ADHD Comorbidities Split Along Gender Lines: New Study

January 22, 2025Men with ADHD experience higher rates of learning disabilities, tics, oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), and conduct disorder, while women with ADHD face an elevated relative risk for emotional and sleep disorders, according to a new cross-sectional study published in PLOS One1.

The research, which found a higher incidence of comorbid psychiatric conditions among adult men than any other demographic, notably did not examine eating disorders or migraines, two comorbid conditions known to be more common in women and girls with ADHD.According to 3,152 ADDitude readers surveyed in 2022, 16% of women with ADHD reported having an eating disorder, compared to 7% of men.

Similarly, a 2023 ADDitude survey of 7,095 adults found that 22% of women reported a migraine diagnosis, compared to only 8% of men.

The same gender disparity is true for anxiety (74% in women vs. 63% in men) and depression (62% in women vs. 51% in men), according to ADDitude survey results.These gender differences mirror those of prior scientific research that found higher rates of anxiety and depression in women compared with men before and after their ADHD diagnosis2.“Comorbidity is the rule rather than the exception,” said Lotta Skoglund, M.D., Ph.D., in her 2024 ADDitude webinar, “The Emotional Lives of Girls with ADHD.” “When you have a girl or woman with ADHD, you should be prepared for anxiety, depression, eating disorders, self-harm, even more serious than actually for the boys.”The new cross-sectional study analyzed the age, sex, and psychiatric diagnoses of 112,225 individuals with ADHD, using data collected between January 2000 and December 2011 from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database.