A new study suggests that boys who suffer from ADHD disorder during childhood are more likely to become obese when adults
Researchers from the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester conducted a study to see the effect of childhood ADHD on adulthood and found that boys who suffered from ADHD disorder during childhood are more likely to become obese when adults. The study included the participation of 41-year old men that were divided into two groups. It was found that the men who had a history of ADHD disorder during childhood were 19 pounds heavier than the men that didn't have this disorder.
Initially, 207 white boys aged eight with ADHD disorder were studied. After ten years another group of boys aged similar to the first group but with no ADHD disorder were added to the study. By the time all these boys become 41 and were asked to report their weight, only 111 men were left in the study.
The men from the ADHD disorder group weighed 213 pounds on an average and 41 percent of them were reportedly obese. Comparatively, the men without ADHD disorder weighed 193 pounds on an average and only 22 percent were reportedly obese.
"As we learn more about the regions of the brain that may be implicated in obesity, they overlap with brain regions implicated in ADHD," Dr. F. Xavier Castellanos from the Child Study Center at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York, told Reuters Health. "The reward system seems to be relevant to both conditions. There is the speculation that the obesity is at least partly reflecting some of the impulsivity, poor planning and the difficulty in making choices that come with ADHD."
Sherry Pagoto, who has studied ADHD and obesity at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester but was not involved in the study, said that people with this disorder are usually very choosy about their food and tend to spend more time in front of television and computer screens which leads to the absence of physical activities.
"Parents of children who have ADHD should pay special attention to how that child's weight is changing over time, knowing that they may be at greater risk for becoming obese," Pagoto told Reuters Health. "If they're at higher risk of obesity that may bring other things with it, such as type 2 diabetes.
