Psychological adjustment and adaptive impairments in young adults with ADHD

Compared a group of 25 young adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) to 23 young adults drawn from the community (mean age 25 yrs) equated for age and educational level (mean 13 yrs) using a structured psychiatric interview (non-blinded), self-report ratings of psychological distress, and psychological tests of inattention, impulsive responding, working memory, verbal fluency, sense of time, and creativity. Ss with ADHD reported having experienced more symptoms of both ADHD and oppositional defiant disorder on their jobs as well as in college than controls. ADHD adults also were found to have had shorter durations of employment in their full-time jobs than adults in the control group. The young adults with ADHD rated themselves as having greater psychological distress and maladjustment on all scales of the SCL-90-R and reported committing more antisocial acts, particularly involving thefts and disorderly conduct, than the control group. As a result they had been arrested more often than young adults in the control group. The ADHD group had significantly poorer response inhibition and sustained attention on a continuous performance test. They were also poorer on tasks of verbal and nonverbal working memory.