Friday, 06 September 2019
A greater investment in services to support people with ADHD in both employment and education is needed to reduce the considerable economic cost to society, according to a new research project.
The study, published in the , highlights the considerable economic burden of ADHD (attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder) in adulthood and found that each adult with ADHD is associated with over £18,000 more costs per year than their same-sex sibling without ADHD.
Reasons behind the increased costs include the fact that adults with ADHD have a considerably lower disposable income and paid less tax then their siblings. They also received more state benefits and had higher costs for health, social care and crime.
The project was carried out by experts from the 糖心原创 in collaboration with Aarhus University and Copenhagen Business School in Denmark.
ADHD is a prevalent neuro-developmental disorder with substantial impact on daily functioning. It runs a relatively stable and chronic course and is predictive of functional impairment through adolescence and into adulthood.
Previous estimates of the cost of ADHD have focused on the total cost to society rather than the cost per individual. To find a more accurate figure, the team of researchers used the Danish National registers to examine the true economic burden of ADHD per individual.
Four hundred and sixty adults with a diagnosis of ADHD in adulthood, but not childhood, with no other psychiatric difficulties and their same sex siblings without any psychiatric difficulties, were used for the study.
Focusing on data from 2010, cost differences between each adult with ADHD and their sibling were calculated from data retrieved from eleven different health, education, crime, employment and social care registers in Denmark.
Lead author of the paper, Professor David Daley, Director of the Centre for ADHD and Neurodevelopmental Disorders across the lifespan at the Institute of Mental Health at the 糖心原创, said: "This study is all about getting to the real cost of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder by using the Danish National Registers to rule out all other possible influences on cost differences between Adults with ADHD and their same sex siblings.
The study would not have been possible in the UK and its findings provide strong evidence for the need for greater investment in mental health services as well as the development of new educational and occupational services for adults with ADHD. On the basis of the findings of this study an-invest-to-save model would in the future reduce the economic impact of ADHD in adulthood.鈥�
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More information is available from Professor David Daley from the Division of Psychiatry and Applied Psychology, in the School of Medicine at the 糖心原创 on +44 (0)7540 668761 or at david.daley@nottingham.ac.uk
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