ADHD in Adults — A Familiar Disease with Unfamiliar Challenges

Abstract

What exactly is known today about the impact of the adult form of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in society?:In a recent study to examine the societal impact of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), 500 patients diagnosed with ADHD and 501 participants with no substantial signs or symptoms of ADHD were studied. Subjects were asked several questions about their quality of life, employment, job satisfaction, and other aspects of their well-being and functionality. Income, which is an important marker for the degree of productivity for an individual in society, was also assessed. ADHD can profoundly affect the performance of individuals in the workplace (Slide 1), and this study found that having ADHD reduced an individual's income by an average of ∼$10,000 per year. If that loss of income is extrapolated to all adults in the United States who have ADHD, it suggests that the economy is losing around $70 billion a year to $115 billion a year in productivity, as measured by loss of income. The range was broad because different models with varying assumptions were applied to project income loss over time. Nevertheless, based on these numbers, it is reasonable to estimate that the population is losing ∼$100 billion annually in productivity due to ADHD.Income loss was found at all levels of education, but it was greatest among patients who had advanced degrees of education; so it seems that the disease may have a more pronounced impact on income among those in the higher income brackets.