ADHD Grown Up : A Guide to Adolescent and Adult ADHD

Yet despite this awareness, many clinicians as well as the general public continue to under-appreciate the significance of ADHD as it manifests itself in adults. What happens to all these ADHD kids when they grow up? ADHD isn’t like a cold or the flu—it doesn’t just go away all of the time. As a child grows and matures, it is possible that the symptoms lessen, and in some cases adults are able to overcome the disorder, but it doesn’t usually just vanish on its own. At least 40-70% of those diagnosed with this disorder as kids will have it persist when they are adults; however, mental health professionals often overlook ADHD symptoms and continue calling their adult patients who suffer from it anxious or depressed, or diagnose them with a personality disorder. Family members may also consider adults with procrastination issues, inattentiveness, and distractibility lazy or malingering, when in fact they are suffering from ADHD. Here Joel Young MD, who has been treating and researching ADHD for more than15 years, takes a comprehensive look at ADHD in adults. As an accurate diagnosis is essential to a patient’s successful treatment, the book begins by detailing how clinicians can provide the most accurate ADHD diagnosis. Once established, the basic diagnostic process begins. This includes obtaining a careful medical history to rule out medical problems that may mimic the symptoms of ADHD, taking a psychiatric history and carefully considering any family or genetic history of medical and psychiatric problems. Some helpful tools used to evaluate quickly and comprehensively distressed patients are presented. Comorbidities are extremely common among patients with ADHD. Emphasis in the book is placed on the most common ADHD comorbidities, including mood and anxiety disorders, bipolar disorder, oppositional defiant disorders, eating disorders and learning disabilities. The book also details the different types of ADHD that clinicians may encounter: ADHD (predominately hyperac