ADHD Reduces Life Expectancy by 7 to 9 Years: New Study (original) (raw)

January 24, 2025

Life expectancy for people with ADHD is 7.5 years shorter than it is for those without the condition, according to a new U.K. study published in The British Journal of Psychiatry1.

This study is the first of its kind to examine the life expectancy of adults with ADHD using mortality data from a large population. It examined the health records of more than 9.5 million people from the IQVIA Medical Research Database and used the life-table method to compare the mortality rates of 30,039 people diagnosed with ADHD to 300,390 people without ADHD.

“Adults with diagnosed ADHD are living shorter lives than they should,” the researchers wrote. “We believe that is likely caused by modifiable risk factors and unmet support and treatment needs in terms of both ADHD and co-occurring mental and physical health conditions.”

Study participants with ADHD were more likely than members of the general population to have co-occurring conditions like autism spectrum disorder, anxiety, depression, and personality disorder — a finding that supports existing research on ADHD’s high comorbidity rate. The U.K. study did not examine the causes of death associated with ADHD or the level of treatment that patients received for ADHD or comorbid conditions.

Gender Disparities in Life Expectancy

Women with ADHD die 8.6 years younger than women without ADHD, while the life expectancy of men with ADHD is 6.8 years shorter than that of their peers, the study found.

“[This] is sort of the inverse of what we would’ve expected given that males engage in more risk-taking, especially males with ADHD, than females, and we know that accidental injuries are one of the biggest causes of early mortality in individuals with ADHD,” said Russell Barkley, Ph.D., a clinical scientist, educator, and practitioner who has published research on ADHD’s impact on life expectancy, in a video on his YouTube channel.

Research shows that women with ADHD experience more psychological distress, anxiety, depression, insomnia, and eating disorders than their male counterparts. They are also more likely than men with ADHD to suffer with low self-esteem, self-harming behaviors, poor social relationships, and emotional dysregulation.

Barkley suggested that the elevated risk for postpartum depression and intimate partner violence among women with ADHD may contribute to the gender disparity seen in mortality rates. Research findings presented by J.J. Sandra Kooij, Ph.D., at last week’s annual meeting of the American Professional Society of ADHD and Related Disorders (APSARD) suggest that elevated rates of heart disease among women with ADHD may also be a factor.

Research cited by Kooij2 found that 35% of women at a Dutch cardiovascular clinic had ADHD symptoms throughout their lifetime. Studies on ADHD, heart health, and gender are scarce, and Kooij argued that the high comorbidity of cardiovascular disease with ADHD requires attention.

“Untreated ADHD means stress for several reasons,” Kooij said in the presentation. “Stress of having ADHD and being forgetful, stress of having anxiety and depression, stress of maybe inflammation and immune disorders that are accompanying ADHD.”

Why Does ADHD Reduce Life Expectancy?

A 2019 study published in the Journal of Attention Disorders3 examined factors impacting the life expectancy of people with ADHD. This longitudinal study predicted participants’ life expectancy when they reached 27 years using preexisting data on different behaviors and their relation to life expectancy.

“We found that, overall, people who had ADHD in childhood and were followed up to adulthood had reduced life expectancy of about 8.5 years,” said Barkley, a lead researcher in the 2019 study. “Very similar to what the study in the U.K. found.”

According to Barkley’s study, “behavioral disinhibition,” or impulsivity, was at the root of many variables found to reduce life expectancy among adults with ADHD, including:

“What’s important here is you’ve got to treat the behavioral inhibition problems before you tackle these other first-order risk factors,” Barkley said. “ADHD treatments, particularly with medications, could be used to reduce this background risk factor, and then we can get on with helping people change these lifestyle and other factors.”

Existing research has also documented the positive impact of ADHD treatment on life expectancy. One Swedish study4 found that taking medication for ADHD can lower the risk of mortality by 19%.

“Life expectancy is malleable,” Barkley said. “These factors, virtually all of them, can be changed. Change the factor, change the life expectancy.”

View Article Sources

1 O’Nions, E., El Baou, C., John, A., Lewer, D., Mandy, W., McKechnie, D. G. J., … Stott, J. (2025). Life expectancy and years of life lost for adults with diagnosed ADHD in the UK: matched cohort study. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.2024.199

2 Ter Beek LS, Böhmer MN, Wittekoek ME, Kooij JJS. Lifetime ADHD symptoms highly prevalent in women with cardiovascular complaints. A cross-sectional study. Arch Womens Ment Health. 2023 Dec;26(6):851-855. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00737-023-01356-7

3 Barkley, R. A., & Fischer, M. (2019). Hyperactive Child Syndrome and Estimated Life Expectancy at Young Adult Follow-Up: The Role of ADHD Persistence and Other Potential Predictors. Journal of Attention Disorders, 23(9), 907-923. https://doi.org/10.1177/1087054718816164

4 Li L, Zhu N, Zhang L, et al. (2024). ADHD Pharmacotherapy and Mortality in Individuals With ADHD. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2024.0851