Recent studies on ADHD and dementia link have shown that people diagnosed with ADHD have a higher risk of developing dementia in their later life. However, researchers have cautioned viewers that they are yet to find a link to understand the link between the two conditions. More exploration is required to understand whether ADHD medication can mitigate the risk towards dementia.
Around 100,000 people were the subject of the experiment. Out of which, there were adults diagnosed with ADHD, and the rest didn’t; they were placed in the control group. It was seen that almost every individual with ADHD had a higher risk of developing dementia. At the same time, the control group was at less or no risk at all.
The team who was studying the effects said that ADHD in adulthood can reduce the brain’s ability to effectively process information required at a certain age. These include fighting through neurodegeneration & even blood flow in the brain.
What The Results Showed
“This is a result quite consistent with the primary result we found among people with ADHD. It increases their chances of dementia, and in some cases reverse causation.” said Dr Stephen Levine, the first author of the study at the University of Haifa. (Source)
The researcher also reported on their study of HMO. The non-profit health maintenance organization Meuhedet Healthcare Services in Israel. People who already had ADHD were excluded from this study.
Apart from that, there were 109,218 records which were looked at between the ages of 57.7. The study began in 2003 when the records were tracked until the individual expired after developing dementia; for others, the study ended around 2020 when the records ended.
The results showed 730 people being diagnosed with adult ADHD. Ninety-six of them also developed dementia in their later years, proving the ADHD and dementia link, which is a striking 13% of the total ADHD patients. While among 7630 dementia patients, only 7% didn’t develop early ADHD during their adult age.
Upon taking all the other factors into consideration, including sex, smoking habits, and socioeconomic status, researchers found that people with ADHD have a higher risk (2.77 times) of developing dementia.
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