ADHD Linked to Higher Mortality, Medication to Lower Rate

A meta-analysis of 19 studies involving nearly 16 million people found that attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) was associated with higher mortality, while ADHD medication use was associated with lower all-cause mortality among people with the condition. The researchers cautioned that the medication finding, based on only three studies, does not show that treatment caused the difference. The review, published in JAMA Network Open, included 15,920,970 participants; 12 studies supplied data for pooled analyses. Researchers reported an all-cause mortality hazard ratio of 1.71 for people with ADHD compared with those without it, equivalent to a 71% higher rate. The estimate had a 95% confidence interval of 1.31 to 2.24. The analysis also found higher mortality associated with ADHD for suicide, injury and natural causes. The reported hazard ratios were 1.89 for suicide, 1.55 for intentional or unintentional injury, and 1.27 for natural-cause mortality. These figures describe associations across the studies, not the cause of an individual’s death. Among people with ADHD, medication use was associated with a lower all-cause mortality hazard, with a hazard ratio of 0.75....