Abstract
The comorbidity between physical and mental health conditions is challenging and frequently goes unrecognized in practice. Associations between Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and physical conditions have been reported in youth. However, prior research failed to: (1) address the patterns of associations in early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence within the same population sample; (2) consider a large set of physical disorders at the same time; (3) take confounders into account. Our goal was to assess the associations between ADHD symptoms and a broad set of physical conditions across developmental periods. This birth cohort study (n = 2057) is the first to explore the associations between ADHD and a wide range of medical conditions by encompassing the whole early development from 5 months to 17 years in the same sample and relying on innovative network analyses. We found significant associations between ADHD symptoms and several physical conditions, some of which were observed in early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence (e.g., asthma, sleep problems) or were confounded by socioeconomic status or psychiatric comorbidities (e.g., body mass index, dental caries). The study calls for an effective integrated care model encompassing mental and general healthcare across the developmental period.
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Author contributions
CG and SC contributed to the literature search, data analysis, data interpretation, and writing. MO, JvDW, and MM contributed to the data interpretation and writing. OC contributed to the data analysis, data interpretation, and writing. MB, SMC, and RET contributed to the study design, data collection, data interpretation, and writing. SMC had full access to all the data in the study and takes responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.
Funding
The larger Québec Longitudinal Study of Child Development was supported by the Québec Government’s Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, and Ministry of Family Affairs, The Lucie and André Chagnon Foundation, the Robert-Sauvé Research Institute of Health and Safety at Work, and the Québec Statistics Institute. Additional funding was received from the Fonds de Recherche du Québec–Santé, the Fonds de Recherche du Québec–Societé et Culture, Canada’s Social Science and Humanities Research Council, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the St. Justine Research Center, and the French National Research Agency (ANR).
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MB and RT report holding a Canada Research Chair in Child Development funded by the CIHR. SC reports being a research fellow of the Fonds de Recherche du Québec. RT reports being funded by the Canadian Institute of Advanced Research. SC reports funding from the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR). All other authors declare no competing interests.
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Galéra, C., Cortese, S., Orri, M. et al. Medical conditions and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder symptoms from early childhood to adolescence. Mol Psychiatry 27, 976–984 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-021-01357-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-021-01357-x
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