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Rethinking ADHD in girls: Recent advances

Anne S. Walters · 30 Oct 2023

Summary

Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-sonnet-5-5

This is a short commentary on ADHD in girls, written after the author gave a media interview about an earlier commentary on the underdiagnosis of ADHD in girls. The excerpt mostly reports figures on rising ADHD diagnoses among young adult women. It cites a study (Russell et al., 2023) showing that diagnoses in women aged 23–29 and 30–34 almost doubled between 2020 and 2022. It also describes a shift in the male-to-female diagnosis ratio between 2010 and 2022. The excerpt gives no information about children's well-being outcomes or about any intervention.

Key points

Diagnoses of ADHD in women aged 23–29 and 30–34 almost doubled from 2020 to 2022 (Russell et al., 2023).
These women are still a relatively small share of those diagnosed compared with female children.
In 2010 males were 133% more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD than females; by 2022 females were 28% more likely (Russell et al., 2023).
The commentary follows an earlier piece on the underdiagnosis of ADHD in girls (Walters, 2018).

Limitations

Only a short excerpt is available, and its figures concern mainly young adult women rather than girls. It gives no country, methods, or detail on causes, and the statistics are second-hand from another study. Because it is a commentary, not a study, it is not clear that it was peer reviewed.

Abstract

I recently did a media interview related to an earlier CABL commentary (Walters, 2018) focused on the underdiagnosis of ADHD in girls, prompting me to look at the recent research on the topic. Interestingly, the journalist I spoke with shared an article that noted the rising numbers of women ages 23–29 years and 30–34 years diagnosed with ADHD. Although still a relatively small percentage compared to female children, this percentage has almost doubled from 2020–2022 (Russell et al., 2023). In addition, the percentage of males versus females of any age diagnosed with ADHD increased from males being 133% more likely to be diagnosed in 2010 to females 28% more likely in 2022 (Russell et al., 2023).