As a result, she says, many girls with undiagnosed ADHD are dismissed as lazy or spacey, when in fact they simply may not be getting the help they need. The disorder has been considered two to three times more common in boys than girls, but many believe the numbers are skewed. Girls seem to work the system a little better. Girls can be charming or coy or ditzy, and it can still be kind of cute. The cultural way of looking at females has a lot to do with that.
Symptoms can include hyperactivity, a lack of attention span, and impulsive behavior.
People with the disorder often are disorganized, cannot complete tasks, and have trouble following more than one instruction at a time. Symptoms can begin as early as age 3 and usually are noticeable by age 7. Research conducted at Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital suggests that ADHD in girls, like boys, tends to run in families, but because girls are not as likely to act out, their symptoms may go unnoticed. Girls more often have attention problems than the disruptive behavior that boys can exhibit, says Joseph Biederman, MD, who led the study published in the July 2000 issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry . Girls in general are one-third less likely than boys to exhibit conduct disorder, he says.