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“Women Need Better, More Accurate Diagnostic Tools for ADHD”

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There is a revolution underway. Women are raising their voices against long-established male-centric thinking about ADHD and demanding diagnostic criteria that reflect the female experience of ADHD.

Most diagnostic tools have been developed by men and screen for symptoms seen in boys with ADHD, a huge impediment to proper care and treatment for girls and women with the condition.

Even the questionnaires that are considered gender normed — meaning adjusted to ensure equal rates across genders — ask male-centric questions but require fewer points for a female to meet the threshold for a clinical diagnosis.For example, the Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS) is widely accepted as a standard screener for identifying adults with ADHD.

This questionnaire, like many others, was developed by males to identify traits consistent with the male-centric Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) criteria.All six of the most salient items on the ASRS describe most men with ADHD, while only three pertain to most females.

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We Demand Attention on Self-Harm, Intimate Partner Violence, and Substance Abuse Among Women with ADHD
The lives of girls and women with ADHD are jeopardized by exponentially higher rates of self-harm, suicidality, and intimate partner violence, as compared with their neurotypical counterparts or with neurodivergent boys and men.“ADHD in girls portends continuing problems through early adulthood that are of substantial magnitude across multiple domains of symptomatology and functional impairment,” write the authors of the Berkeley Girls ADHD Longitudinal Study (BGALS) follow-up study.1 “The sheer range of negative outcomes is noteworthy; the most striking include the high occurrences of suicide attempts and self-injury in the ADHD sample, confined to the childhood-diagnosed combined type.”“Girls with combined-type ADHD are 2.5 times more likely to engage in non-suicidal self-injuring behavior than are their neurotypical peers, and 3 to 4 times more likely to attempt suicide,” said Stephen Hinshaw, Ph.D., lead author of the BGALS study, in an ADDitude webinar titled, “Girls and Women with ADHD.” It’s important to note, Hinshaw says, that self-harm is a “potent indicator” of future suicide attempts.This is an arresting statistic, particularly considering how self-harm and suicidality have spiked in adolescent girls in general. The most recent CDC Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) report found that 1 in 10 girls has attempted suicide, and 1 in 3 of girls seriously considered suicide during the past year, which is an increase of nearly 60% from a decade ago.
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