ADHD Questions
Top predictors of ADHD recovery
Charles Li, MD
April 20, 2023
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ADHD patients with less severe symptoms and few other mental health issues have the highest odds of recovering from ADHD by adulthood.
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The mental health of a person's parents has also been linked to recovery.
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Lifestyle factors can play a role in predicting good outcomes from ADHD.
Recovery from ADHD can be a long and difficult process. Some with ADHD continue to suffer from it well into adulthood.
Having ADHD that doesn’t go away has been associated with significantly worse outcomes in life. ADHD can be hard enough. ADHD persistence makes it worse.
Because of the downsides of not recovering from ADHD, researchers have studied potential factors linked to getting better from ADHD.
One of the top factors associated with ADHD recovery is symptom severity. Those with milder ADHD symptoms are more likely to recover from ADHD before adulthood, at least partially.
Those with the most severe ADHD symptoms were twice as likely to have ADHD continue into adulthood.
A meta-analysis found that severe ADHD, ADHD treatment, conduct disorder, and major depressive disorder were all factors linked to someone having ADHD persisting into adulthood.
Interestingly, taking medication for ADHD was also linked with ADHD persistence.
However, this is most likely an indicator of correlation rather than causation. Those who are most likely to receive medication for ADHD, as children, may also be the ones with the most severe symptoms.
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The fact that ADHD treatment emerged as a risk marker of persistence was a surprising result. However, there are important issues involving this particular finding. For example, it is self-evident that a child is more likely to receive treatment if presenting with a severe disorder, which was the most consistent marker of persistence in our meta-analysis
Comorbidity as a predictor of recovery
Beyond severity, the second strongest factor associated with recovery odds was the presence of other mental health conditions.
Those who only have ADHD are in a better position to recover from ADHD.
Studies have shown that children who suffer from ADHD, along with other mental health conditions such as conduct disorder or major depression, are far less likely to recover from ADHD.
Another study found that even the parents' mental health can affect recovery odds.
Children whose parents did not have mental health disorders were more likely to recover from ADHD than children whose parents struggled with mental health conditions.
Childhood Factors Affecting Persistence and Desistence of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Symptoms in Adulthood: Results From the MTA
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Parental mental health problems, and in particular maternal psychopathology has been shown to predict ADHD persistence in adolescence and young adulthood....Our results extend this literature by showing that the total number of parental psychopathologies affects adulthood ADHD - an increase in the number of parental mental health problems adds to the risk for persistence.
What doesn’t predict recovery from ADHD
There were many factors studied that did not affect someone’s chances of recovering from ADHD.
Even though gender affects ADHD risk, studies have not demonstrated a consistently significant link between gender and ADHD recovery odds.
Similarly, even though IQ and socioeconomic status are strongly linked with ADHD risk, there is no evidence of a link between either of those factors and ADHD recovery.
Studies have examined the factors listed below but found no statistically significant results.
Factors not associated with ADHD recovery
Predictors of ADHD outcomes
In addition to studies on predictors of ADHD recovery, there having studies on predictors of ADHD outcomes.
While ADHD is associated with significant challenges in life, some with ADHD tend to do a lot better than others.
One study found that graduating from high school, getting regular exercise, not smoking, and getting enough sleep were all predictors of better outcomes in ADHD. Those with any or all of these criteria were expected to live longer than those without.
While ADHD was associated with a lower life expectancy, those with the following factors were significantly healthier than the typical ADHD patient.
Key takeaways
Many of the strongest predictors of ADHD recovery are, unfortunately, hard to prevent. ADHD symptom severity and other conditions are often out of the patient's and family's control.
The data on predictors of good outcomes does offer a silver lining. Lifestyle and education are well within the control of someone with ADHD.
While the data on treatment as a predictor of outcomes is mixed, treatment does help someone with ADHD adjust better to adulthood, school, and the workforce.