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Non-mental diseases associated with ADHD across the lifespan: Fidgety Philipp and Pippi Longstocking at risk of multimorbidity?

  • Sarah Kittel-Schneider*
  • , Gara Arteaga-Henriquez
  • , Alejandro Arias Vasquez
  • , Phil Asherson
  • , Tobias Banaschewski
  • , Isabell Brikell
  • , Jan Buitelaar
  • , Bru Cormand
  • , Stephen V. Faraone
  • , Christine M. Freitag
  • , Ylva Ginsberg
  • , Jan Haavik
  • , Catharina A. Hartman
  • , Jonna Kuntsi
  • , Henrik Larsson
  • , Silke Matura
  • , Rhiannon V. McNeill
  • , J. Antoni Ramos-Quiroga
  • , Marta Ribases
  • , Marcel Romanos
  • Isabella Vainieri, Barbara Franke, Andreas Reif
*Corresponding author for this work
  • University Hospital of Würzburg
  • Goethe University Frankfurt Hospital
  • Vall d'Hebron University Hospital
  • Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona 
  • Centre for Biomedical Research on Mental Health (CIBERSAM)
  • Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour
  • Department of Neurology
  • King's College London
  • Heidelberg University
  • Aarhus University
  • Lundbeck Foundation
  • Karolinska Institute
  • Karakter Child and Adolescent Psychiatry University Center
  • University of Barcelona
  • CIBER - Centro de Investigacion Biomedica en Red
  • Institut de Recerca Sant Joan de Déu
  • SUNY Upstate Medical University
  • Haukeland University Hospital
  • University of Bergen
  • University Medical Center Groningen
  • Örebro University

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

46 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Several non-mental diseases seem to be associated with an increased risk of ADHD and ADHD seems to be associated with increased risk for non-mental diseases. The underlying trajectories leading to such brain-body co-occurrences are often unclear - are there direct causal relationships from one disorder to the other, or does the sharing of genetic and/or environmental risk factors lead to their occurring together more frequently or both? Our goal with this narrative review was to provide a conceptual synthesis of the associations between ADHD and non-mental disease across the lifespan. We discuss potential shared pathologic mechanisms, genetic background and treatments in co-occurring diseases. For those co-occurrences for which published studies with sufficient sample sizes exist, meta-analyses have been published by others and we discuss those in detail. We conclude that non-mental diseases are common in ADHD and vice versa and add to the disease burden of the patient across the lifespan. Insufficient attention to such co-occurring conditions may result in missed diagnoses and suboptimal treatment in the affected individuals.

Original languageEnglish
JournalNeuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews
Early online date29 Oct 2021
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 29 Oct 2021

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

  1. SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being
    SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being

Keywords

  • Asthma
  • Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder
  • Diabetes mellitus type II
  • Elimination disorders
  • Epilepsy
  • Migraine
  • Non-mental disease
  • Obesity
  • Somatic disorders

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