The following broad trends emerged : ( 1 ) without treatment , people with ADHD had poorer long-term outcomes in all categories compared with people without ADHD , and ( 2 ) treatment for ADHD improved long-term outcomes compared with untreated ADHD , although not usually to normal levels .
Conclusions This systematic review provides a synthesis of studies of ADHD long-term outcomes .
Current treatments may reduce the negative impact that untreated ADHD has on life functioning , but does not usually ' normalize ' the recipients
Background In childhood , attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder ( ADHD ) is characterized by age-inappropriate levels of inattentiveness/disorganization , hyperactivity/impulsiveness , or a combination thereof .
Although the criteria for ADHD are well defined , the long-term consequences in adults and children need to be more comprehensively understood and quantified .
We conducted a systematic review evaluating the long-term outcomes ( defined as 2 years or more ) of ADHD with the goal of identifying long-term outcomes and the impact that any treatment ( pharmacological , non-pharmacological , or multimodal ) has on ADHD long-term outcomes .
Predictors of persistent ADHD: an 11-year follow-up study.
OBJECTIVE Despite the existence of several follow-up studies of children with ADHD followed up into adulthood , there is limited information on whether patterns of persistence and remission in ADHD can be predicted over the long term . The main aim of this study was to evaluate predictors of persistence of ADHD in a large sample of boys with and without ADHD followed prospect ively for 11 years into young adulthood . METHOD Subjects were Caucasian , non-Hispanic boys with ( N = 110 ) and without ( N = 105 ) ADHD who were 6 - 17 years old at the baseline assessment ( mean age 11 years ) and 15 to 31 years old at the follow-up assessment ( mean age 22 years ) . Subjects were comprehensively and blindly assessed with structured diagnostic interviews and assessment s of cognitive , social , school , and family functioning . RESULTS At the 11-year follow-up , 78 % of children with ADHD continued to have a full ( 35 % ) or a partial persistence ( subsyndromal ( 22 % ) , impaired functioning ( 15 % ) , or remitted but treated ( 6 % ) ) . Predictors of persistence were severe impairment of ADHD , psychiatric comorbidity , and exposure to maternal psychopathology at baseline . CONCLUSIONS These findings prospect ively confirm that persistence of ADHD over the long term is predictable from psychosocial adversity and psychiatric comorbidity ascertained 11 years earlier
The following broad trends emerged : ( 1 ) without treatment , people with ADHD had poorer long-term outcomes in all categories compared with people without ADHD , and ( 2 ) treatment for ADHD improved long-term outcomes compared with untreated ADHD , although not usually to normal levels .
Conclusions This systematic review provides a synthesis of studies of ADHD long-term outcomes .
Current treatments may reduce the negative impact that untreated ADHD has on life functioning , but does not usually ' normalize ' the recipients
Background In childhood , attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder ( ADHD ) is characterized by age-inappropriate levels of inattentiveness/disorganization , hyperactivity/impulsiveness , or a combination thereof .
Although the criteria for ADHD are well defined , the long-term consequences in adults and children need to be more comprehensively understood and quantified .
We conducted a systematic review evaluating the long-term outcomes ( defined as 2 years or more ) of ADHD with the goal of identifying long-term outcomes and the impact that any treatment ( pharmacological , non-pharmacological , or multimodal ) has on ADHD long-term outcomes .