Long-term consequences of Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in adults

Lin Li’s (Lin.Li@oru.se) research will mainly focus on long-term consequences of Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in adults.

With growing body of research, ADHD has been increasingly recognized as a life-span disorder associated with impairment in psychosocial, educational, occupational, and health-related outcomes across development, any of which will exert an enormous burden on the patients, families and society. Despite increased interest about adult ADHD, long-term consequences of ADHD remain obscure. Therefore, the aim of this doctoral project is to answer the following three research questions: a) How do ADHD influence the nutrition and life-style factors across lifespan, and whether there is a link between some comorbid somatic diseases in ADHD patients and different dietary pattern or lifestyle? b) Based on current knowledge, functional impairment often remain over time and work-related impairments will represent an increase burden on society and individuals, but it is remain understudied on how ADHD medication (e.g. Methylphenidate, MPH) impact occupational outcomes of adults with ADHD? c) With the progress of aging society, the number of older ADHD adults will likely increase, while it is unclear whether there are increased costs caused by ADHD in economic, healthcare and other domains in older population?

Population-based epidemiological study design and advanced statistical analyses will be conducted to explore above questions, by using large-sample data from Swedish national health registers, the Swedish Twin Registry and prospective cohort in Sweden. 

In addition, a systematic review with a meta-analysis will be conducted to enable a clearer overall picture of the association between maternal overweight /obesity and ADHD in offspring, and further clarify the role of pre-pregnancy overweight /obesity in the etiology of ADHD by comparing results of different study design.