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The study concluded that girls diagnosed with ADHD are twice as likely to become obese in later life.
BEACON TRANSCRIPT – Even though attention deficit disorder is known since the 60s, the mental disorder still remains a bit of a mystery. A recent gender-oriented study regarding the manifestation of ADHD has revealed that sex can play a major role in the development of the disease. Scientists have found a link between ADHD and obesity was in female patients.
According to the study in question, children diagnosed with ADHD have more things to worry about on a long term than the inability to focus on their homework. A recent study conducted by the Mayo clinic has concluded that young women diagnosed with ADHD are twice as likely to become obese later in life.
The same association between ADHD and obesity was not found in boys, prompting the doctors to take into account gender when prescribing a course of treatment for the patient.
The study linking obesity to ADHD, using a gender discriminatory, was performed by Doctor Seema Kumar, a pediatrician working in the Mayo clinic, and his team of medical researchers.
In order to see how gender can affect the adult life of an individual, the doctor and his team of scientists reviewed the data of 336 children, boys and girls alike, who were diagnosed with this mental disorder. The study also took into account 665 additional cases, who did not have ADHD, but the clinic treated them from 1976 to 2010.
After reviewing the data, the medical researchers have concluded that there is indeed a strong link between ADHD and obesity and that girls diagnosed with this disease were twice as likely to become obese in later life. Moreover, they’ve also discovered that the mental disorder did not affect boys in the same way.
A link between ADHD and obesity was found in female patients, but no association between the two conditions was found in male patients. Doctor Kumar stated that this study could provide physicians with new means of treating the condition. For example, in the case of young women, the doctors can also prescribe a healthier diet and active lifestyle, apart from stimulants like Ritalin.
This gender oriented study is not an entirely new approach. In 2015, there were a couple of medical studies which stressed out that there is a vast difference between diagnosing boys and girls with this mental disorder. Moreover, the studies performed in 2015 followed another study, published 3 years early which stated that ADHD can manifest differently with age.
In the case of young boys, the disease manifests through episodes of hyperactivity while in girls the disease could induce distraction or depression. This is one of the main reason why the disorder can be easily missed in girls.
Photo credits:www.wikipedia.org
