In today’s news on adult attention deficit disorder:

This lack of ability to concentrate costs the average adult sufferer 22.1 days of “role performance,” per year, including 8.7 extra days absent, according to researchers led by Dr. Ron de Graaf of the Netherlands Institute of Mental Health and Addiction.

It might be cost-effective for employers to screen workers for ADHD and provide treatment, the researchers suggest.

…The majority of the lost performance was associated with reductions in quantity and quality of work rather than actual absenteeism, the researchers said.

– Randolph Schmid, Associated Press Science Writer, ADHD Can Cost Adults 20 or More Workdays A Year, 26 May 2008.

This article speaks about adult workers as a whole, not focusing on executives or professionals.  If you consider that an executive or professional’s time is highly leveraged across other staff, the cost to business is especially high.  Appropriate ADHD treatment for a line worker might return a few thousand dollars to the company’s bottom line.  Appropriate treatment for a C-level exec or owner could return manyfold more.

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