Mental health: how attention deficit hyperactivity disorder impacts couples

(Dennis Thompson – HealthDay News) – Having a husband or boyfriend with ADHD as an adult may harm a woman’s mental stability, a new study suggests.

About 3 in 5 women (59 percent) with male partners with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) had symptoms of depression, a rate on par with caregivers who help their loved ones cope with health problems such as autism, heart rhythm disorders, Alzheimer’s disease and kidney failure, researchers report.

Women also had lower quality of life scores than people whose partners suffer from health problems such as schizophrenia, depression, anxiety and stroke, the results showed.

“Our findings emphasize the importance of viewing ADHD as a condition that affects not only the individual, but also their close relationships,” concluded the research team led by Adina Maeir, professor of medicine at the Faculty of Occupational Therapy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel.

“By addressing couples’ well-being, we can take a more holistic approach to treatment, offering both individuals and couples the tools they need to improve their quality of life,” the researchers wrote in a university news release.

For the study, the team recruited 100 Israeli heterosexual couples in which the man had been diagnosed with ADHD.

On average, the couples had been together for about nine years, with 65 married and 35 living together.

Both men and women completed questionnaires related to the men’s ADHD symptoms. The women were also assessed for depression, quality of life and other measures of well-being.

The results showed that the more a man was affected by his ADHD symptoms, the more likely a woman was to develop depressive symptoms or report a lower quality of life.

Similarly, women reported better quality of life if their men took their ADHD medications more consistently, the researchers found.

The results are in line with other studies that “suggest that pharmacological treatments can mitigate ADHD symptoms and reduce its functional impacts,” the researchers wrote.

“These findings may imply that pharmacological treatments may also have a beneficial effect on couples, as well as on individuals with ADHD,” they added.

Women can manage some of these negative effects by taking care of themselves, the results indicate.

Women who focused more on their own health (exercising, enjoying social time with friends, taking time for themselves) tended to have less depression and a better quality of life, despite having a partner with ADHD.

The new study was published in a recent issue of the Journal of Attention Disorders.

The results “support the positive association between women’s participation in health-promoting activities and their mental health outcomes, even when accounting for the negative effects of their partner’s ADHD-related functional impairment,” the researchers wrote.

Learn more. The Attention Deficit Disorder Association offers more information on ADHD in adults.

SOURCE: Hebrew University of Jerusalem, press release, September 19, 2024

* Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporters ©The New York Times 2024