Overview
- An analysis of 900 first-time adult ADHD diagnoses at a specialized Barcelona clinic found women were diagnosed at 28.96 years on average versus 24.13 for men despite similar ages of symptom onset.
- At diagnosis, women reported greater overall symptom severity, higher functional impairment, and increased rates of depression and anxiety compared with men.
- The combined ADHD presentation was tied to the worst outcomes, with women in this subtype reporting the highest disability levels observed in the study.
- Men in the cohort reported higher rates of substance use and were about three times more likely to have experienced legal problems than women.
- The findings were presented at the ECNP Congress and published in European Psychiatry, with authors noting limits from a specialized clinical sample and cross-sectional design and calling for population-based longitudinal research.