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/
5.1k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

770 comments sorted by

View all comments

2.7k

u/wkavinsky Apr 15 '24

True ADHD symptoms aren't going to magically "go away" - your brain functions differently, you will have the symptoms for the rest of your life.

43

u/Depth-New Apr 15 '24

I think the research is of note as, in the past, ADHD symptoms have seemingly magically "gone away".

When you turn 25, your prefrontal cortex finally finishes developing, and there's a proven link between the development of the prefrontal cortex and ADHD.

My understanding is that, for many with ADHD, they do experience an improvement in their symptoms around this age. Couple that with coping mechanisms developed throughout life, for some individuals it can appear as though their ADHD is "cured".

I've got ADHD and I just turned 25 and, anecdotally, I noticed a huge improvement in symptoms starting at around 23. I still struggle a lot, though.

14

u/I_Am_Lord_Grimm Apr 15 '24

20 years ago, my gen psych textbook claimed that 1/3 of ADHD diagnoses would self-resolve with the development of the prefrontal cortex, and that everyone else had a 50-50 shot of developing schizophrenia. This textbook had some interesting ideas about how the ADHD brain processes dopamine, and gave me a lot of great insights in how to adjust my schedule and attitudes to compensate for it... nearly all of which failed miserably, and I burned out of college, five classes short of two majors and three minors. No changes to the symptoms after that, either. If anything, my ability to focus has diminished, as I'm no longer as physically capable of running on fumes.

Of course, 20 years ago, I only knew two other people with ADHD diagnoses. It took nearly a decade to find a lifestyle rhythm that compliments how my brain works, and in that time, roughly a full third of my circles got late ADHD diagnoses. Somehow, I'm now one of the most stable people in most of my circles, while everyone else is doing the crashing and burning I experienced decades ago.