How ADHD Could KILL YOU! Study finds people with common illness could die 11 years earlier

Adults with ADHD could die up to 11 years earlier.

This condition, which often leads people to behave impulsively, can cause some to smoke, overeat and drink too much.

These behaviors may help explain a study of 30,000 people with ADHD, which found that women diagnosed with the condition had a reduced life expectancy of about 6.5 to 11 years.

Men with ADHD have a shorter life expectancy of about 4.5 to nine years, researchers found.

An estimated three per cent of the population suffer from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), including chef Jamie Oliver, I’m A Celebrity presenter Ant McPartlin and singer Lily Allen.

This condition, which affects time management skills, can also make it more difficult for people to show up for their doctor’s appointments on time, meaning they do not receive medical care when they do. need.

Professor Josh Stott, of University College London, lead author of the study and a clinical psychologist who treats some people with ADHD, said: “A tendency to be more impulsive means that people with ADHD may be more susceptible overeating, smoking or drinking. more alcohol than they should.

“Risk behaviors can lead to lower life expectancy.

“We are also concerned that health care is not always friendly to people with ADHD, who may struggle to focus on their health symptoms during a 10-minute doctor’s appointment and thus miss out on health diagnoses and treatments.”

“However, we did not examine the reasons why people in our study died, so more research is needed on these factors.”

The study, published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, compared people diagnosed with ADHD during almost 800 GP surgeries with more than 300,000 people of the same age without the condition.

The researchers tracked the deaths of each group of people using their medical records.

Men with ADHD could expect to live on average to the age of about 73 years and three months, while men without the disorder reached the age of 80.

Women with ADHD reached an average age of just over 75, compared to almost 84 for women without the disorder.

The study indicates that ADHD could reduce life expectancy by up to nine years for men and up to almost 11 years for women, because it is difficult to be precise.

Most people are diagnosed with ADHD when they are young, and many people have not received a diagnosis, making research more difficult.

However, researchers have found that men and women with ADHD are twice as likely to smoke as people without the disorder.

Men with ADHD are more than twice as likely to drink a potentially harmful amount of alcohol, with women with ADHD 76% more likely to do so.

People with ADHD are much more likely to be suicidal or suffer from serious mental illnesses, which experts say is partly due to their difficulty planning and concentrating on mundane tasks.

They say this makes it harder to maintain a job and can lead to financial problems and even homelessness.

Meanwhile, unhealthy lifestyles linked to ADHD-related impulsive behaviors, such as overeating, smoking and drinking too much, could explain the study finding a higher risk of diabetes, high blood pressure, chronic respiratory disease and heart disease ischemic in people with ADHD.

The hyperactivity experienced by people with this condition could affect sleep, and lack of sleep is linked to a higher risk of dying prematurely.

Finally, risky behaviors seen in ADHD may increase the risk of accidents such as car accidents.

Professor Stott said: “It is deeply concerning that some adults with ADHD are living shorter lives than they should.

“People with ADHD have many strengths and can thrive with the right treatment, such as timely access to smoking cessation services and mental health support. »

ADHD begins in childhood but continues to affect around 90% of adults, according to evidence.

However, the study did not include the hundreds of thousands of people in the UK who are believed to have ADHD and have not been diagnosed.

Simply including people diagnosed with ADHD can skew the results, because people tend to be diagnosed because they see doctors for other illnesses — and those illnesses tend to shorten their lives.

Commenting on the study, Philip Asherson, professor of molecular psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London, said: “The precise causes of premature death are not yet confirmed, but we know that ADHD is associated with higher rates. smoking, obesity, cardiovascular disease and cancer, among other health problems.

“Adults with ADHD are more likely to engage in unhealthy habits such as binge eating or smoking and risky behaviors.”

“There may also be biological links to autoimmune disorders and other physical health disorders.”

“ADHD is increasingly recognized as a serious illness in adults associated with poor health outcomes. »