Long-term study reveals how childhood ADHD impacts adult mental health, cognition, and daily life - PsyPost

What the report says

PsyPost reported that an 18-year follow-up study in Psychiatry Research links childhood attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder with higher risks of adult difficulties in mental health, education, cognition and daily functioning. The study followed adults in the Netherlands who had been diagnosed with ADHD as children, comparing them with their siblings who did not have childhood ADHD and with unrelated controls. Lead author Noa van der Plas of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam told PsyPost the project aimed to examine how children with ADHD were functioning after reaching adulthood.

The sample included 154 adults with childhood ADHD, 138 non-ADHD siblings and 129 controls, with participants averaging around 28 to 30 years old at follow-up. Researchers used online self-reports, clinical interviews by secure video call and observer questionnaires from people close to participants. They assessed areas including psychiatric diagnoses, emotional and behavioral problems, academic and work history, adaptive functioning, cognition, physical health and health care use.

According to PsyPost, adults with childhood ADHD had poorer outcomes than controls on more than 60% of measured indicators. At follow-up, 45% still met criteria for adult ADHD, and major depressive disorder was more common in the childhood ADHD group than in controls or siblings. The group also showed lower educational attainment, weaker working memory and verbal fluency scores, more perceived stress, poorer sleep quality, higher average body mass index and greater use of ADHD medication.

A key finding was that siblings generally resembled controls in adulthood, suggesting many long-term difficulties were more closely tied to ADHD than to shared family background. PsyPost also noted the researchers’ caution that outcomes varied: many adults with childhood ADHD functioned similarly to controls, while impairment was most evident among those whose ADHD persisted.