NASET News Alert

Study: ADHD Symptoms Fluctuate But Persist Into Adulthood

October 01, 2021

Most individuals with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD or ADD) experience fluctuating symptoms between childhood and adulthood, with 90% of adolescents continuing to experience residual symptoms into young adulthood. This finding, from a recent American Journal of Psychiatry study, challenges previous research that suggested around half of children with ADHD outgrow the disorder by adulthood. Researchers followed 558 children with ADHD from the Multimodal Treatment Study of ADHD (MTA) for 16 years, checking their symptoms every 2 years, from age 8 to 25. At each time point, researchers identified children with fully remitted, partially remitted, and persistent ADHD, with the help of parent-, teacher-, and self-reports of “symptoms and impairment, treatment utilization, and substance use and mental disorders.” Read More