Girls with ADHD more likely to develop eating disorders: study

Teen girls who have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder may have a much higher risk of developing eating disorders than girls without ADHD, a new U.S. study suggests.

Symptoms of ADHD can include a short attention span, a low level of organization, excessive talking, aggressive gestures and irritability. It affects five per cent of school-age children, according to the study's authors.

The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Virginia, found that girls with ADHD were more likely to develop eating disorders such as bulimia nervosa, in which a person first binges on food and then vomits to prevent weight gain.

"Girls with ADHD may be more at risk of developing eating problems as adolescents because they already have impulsive behaviours that can set them apart from their peers," Amori Yee Mikami, the lead author, said in a release issued on March 13.

"As they get older, their impulsivity may make it difficult for them to maintain healthy eating and a healthy weight, resulting in self-consciousness about their body image and the binging and purging symptoms."

The study involved 228 girls in San Francisco, 140 who had been diagnosed with ADHD and 88 girls without the condition. They were first assessed when they were between the ages of six and 12 and then five years after.

Affected 5-10% of girls with one type of ADHD

ADHD was divided into two types: one type included both inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity and the other included inattention only.

The study found that five to 10 per cent of girls with the combined type of ADHD showed "clinically-concerning eating pathology," according to the authors. This included at least one binge-eating episode in the previous year and inappropriate purging to prevent weight gain.

Only one per cent of girls with the inattention form of ADHD and none of the girls in the control group engaged in these types of eating patterns.

Girls who had ADHD were more likely to have received critical parenting as kids, to have had a more difficult time relating to peers and were more likely to be overweight.

Mikami also said that parents should be aware that girls with ADHD may be more likely to use their medications to achieve weight loss.

"An additional concern is that stimulant medications used to treat ADHD have a side-effect of appetite suppression, creating a risk that overweight girls could abuse these medicines to encourage weight loss, though we have not yet investigated that possibility," Mikami said.

The study is published in the February issue of the Journal of Abnormal Psychology.