ADHD and Longevity

Adults with diagnosed ADHD are dying seven to nine years too soon

STUDY: O’Nions E et al, British Journal of Psychiatry 2025;226:261-268

STUDY TYPE: Matched cohort study

FUNDING: Dunhill Medical Trust

Background

People with ADHD struggle more than most with school, work, and relationships, and they get sick and die younger than the general population. Researchers used UK primary care records to calculate life expectancy directly from mortality data.

The Study

• Researchers followed 30,039 adults with a diagnosed ADHD in their medical records, matched 1:10 by age, sex, and clinic to 300,390 adults without the diagnosis.
• Records spanned nearly two decades, from 2000 to 2019.
• The main outcome was age at death, used to calculate life expectancy through life tables.

Results

Men with ADHD lived to 73, compared with 80 for men without it, a 7-year gap.

Women with ADHD lived to 75, compared with 84, a gap of nearly 9 years.

Men with ADHD were about twice as likely to die during follow-up, and women with ADHD were also about twice as likely. Every physical and mental health condition the researchers checked, including diabetes, heart disease, depression, and epilepsy, showed up more often in the ADHD group. Smoking rates were roughly double.

Limitations

Diagnosed ADHD represents a fraction of the true prevalence, so these results may reflect people with more severe or complicated presentations. The database lacked cause-of-death data, and the researchers couldn’t rule out confounding from unmeasured factors like substance use.

Practice Implications

1. Though this study doesn’t look at the causes, others suggest the higher death rate in ADHD is related to accidents, drug use, and problems with self-care (including following up with primary care treatment).
2. Stimulants reduce all of those problems, especially when started early to treat childhood ADHD.