Diagnoses of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in adults increased almost 20-fold among men in the UK between 2000 and 2018, possibly due to increased awareness of the condition.
doug mckechnie at University College London and colleagues analyzed anonymous records from National Health Service doctors collected from across the UK over those 18 years.
They found that ADHD diagnoses in adult men increased nearly 20-fold, compared with a 15-fold increase among women. ADHD is more common in men and boys. than women and girls of all ages.
“Much of this is due to the growing awareness among patients and physicians that their symptoms are more likely to be detected and attributed to ADHD,” says Mckechnie. Common symptoms include difficulty concentrating, hyperactivity, and impulsivity.
The increase in cases could also be due to a better understanding of how ADHD continues beyond childhood, he says. “It used to be thought that most people stopped having ADHD once they reached adulthood, but that’s not the case anymore,” says Mckechnie.
Among boys, diagnoses also increased over that 18-year period in all age groups except 3- to 5-year-olds, where rates roughly halved for boys and decreased by a third for girls. .
Why did diagnosis rates drop among these young people? children is not clear. ADHD medications aren’t recommended for children younger than 6, so doctors may be less inclined to diagnose people in this age group, Mckechnie says. “It’s also possible that the waiting list is getting so long that children under 6 years of age will have passed the age of 6 when they are seen and diagnosed.”
The researchers also found that the number of ADHD diagnoses among adults and children was almost double in the most deprived areas of the UK compared to the least deprived. It’s not clear why this is the case, but a variety of genetic and environmental factors could play a role, Mckechnie says. People who are genetically predisposed to ADHD may find that it affects their education and careers, which could result in them living in more deprived areas, she says.
Although the findings only go back to 2018, Mckechnie says ADHD diagnosis rates are likely even higher now. “In my clinical experience as a general practitioner [general practitioner]requests for ADHD assessments from patients have become much more common since 2020,” he says.
