The generally quoted incidence of ADHD among adults in the U.S. is about 4.4%. 1
Research by Robert Eme and Patrick Hurley has suggested the very conservative incidence of ADHD in the adult offender population to be 25%. This study found that incidences of ADHD in correctional facilities ranged from 22% to over 50%. 2
Russ Barkley’s study of U.S. youth, matched for socioeconomic status and followed for 10 years, found that:
- 20% of the control group was arrested compared to 48% of the AD/HD group.
- The control group arrested on average 2.1 times, compared to 6.4 times for the AD/HD group. 3
Studies have found that inmates with mental illness stay in the system over 5X longer than those without. 4
Studies have found that New York’s Riker’s Island, Chicago’s Cook County Jail and the Los Angeles County Jail are the largest mental health institutions in the nation. 5
Adults with ADHD engage in more high-risk behavrios and have a higher rate of substance abuse, more injuries, and more car accidents than non-ADHD adults. 6
65-70% of ADHD cases coexist with another condition or learning disability. 7
Individuals with ADHD have a 50% greater incidence of substance abuse. In cases where ADHD coexists with Conduct Disorder (CD), this number triples. 8
ADHD is highly inheritable. There is a 75% chance a person with ADHD inherited those genes from at least one of his or her parents. 9
50-67% of children with ADHD retain symptoms into adulthood. 10
Adults with ADHD are less likely to be employed- 24% employment for ADHD adults, 79% employment for adults without ADHD. Employment rate improves with medication treatment. 11
Adults with ADHD have a significantly lower socioeconomic status, a lower level of academic achievement, and higher medical costs than their peers. 12
Notes:
- Kessler et al.,”Lifetime prevalence and age-of-onset distributions of DSM-IV disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication,” Arch Gen Psychiatry, 2005 Jun;62(6):593-602 ↩
- Robert Eme, PhD and Patrick Hurley, Spinning Out of Control, 2009 (2nd Edition) ↩
- Russell A. Barkley, PhD et al. ADHD in Adults, What Science Says. 2008 (4th Edition) Guilford Press p. 205 ↩
- Fox Butterfield, “Prisons Replace Hospitals for the Nation’s Mentally Ill,” New York Times, March 5, 1998. ↩
- E. Fuller Torrey, “Reinventing Mental Health Care,” City Journal 9:4, Autumn 1999. ↩
- Breyer et al. 2009; Sabuncuoglu 2007, Wilens and Upadhyaya 2007 ↩
- Margaret Austen et al., “ADHD Comorbidity,” MentalHelp.net, Nov. 5th 2007, Jan. 18 2013, <http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=13851> ↩
- Caroline Helwick, “Combination of Conduct Disorder and ADHD Predictive of Substance Abuse,” Medscape, Jun. 1 2010, Jan. 18, 2013, <http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/722740> ↩
- M.G.H. Rietveld et al, “Heritability of attention problems in children: longitudinal results from a study of twins, age 3 to 12,” Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, March 2004, Volume 45, Issue 3, pages 577–588 ↩
- Wilens 2004; Barkley et a. 2002 ↩
- Halmey et al. 2009 ↩
- Kleinman et al. 2009; Bernfort et al. 2008 ↩