Is ADHD
important enough for the government to worry about? Sure enough, it is.
Back in 2000, researchers at the CDC published a “research agenda” on
ADHD. Below, an excerpt covering the adult ADHD issues they considered
as priorities for investigation:

Social and Economic Burden of ADHD through the Lifespan

Issues

Given
the nature of the disorder, ADHD is believed to have a noticeable
impact on social, economic, educational, and health care delivery
systems. Additionally, it is reasonable to assume the condition affects
those socially associated with an ADHD individual, including his/her
family members, peers, and co-workers. However, the magnitude of the
social and economic burden in these areas has not been systematically
documented.

In
general, small, clinic-based studies have shown that adults with ADHD
consistently exhibit problems with interpersonal relationships, often
have difficulty with employment, and frequently have comorbid or
secondary conditions that further debilitate. Perhaps many of the
disabilities and poorer outcomes associated with ADHD actually are more
strongly associated with conditions that are highly comorbid with ADHD
(such as Conduct Disorder) and result in significantly higher economic
consequences to society. However, this hypothesis has not been tested.

In
understanding the full nature of the disorder, it is imperative to
understand the effect it has on the families of children with ADHD.
These families may be more prone to conflict and increased levels of
familial stress. The child with ADHD may also reduce the parents’
productive participation in activities outside the family (work and
community life). Many parents of children with ADHD themselves have the
disorder or considerable levels of the symptomatology. However, the
impact this disorder has on the family unit and in adult life needs
considerable research effort to clarify what aspects of family it
impacts and in what ways.

In
addition, there is little concrete knowledge of the degree to which
interventions can or do improve the outcome of children with ADHD.
Developing ways to improve outcomes must begin with consistent and
standardized measures of the impact of the disorder. Such methodical
surveying has not occurred. Development of standardized burden measures
is critical to beginning this process.

Action to Address Public Health Needs<

• Conduct analyses of ADHD public
  health burden in a way that estimates a broad array of costs outside of
  those exclusively associated with medical treatment. The burden should
  be studied from a broad perspective to include estimations of cost to
  society in a monetary sense as well as to individual-level indicators
  of well-being such as family functioning and social relationships.

• Develop a standardized way to
  measure burden associated with ADHD and promote its use across studies.
  This would enable cross-study comparisons such as meta-analysis to be
  undertaken. This standardized measure should account for
  medical/treatment costs, educational costs, family costs, and adult
  functioning variables.

• Incorporate information on ADHD in
  efforts to study and prevent unintentional injuries, alcohol and drug
  abuse, sexual risk-taking, disability, and other health risk behaviors
  in which ADHD may play an important role.

• Include standardized measurements of
  burden in all public health research of ADHD. Future efforts to measure
  the impact of ADHD across a cohort should be a priority. Understanding
  if current interventions or future prevention strategies result in
  burden reduction will depend largely on consistent and accurate
  estimation of these burdens.

• Efforts must be made to estimate the
  prevalence and cost of this disorder in adult populations to understand
  the strict monetary costs as well as to better understand the areas of
  impairment for adults with ADHD.

• Conduct population-based ADHD
  research that includes information on comorbid conditions and the
  burden with which they are associated. Much of our current evidence
  regarding comorbid conditions comes from clinical studies rather than
  population-based studies.

• Explore mechanisms to append
  economic and social burden studies on other ongoing or completed
  studies in order to quantify the burden of ADHD.

• Foster collaborations across Federal
  agencies in order to include information on ADHD in data collection
  efforts.

• Establish a resource for both
  professionals and the public regarding what is known about the impact
  of ADHD.

Excerpted from: Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: A Public Health Research Agenda. [2000, March 15].  A., Perou, R., & Brann, E..  Link to full paper here at the CDC.