Why Teens with ADHD Are At Higher Risk of Anxiety and Depression

It’s already known that adolescents who have been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD — affecting about 11.4% of U.S. children 3-14 — are at a higher risk of anxiety and depression.

Now a landmark new study has shed some light on why.

To find out, researchers from the University of Edinburgh examined survey data from over 5,000 adolescents aged 11 to 17 from the UK Millennium Cohort Study, which follows young people born between 2000 and 2002 across the UK (where about 5% of kids and young people have ADHD).

They tested 14 possible factors linking ADHD and mental health issues, including relationships with family and friends, behavior issues, low self-esteem, behavior at school, general health, and mental health of their parents.

What they found, in results published Thursday in the Journal of Attention Disorders, is that having ADHD puts young people at risk of low self-esteem and having a parent with poor mental health.

“ADHD can have a profound impact on a young person’s life, yet relatively little is known about the mental health challenges they might face as they grow up,” said Dr. Angela Hind, Chief Executive of the Medical Research Foundation, which advances UK medical research, in a press release. “This important research sheds new light on why teenagers with ADHD are at greater risk of anxiety and depression than those without, highlighting self-esteem and a parent’s mental health as two of the most crucial factors that shape their well-being.”

Researchers analyzed surveys of parents and young people about ADHD symptoms and emotional problems such as low mood and anxiety symptoms at ages 11, 14, and 17, learning that self-esteem and parental mental health had a small but statistically significant link to the risk of both ADHD and mental illness. Among girls, difficulties with peers also had a small but significant link.

“The findings suggest that to help reduce the risk of adolescents with ADHD symptoms developing other mental ill health symptoms, two things are supporting parents to improve their mental health, and supporting adolescents to foster high self-esteem,” said lead author Professor Aja Murray of the University of Edinburgh’s School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, in a press release. “For girls in particular, supporting social skills development is also important.”

Added Hind, “These findings demonstrate the importance of funding medical research into children and young people’s mental health, and bring us a step closer to developing more targeted support for teenagers with ADHD, ensuring they can thrive during some of their most formative years.”