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Thirty Percent of Adults With ADHD Report Childhood Physical Abuse

Thirty percent of adults with ADD/ADHD report they were physically abused before they turned 18. This compares to 7% of those without ADD/ADHD who were physically abused before 18. The results were in a study published online in Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment, and Trauma.

“This strong association between abuse and ADD/ADHD was not explained by differences in demographic characteristics or other early adversities experienced by those who had been abused,” says lead author Esme Fuller-Thomson, PhD, a professor and the Sandra Rotman Chair at University of Toronto's Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work. "Even after adjusting for different factors, those who reported being physically abused before age 18 had seven times the odds of ADD/ADHD.”

Investigators examined a representative sample of 13,054 adults aged 18 and older in the 2005 Canadian Community Health Survey including 1,020 respondents who reported childhood physical abuse and 64 respondents who reported that they had been diagnosed by a health professional with either ADHD or ADD.

"Our data do not allow us to know the direction of the association. It is possible that the behaviors of children with ADD/ADHD increase parental stress and the likelihood of abuse,” says coauthor Rukshan Mehta, a graduate of the University of Toronto’s Masters of Social Work program. “Alternatively, some new literature suggests early childhood abuse may result in and/or exacerbate the risk of ADD/ADHD.”

According to co-author Angela Valeo from Ryerson University, “This study underlines the importance of ADD/ADHD as a marker of abuse. With 30% of adults with ADD/ADHD reporting childhood abuse, it is important that health professionals working with children with these disorders screen them for physical abuse.”

— Source: University of Toronto