A study by Harvard Medical School showed that teenage girls with ADHD were more likely to be clinically depressed, to have anxiety disorders and to have conduct disorder by age 17.
About 10 boys are referred for ADHD treatment for every girl “and 99% of the childhood ADHD research is on boys,” Biederman says. He believes it’s because girls don’t become disruptive as early in life as boys with ADHD do, so it often goes undiagnosed.
This is often because girls with ADHD and women with ADHD are more far likely to have inattentive ADHD, vs. the hyperactive impulsive ADHD. Men can have both but are more likely to have the hyperactive impulsive type. Which type do you think will get noticed more in school, at home and at work?
Often people with ADHD get noticed and referred to someone who diagnoses ADHD because they cause problems to other people, not because a basic concern for the well being, or happiness of that person.
Girls and women with inattentive ADHD who don’t bounce around the class or the office and don’t say and do impulsive things and instead daydream or space out aren’t causing that many problems for other people, on a comparative basis.
I know a lot of women with inattentive ADHD did not get diagnosed until later in life because they had the less known form of ADHD.
If you want more information on women with ADHD check out this page on my website.
Many teenage boys with ADHD also have comorbid conditions such as depression, clinical anxiety and conduct disorders. ADHD Men often have comorbid disorders too. I wonder if the rates are the same as girls or different?
What do you think needs to happen to get girls and women with ADHD better diagnosis and treatment?