ADHD in Teens: How Symptoms Manifest as Unique Challenges for Adolescents and Young Adults
In adolescence, ADHD is associated with a set of distinct and measurable challenges — executive dysfunction, increased risk for substance misuse and automobile accidents, stimulant medication diversion, emotional dysregulation, high-risk behaviors, and more.
Robust, long-term studies confirm that, if unaddressed, these teenage challenges can impact quality of life and general functioning well into adulthood.For best outcomes, clinicians must help patients and families understand how ADHD impacts the adolescent and young adult brain specifically, and how early care and interventions can have positive effects.
If the conversations and interventions begin early, and a family’s vigilance remains high, teens with ADHD will grow and launch into remarkable young adults.While symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD or ADD) tend to decline and shift with time, it is the rule – not the exception – that the majority of teens with ADHD (75 percent) continue to experience ADHD in adulthood1.
This fundamental aspect of the condition underscores the importance of creating supports and using strategies in earlier years that are built to last particularly through the critical transition from adolescence into young adulthood.Significant brain growth, especially in the frontal lobe – the region involved in executive function skills like problem solving, conflict resolution, planning, and impulse control – occurs during the teenage years and continues until about age 25.
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United States
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Cases: 46 252 513
Deaths: 750 423
Recovered: 0
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India
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Cases: 34 321 025
Deaths: 459 652
Recovered: 0
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Brazil
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Cases: 21 835 785
Deaths: 608 235
Recovered: 0
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United Kingdom
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Cases: 9 215 683
Deaths: 141 607
Recovered: 0
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Russia
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Cases: 8 494 589
Deaths: 237 619
Recovered: 0
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