronic anxiety.

"This shows us is a serious, chronic condition that's not being adequately addressed," said lead researcher Dr. William Barbaresi, who directs the Developmental Medicine Center at Boston Children's Hospital. The findings were published online Monday and in the April issue of the journal Pediatrics.

Past studies have made a wide range of estimates, partly because they often focused on specific groups of kids, like boys referred to specialty treatment programs. The new study included 600 young adults from Rochester, Minn., about 40 percent of whom had ADHD as children. They were evaluated for adult ADHD symptoms and other psychiatric disorders.

Of the study participants with adult ADHD, 81 percent had at least one additional mental health condition, compared with 47 percent of those whose ADHD symptoms had faded and 35 percent of those who had never had ADHD.

-- HealthDay