May 15, 2007

Girls and ADHD



Since my ADHD child is a boy, I know next to nothing about girls and ADHD. However, this is a topic I wanted to cover on this blog. Therefore, I did a little research. Below is what I found.



ADHD in girls may have serious consequences if left untreated. Girls with untreated ADHD are at higher risk than boys with untreated ADHD for alcohol and drug abuse or dependence. A recent study among girls with ADHD found that they were:


  • 7x more likely to BE DISRUPTIVE than girls without ADHD

  • 4x more likely to DRINK ALCOHOL

  • 3x more likely to USE DRUGS

  • 2x as likely to SMOKE

--webmd.com

According to ParentCenter.com there are four types of ADHD in girls. See if your daughter fits into one of the categories: the shy, dreamy child; the chatty Cathy; the tomboy; the moody child. ADDers.org discusses how research in the field of ADHD has generally focused on boys in the past. It goes on to discuss how this is changing. Another website, 4ADHD.com, states that the lack of ADHD diagnosis in girls may be due to the fact that girls are more often to show the "quiet symptoms" of ADHD. If social skills are a problem for your ADHD daughter, you may find the article entitled " Social Skills for Girls with ADHD" at ADDvance.com helpful. I hope you find this information beneficial to you and the ADHD girl in your life.

1 comment:

  1. my baby sister is an alcoholic- she's turning 27 this year and will be celebrating her third year sober on her birthday.
    last year my mom and i attended a seminar on ad/hd and since my adhder is also a boy i'd never really looked into the girls side of ad/hd. the more we listened the more we could pick up traits that my sister had always displayed- and my mom eventually approached her about the possibility that she may be an adhder, and consider seeing someone to diagnose and treat her as an adult adhder. i'm not sure what she decided and i don't think she was ever diagnosed formally- i don't want to push it for fear of putting her off completely.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I love comments and feedback!