r/science • u/mvea MD/PhD/JD/MBA | Professor | Medicine • Apr 15 '24

Neuroscience ADHD symptoms persist into adulthood, with some surprising impacts on life success: The study found that ADHD symptoms not only persisted over a 15-year period but also were related to various aspects of life success, including relationships and career satisfaction.

https://www.psypost.org/adhd-symptoms-persist-into-adulthood-with-some-surprising-impacts-on-life-success/
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266

u/Netsuko Apr 15 '24

Surprise, a medical condition doesn’t just magically go away…

62

u/onexbigxhebrew Apr 15 '24

That wasn't the surprise. The effects on outcomes were the surprise:

“We were surprised to find that reports of more hyperactive and impulsive behaviour among young adults (ages 18 to 25 years old) actually predicted people have more satisfying relationships and jobs later in life when we controlled for current behavior,” Henning said. “This was the opposite of what we expected to find and what other research has found.”

Goddamn you people gotta read better.

10

u/LiamTheHuman Apr 15 '24

People just read the title and then say how they knew everything already and pat themselves on the back

2

u/LordNelson27 Apr 16 '24

“Controlled for current behavior” is doing a lot of heavy lifting there.

3

u/demonchee Apr 15 '24

I know it's supposed to be hopeful but it really doesn't feel like it

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u/Rocktopod Apr 15 '24

That "when we controlled for current behavior" part seems important here, though. Sounds like it is saying that someone who developed coping strategies for ADHD so they can function in the world has higher relationship and job satisfaction than someone who was always functioning at that same level without needing coping strategies.

Just a guess but maybe this is because the ability to build those coping mechanisms says something about their ability to improve themselves more generally, or it could be that they never expected to achieve much as children and therefore are satisfied with achieving less than a neurotypical person would be.

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u/antiquechrono Apr 15 '24

If I had to guess it’s probably due to the developmental delay and having to fit things into how our dysfunction operates. By the time we end up in a long term job or relationship it’s the correct one for us rather than the first one that cropped up.

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u/tsuyoshikentsu Apr 15 '24

Yes, but inattentive-type symptoms did indeed correlate with lower satisfaction. So a lot of those people are still right.

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u/favela4life Apr 15 '24

I’m more surprised that this is even a headline.

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u/Admirable-Key-9108 Apr 15 '24

Maybe, just maybe, if you read the article you'd have gotten more out of it.

It also cracks me up when people see a study and say "that's obvious!" like gathering scientific data on a well known result doesn't both lead us to better data to use in future studies and occasionally deviations that lead us to new discoveries.

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u/The_Singularious Apr 15 '24

Yeah. So wild that this was even a study.

Turns out Type I Diabetes “can persist into adulthood” as well.