ADHD In Women And Girls Is 'Underdiagnosed And Undertreated', Leading Expert Warns

The useful part

Recently, King's College London and Queen Mary University of London launched a project called the Measuring Adult ADHD and Menstruation (MAAM) study. This is the first of its kind to officially investigate "whether menstrual cycle hormonal changes make symptoms worse for women with ADHD". If you think it sounds a little late to address that often-reported connection, well, researchers agree with you.

How it works

• Her findings showed that girls with ADHD are more likely to go on to have adult multimorbidity, or having two or more long-term conditions.
• They say that ADHD among women is often "overlooked" in studies about the condition.
• The paper also noted that "the long-term consequences of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in females remain underrecognised" and that its co-occurrence with multiple other conditions is...
• Girls with ADHD who grew up in socioeconomic deprivation were likelier again to face multimorbidity.
• While more boys receive ADHD diagnoses than girls, by the time women reach adulthoo...

What to take from it

In May, Helen Minnis, professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of Glasgow, released a study which opened by saying, "It is now well recognised that attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in females has been historically underrecognised, underdiagnosed and undertreated".

Details worth keeping

Is there an ADHD diagnosis gap between men and women? The gender gap in ADHD diagnoses appears to wane with age.