Does ADHD increase the risk of dementia? A Rutgers scientist may have the answer
Diabetes, multiple sclerosis, severe depression and other ailments have for years been known to increase the risk of dementia later in life.
Now a Rutgers researcher and Israeli scientists believe they have found another: ADHD.
In a study published last week, Michal Schnaider Beeri and the team found that those with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder have an elevated risk of developing dementia and need to be monitored better as adults, especially as they approach their senior years.
"You want to pinpoint groups that the medical community should take a closer look before any onset occurs," said Beeri, a leading Alzheimer’s disease researcher at Rutgers' Brain Health Institute. "Not everyone has the same risk. But we're learning that these sub-populations have a higher risk."
The team analyzed the medical records of 109,218 Israeli patients who were 51 to 70 years old in 2003 without a diagnosis of ADHD or dementia. They then looked at the data from those same patients in 2020, by which point some had been diagnosed with ADHD. The team's analysis found that an adult with an ADHD diagnosis had almost three times the risk for dementia.
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The patients were born between 1933 and 1952 and likely had ADHD since childhood, but clinical diagnosis for the syndrome did not come until decades later. The estimated number of children 3 to 17 years old diagnosed with ADHD is about 6 million, or 9.8% of the childhood population, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 6.7 million Americans have Alzheimer's disease.
No increased dementia risk from ADHD medications
One of the report's other key findings is that there was no increase in the risk of dementia associated with adult ADHD among those who received psychostimulant medication like Ritalin or Adderall.
"There really needs to be a clinical trial that looks into this relationship," Beeri said. "Do psychostimulants prevent or delay dementia? We know there's an association here, but is there a direct cause? That's what needs to be looked at."
The team consisted of scientists from the University of Haifa in Israel, Mount Sinai's school of medicine in New York and Drexel University in Philadelphia.
This is not the first study that showed an increased dementia risk from ADHD. One last year by Swedish scientists found an uptick in dementia and mild cognitive impairment among those with ADHD.
But Beeri's study may have had the largest sample size. The team focused on Israelis because residents there are enrolled in a government-mandated nonprofit health system that keeps meticulous records, Beeri said.
The goal is to advance the science so researchers can add it to evidence as they search for preventive measures and perhaps even a cure for Alzheimer's disease.
"This is an observational study that started out with a question of does this have an association with that," Beeri said. "We show there is. You can ask many more questions about the why. That's the next step."
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Does ADHD raise the risk of dementia? Rutgers study makes a case
