Cost of Adult ADHD

The Adult Form of ADHD Proves Cost­ly for Sufferers
Sep­tem­ber 13, 2004

The adult form of atten­tion deficit hyper­ac­tiv­i­ty dis­or­der could be one of the nation’s most expen­sive health con­cerns, cost­ing its “adult suf­fer­ers bil­lions of dol­lars each year in lost wages and in the inabil­i­ty to hold steady jobs,” an arti­cle on the Health­Scout Web site said1.

Researchers at Mass­a­chu­setts Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal in Boston found that adults with ADHD “were less like­ly to have com­plet­ed high school or pur­sued fur­ther edu­ca­tion. Of col­lege grad­u­ates, only 55 per­cent of ADHD adults worked full time, com­pared with 68 per­cent of non-ADHD adults,” News­day reported2.

More­over, ADHD suf­fer­ers who did grad­u­ate from col­lege had annu­al house­hold incomes of $4,300 less than non-suf­fer­ers, a Reuters arti­cle said5. Between 3% and 5% of adults are said to have ADHD, the arti­cle said. All told, the con­di­tion costs some $77 bil­lion in lost wages; “By com­par­i­son, the direct and indi­rect costs of drug abuse are esti­mat­ed at $58.3 bil­lion a year, depres­sion about $43.7 bil­lion, and alco­hol abuse about $85.8 bil­lion,” an expert said in the Reuters article.