NEW YORK, Jan. 23 (Xinhua) -- A study of more than 30,000 British adults diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) found that, on average, they were dying earlier than their counterparts in the general population -- around seven years earlier for men, and around nine for women.
The study, which was published on Thursday in The British Journal of Psychiatry, is believed to be the first to use all-cause mortality data to estimate life expectancy in people with ADHD.
"Previous studies have pointed to an array of risks associated with the condition, among them poverty, mental health disorders, smoking and substance abuse," reported The New York Times on the development.
The authors cautioned that ADHD is substantially underdiagnosed and that the people in their study, most of them diagnosed as young adults, might be among the more severely affected.
Still, the researchers described their findings as "extremely concerning," highlighting unmet needs that "require urgent attention." ■