Heart Health and ADHD: On Cardiovascular Risks and Treatments

additudemag.com:

As if having an ADHD nervous system were not hard enough, research now shows that having the disorder nearly doubles the risk of heart disease, regardless of a person’s age, gender, or ADHD medication use.In a study of 5 million adolescents and adults from Sweden, researchers found that having any mental health condition increased the risk for all cardiovascular conditions — and that risk more than doubled for those with ADHD and one or more co-existing conditions.

Surprisingly, the greatest risk was in young adults and not in the elderly. While the cause is not yet known (a genetic predisposition is likely), we can now see that the risk is broad and substantial.The incidence of heart disease was 1.8 times higher among people with ADHD than it was in the general population, with cardiac arrest and strokes posing the greatest risk.

If a person has ADHD and a co-existing mental health condition, the risk of heart disease more than doubles. For those with substance use disorder, the risk increases 2.53-fold; eating disorder increases the risk 2.75-fold; conduct disorder boosts it 2.79-fold.The study also confirmed previous findings that men faced higher risk than did women throughout the lifespan.[Read: ADHD Medication Not Associated with Cardiovascular Risk at Any Age]Many people want to ignore or deny the seriousness, and even the existence, of ADHD to justify not treating their own and/or their child’s ADHD.