ABSTRACT
Little is known about the specific costs of ADHD in childhood, the costs to families in coping with a child with this disorder, long-term outcomes in adulthood and the costs of untreated ADHD in general. However, the adverse
social, familial and personal consequences of ADHD cannot be overstated. Many children with ADHD and their parents or carers and siblings develop emotional, social and family-based difficulties as a direct consequence of their primary difficulties (Kidd 2000). Various studies demonstrate that children and young people with ADHD are more likely to experience educational failure, low self-esteem and are at increased risk of mental disorder in adult life (Fischer et al. 1993; Searight and McLaren 1998; Schachar and Tannock 2002; Swenson et al. 2003; Maughan et al. 2004). Compared with other groups of children and young people those with ADHD are more likely to:
• show poor educational attainments and drop out of school; • have poorer early work histories with higher risks of unemployment; • leave their homes and families at younger ages; • enter romantic and sexual relationships earlier, and experience more
difficulties and breakdown in those relationships; • become pregnant or father children earlier than their peers; • be involved in crime; • have poorer general health in their adult lives.
