ADHD drug treatment can reduce patients’ suicidal behaviour, study finds

Drug treatment for ADHD can reduce patients’ substance misuse, suicidal behaviour and criminal behaviour, a new study has found.

Symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) can involve being inattentive, hyperactivity and impulsiveness.

The neurodevelopmental disorder is thought to affect around 5% of children and 2.5% of adults worldwide.

The study, which appeared in the British Medical Journal, examined 148,581 people in Sweden who had a new diagnosis of ADHD.

Drug treatment for ADHD was associated with reduced rates of suicidal behaviour, substance misuse, transport accidents and criminality.

“These results provide evidence on the effects of ADHD drug treatment on important health-related and social outcomes that should inform clinical practice and the debate on the drug treatment of ADHD,” the report said.

Taskforce

In June, a taskforce said NHS waiting lists for ADHD diagnosis and support have led to a “significant growth in the use of private providers that are not regulated”.

The ADHD taskforce supported by the UK Government published an interim report saying the system for diagnosing and managing ADHD needs to be overhauled.

At the moment, ADHD assessment and treatment in England is provided by highly specialised doctors in secondary care.

But the report warned: “Inability to access NHS services has led to a significant growth in the use of private providers that are not regulated, resulting in two-tier access to services, diagnosis and treatment; one for those who can pay and another for those who cannot.

“This drives health inequalities and links to disproportionate impacts and outcomes in the education and justice systems, employment and health.”

Waiting times

Wait times for NHS ADHD services “have escalated and are unacceptably long” and demand is “very likely” to continue to rise, the study warned.

The NHS has launched publicly available data collection on ADHD referrals and waiting times to help local teams better understand how they are performing.