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Abstract
Objectives Adults with attention-deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD) report high rates of comorbid disorders, educational and occupational failure, and family instability. The aim of this study was to examine the prevalence of comorbid psychiatric disorders in a clinical population of adults with ADHD and to examine associations between educational level, work participation, social characteristics and the rates of psychiatric comorbidity.
Methods Out of 796 patients diagnosed with ADHD in a specialised outpatient clinic in Oslo, Norway, 548 (68%) agreed to participate in this cross-sectional study: 277 women and 271 men. ADHD was diagnosed according to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition criteria. Comorbid disorders were diagnosed using the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview.
Results In this clinical sample, 53.5% had at least one current comorbid psychiatric disorder. The most prevalent disorders were major depression, substance use disorders and social phobia. Women had more eating disorders than men, whereas men had more alcohol and substance use disorders. Education above high school level (>12 years) and work participation were associated with lower rates of comorbid disorders (adjusted ORs 0.52 and 0.63, respectively). Gender, age, marital status, living with children or living in a city were not associated with comorbidity.
Conclusions Adult ADHD is associated with high rates of comorbid psychiatric disorders, irrespective of gender and age. It appears that higher education and work participation are related to lower probability of comorbidity.
- ADHD
- comorbidity
- social characteristics
- work
- education
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Footnotes
EA, BB and TH contributed equally.
Contributors EA and TH designed the study. EA collected and analysed the data. All authors participated actively in the writing of the manuscript and approved the final draft.
Funding This work was supported by the Norwegian Medical Association.
Competing interests None declared.
Patient consent Obtained.
Ethics approval The Regional Medical Ethics Committee, Southeast Norway, approved this study.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
Data sharing statement Data are from a private psychiatric outward in Oslo. Public availability would compromise privacy of the respondents. According to the approval from the Norwegian Regional Committees for Medical and Health Research Ethics, the data are to be stored properly and in line with the Norwegian Law of privacy protection. However, anonymised data are freely available to interested researchers on request, pending ethical approval from our Ethics committee. Interested researchers can contact project leader Espen Anker (espen.anker@online.no) with requests for the data underlying our findings.