Adults With ADHD Lose 3 Weeks Worth of Work Annually

May 29 -- TUESDAY, May 27 (HealthDay News) -- Adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) miss, on average, more than three weeks a year in workplace productivity, according to a new global reckoning of the problem.

Altogether, between 3 percent and 4 percent of adults worldwide have ADHD, according to survey data from the World Health Organization (WHO). Researchers say the condition can cause a serious loss of concentration at work due to chronic hyperactivity, forgetfulness and impulsiveness.

But many adult workers with ADHD may not know they have a problem, the team noted.

"While surveying mental disorders around the world, we've interviewed close to 200,000 people in almost 30 countries, and we're discovering that an enormous number of adult workers -- more than 3 percent on average -- have untreated adult ADHD," said study co-author Ron Kessler, a professor of health care policy at Harvard Medical School in Boston. Kessler is also the director of the WHO's World Mental Health Survey Consortium, which is based at Harvard.

"From a societal point of view, it's a pretty big deal, because ADHD affects work performance even more than depression does," he added. "It's more persistent and severe than many mental disorders, and it results in more sick days, more accidents, and more problems interacting with colleagues. So given that employers are increasingly thinking about health care costs in terms of investment opportunities, we think it's useful to point out that it's probably a very smart and profitable business move for employers to screen their workers for ADHD and get them into treatment."

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Results of the WHO survey are being published Tuesday in the online edition of the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

Kessler and his colleagues conducted country-by-country ADHD diagnostic assessments on more than 7,000 employed and self-employed workers between the ages of 18 and 44.

The ADHD screenings were held in Belgium, Columbia, France, Germany, Italy, Lebanon, Mexico, the Netherlands, Spain, and the United States. All the participants were also asked to describe their work performance over the prior month.