February 7, 2025
A research team based in London (U.K.) has just released the first meta-analysis to explore whether young people with ADHD experience greater loneliness compared to young people without ADHD.
There has been a lot of research into social-emotional functioning in ADHD focusing on social networks and peer functioning problems, with little inquiry into young people’s experience of and satisfaction with their relationships.
The team noted, “This is an important distinction as loneliness, or perceived social isolation, is the subjective feeling of distress due to a perceived deficit in the quantity and quality of one’s social relationships. An individual may be objectively socially isolated but may not have a negative perception of their relationships and equally, someone may find their social relationships lacking despite having a large social network … As loneliness and social isolation (e.g., number of friends or size of social network) have been found to be weakly correlated, it is important to capture the loneliness experience of the young person rather than relying on just the objective measures of social isolation.”
Loneliness is a public health concern, as it predicts increases in depression, anxiety, self-harm, and suicidal ideation.
The team performed a systematic search of the peer-reviewed medical literature to identify quantitative studies that compared loneliness among young people under 25 diagnosed with ADHD with non-ADHD matched controls. The search excluded studies in which participants had intellectual disabilities and/or other neurodevelopmental conditions such as autism spectrum disorder.
Meta-analysis of 15 studies with a combined 6,281 participants found that young people with ADHD experienced greater loneliness than their non-ADHD peers with a small-to-medium effect size. There was no sign of publication bias, but very high variation (heterogeneity) in outcomes across the studies.
Removing one small outlier study, the remaining 14 studies with 6,099 participants brought heterogeneity down to moderate levels, and yielded a medium effect size increase in perceived loneliness among young people with ADHD.
Conclusion:
“The findings in this study highlight the importance of understanding loneliness in this population as young people with ADHD report significantly higher levels of loneliness compared to their non-ADHD peers, and loneliness in young people with ADHD is associated with a range of mental health difficulties,” the researchers stated. “More resources should be focused on loneliness as a separate construct from social isolation and peer difficulties.”
Angelina Jong, Clarissa Mary Odoi, Jennifer Lau, and Matthew J.Hollocks, “Loneliness in Young People with ADHD: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis,” Journal of Attention Disorders (2024), 1-19, https://doi.org/10.1177/10870547241229096.
Given the persistence of ADHD and its adverse effects on children and adolescents, one might expect caregivers to face greater parenting challenges, with potential effects on their own mental health.
To what extent do parenting stress, depression, and – at the extreme – even suicidal ideation manifest themselves among caregivers of ADHD patients as opposed to caregivers of children and adolescents without ADHD?
A pair of Korean researchers made use of their country’s single-payer health insurance system, which maintains records on virtually the entire population, to perform a nationwide population study. They used data from the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (KNHANES) covering the decade from 2011 to 2020. KNHANES is an annual survey using a sophisticated sampling design conducted by the Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare to represent the entire population of South Korea.
The analysis included 14,428 individuals who had children younger than 19 at the time of participation. All were asked whether their child had ever been diagnosed with ADHD by a physician. The mental health problems of the parents were assessed in terms of perceived stress, depressive symptoms, and suicidality.
Of the 14,428 participants, 8,298 (57.5 %) were mothers and 6,130 (42.5 %) were fathers. Of the mothers, 116 (1.4 %) had a child with ADHD, and of the fathers, 86 (1.4 %) had a child with ADHD.
The researchers adjusted for the following confounders: age of caregiver, education level, household income, area of residence, employment status, alcohol consumption, smoking status, cohabitation status, number of children, and child’s age.
After adjustment, mothers of ADHD patients fared significantly worse than mothers of typically developing children on all three categories of mental health problems. They were 67% more likely to report higher stress, three times as likely to report symptoms of depression, and 2.5 times more likely to report suicidal ideation.
Yet that pattern did not carry over to fathers, where there was no significant difference in mental health indicators between fathers of children with ADHD and fathers of children without ADHD.
The authors concluded, “Parents of children with ADHD, especially mothers, need community support and public health attention to help alleviate their mental health problems.”
Background:
ADHD is commonly accompanied by psychiatric comorbidities that complicate its diagnosis and treatment. Roughly two out of three affected children and adolescents have one or more comorbid psychiatric disorder.
Because the peak age of ADHD onset is typically a decade or more earlier than those for schizophrenia, depressive disorder, or bipolar disorder, it is essential to explore these comorbidities over an extended period. Populations studies help researchers identify broader patterns and trends within an entire population and includes adults as well as children. This type of study provides unique insights into the population at large, rather than a sample group.
In earlier studies the maximum follow-up period was twelve years, insufficient in view of the roughly ten years between onset of ADHD and onset of major psychiatric disorders. Also, previous nationwide population studies have included less than 150,000 participants.
This study, relying on data from South Korea’s universal single-payer health insurance system, included over one and a half million individuals. Persons previously diagnosed with depression, bipolar disorder, tic disorder, or schizophrenia were excluded.
382,434 individuals had been diagnosed with ADHD, while 1,169,279 were without an ADHD diagnosis.
Propensity score matching ensured that potential confounders, both sociodemographic and clinical, were equalized for the ADHD and control groups. After matching, there were 353,898 individuals in each group.
After these adjustments, individuals in the ADHD group were at least an order of magnitude more likely to subsequently be diagnosed with psychiatric disorders than their peers without an ADHD diagnosis:
Conclusion:
The Korean study team concluded, “Overall, our findings suggest that upon prolonged examination, the risk of subsequent diagnoses of other psychiatric disorders in individuals with ADHD appears to be higher than that reported previously. … Therefore, patients with ADHD should be carefully screened for the presence of other psychiatric symptoms on a regular basis from an earlier age … It is advisable to have a follow-up period extending beyond 10 years to sufficiently identify the occurrence of comorbid disorders in patients with ADHD.”
Children with ADHD often face challenges in social interactions, leading to long-term consequences if not properly addressed. While various interventions exist, many fail to consider the broader social context in which these children interact. A recent study conducted in Bergen, Norway, explored how primary school teachers perceive their role in supporting children with ADHD who struggle socially and the strategies they use to assist them.
Researchers conducted semi-structured interviews with five focus groups of primary school teachers. Using reflexive thematic analysis, they identified two major themes:
Rather than relying on standardized interventions, teachers tailored their strategies to foster an inclusive and supportive social environment. Their methods included both active participation in social situations and behind-the-scenes efforts to encourage peer inclusion and understanding.
This study underscores the need to move beyond labels and recognize children with ADHD as individuals with distinct social needs. Teachers play a crucial role in shaping these children’s experiences, using flexible and personalized approaches to promote positive social interactions. By integrating social context and individualized support, educators can help children with ADHD build meaningful connections and navigate their social world more effectively.
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