Study finds ADHD is associated with dementia

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Multi­gen­er­a­tional Study Finds Links Between ADHD, Demen­tia Risk (Health Day):

Atten­tion-deficit/hy­per­ac­tiv­i­ty dis­or­der (ADHD) appears to be some­how linked to risk of demen­tia and Alzheimer’s dis­ease, a new multi­gen­er­a­tional study has found.

Par­ents and grand­par­ents of peo­ple with ADHD have a high­er risk of Alzheimer’s and demen­tia than peo­ple with no ADHD in their fam­i­ly, Swedish researchers said.

Specif­i­cal­ly, par­ents of an ADHD child have a 34% high­er risk of demen­tia and 55% high­er risk of Alzheimer’s, the results showed. Grand­par­ents have about an 11% increased risk of either condition.

“ADHD is asso­ci­at­ed with demen­tia across gen­er­a­tions,” said lead researcher Le Zhang, a doc­tor­al can­di­date with the Karolin­s­ka Insti­tute’s depart­ment of med­ical epi­demi­ol­o­gy and bio­sta­tis­tics, in Stock­holm. “Our study calls atten­tion to advanc­ing the under­stand­ing of ADHD and cog­ni­tive decline in old­er age.”

The Study:

Atten­tion-deficit/hy­per­ac­tiv­i­ty dis­or­der and Alzheimer’s dis­ease and any demen­tia: A mul­ti-gen­er­a­tion cohort study in Swe­den (Alzheimer’s and Demen­tia). From the Abstract:

  • Intro­duc­tion: We exam­ined the extent to which atten­tion-deficit/hy­per­ac­tiv­i­ty dis­or­der (ADHD), a neu­rode­vel­op­men­tal dis­or­der, is linked with Alzheimer’s dis­ease (AD) and any demen­tia, neu­rode­gen­er­a­tive dis­eases, across generations…
  • Results: Among rel­a­tives of 2,132,929 index per­sons, 3042 par­ents, 171,732 grand­par­ents, and 1369 uncles/aunts had a diag­no­sis of AD. Par­ents of indi­vid­u­als with ADHD had an increased risk of AD (haz­ard ratio 1.55, 95% con­fi­dence inter­val 1.26–1.89). The asso­ci­a­tions atten­u­at­ed but remained ele­vat­ed in grand­par­ents and uncles/aunts. The asso­ci­a­tion for ear­ly-onset AD was stronger than late-onset AD. Sim­i­lar results were observed for any dementia.
  • Dis­cus­sion: ADHD is asso­ci­at­ed with AD and any demen­tia across gen­er­a­tions. The asso­ci­a­tions atten­u­at­ed with decreas­ing genet­ic relat­ed­ness, sug­gest­ing shared famil­ial risk between ADHD and AD.

The Study in Context: