Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity, is usually diagnosed during the early school years. (In order to be diagnosed with ADHD, symptoms must have begun before the age of 12.) But ADHD doesn’t always go away when you open your first 401(k). For many people, symptoms continue throughout life.
Though researchers have long known that ADHD is a lifespan disorder, for many years, it was thought that about half of those diagnosed with ADHD grow out of it by the end of childhood. But finer-grained research has shown that about 90 percent of people with ADHD still have the condition as adults, explains Margaret Sibley, professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health at the University of Washington in Seattle.
The reason the extent of ADHD in adults was missed for so long is that the symptoms, like those of allergies, asthma, or autoimmune diseases, can wax and wane, being more prominent at some periods of life than in others. Research that looked only at a given slice of time missed a lot of cases.
“This is important for people to know,” says Sibley, “to dispel the myth that ADHD is something that you can get rid of, and it’s gone for good.”
