Hallelujah! A major study is finally complete on ADHD in GIRLS!
A major long-term study of girls diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in elementary school has found they are at greater risk for substance abuse, emotional problems and academic difficulties in adolescence than their peers who don’t have the common neurobehavioral condition. The results, experts say, should help dispel the myth that the disorder, which affects an estimated 4.4 million American children, poses less of a risk to girls than to boys, on whom most research has focused.
[my emphasis added]
Psychologist William Pelham comments:
Girls, Pelham said, have been under-diagnosed and overlooked in large part because their behavior tends to be less disruptive — although their problems may be just as severe.
Indeed. As hyperactive as I was as a child, it was limited to my mouth — I’d yak and yak, and every report card would come home with horrid citizenship grades because I could not keep my mouth shut. (Some would say that is true today, but that’s just because they didn’t know me then).
Here’s the real punch line:
“The cumulative picture is that girls with ADHD are at risk for a lot of problems,” said Hinshaw, chairman of the psychology department at Berkeley and a prominent ADHD researcher.
Sari Solden is a great resource for learning about ADHD in women. Every one of her books is worth reading, particularly Women with Attention Deficit Disorder.
Another excellent book is “Understanding Girls with ADHD” by Kathleen G. Nadeau.
Technorati Tags: AD/HD, ADD, attention deficit, depression
