ADHD is often overlooked in females. They need help, too By Michael Morse and Kathleen NadeauApril 15, 2024

https://www.statnews.com/2024/04/15/adhd-is-often-overlooked-in-females-they-need-help-too/?utm_campaign=morning_rounds&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_vWLVoNQoTh46mHjhR5ziu6zZV7OGauySKJeHf8L6x_5s5xCCCmJ3yM9x_j5TnEGegnQaJ6gMGS5Xp20YyQZACvsdSIg&_hsmi=302448984&utm_content=302448984&utm_source=hs_email Overactive, disruptive boys who need help to focus on their schoolwork have long been a sort of cultural poster child for ADHD, or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. But in a new First Opinion, psychiatrist Michael Morse and psychologist Kathleen Nadau point to an important fact: Women and girls can also have ADHD, and when they do, they’re chronically underdiagnosed and undertreated. Part of the problem may lie in the diagnostic criteria for ADHD. “The current criteria are not fine-tuned to identify more subtle presentations of ADHD in females,” they write. Additionally, girls are often less likely to be disruptive at school or at home than boys. “But the fact that females with ADHD may not be a problem for others doesn’t mean that they are not suffering in silence,” they add. Read more on how this gender disparity came to be, and why there is hope on the horizon to change it.