ADHD, especially when untreated impairs patients and creates difficulties in families. Although these are the proximal targets of treatment, ADHD also burdens society due, for example, to underemployment and use of health resources. A recent study assessed economic burden using the Danish population registries, researchers, which link medical information with employment, education, crime, and social care registers while maintaining confidentiality. They identified 5,269 adults with adult ADHD who had not been diagnosed with ADHD in childhood and, we can assume, were probably not treated for the disorder. They excluded patients with other psychiatric diagnoses, and cases without a same sex sibling free of any diagnosed psychiatric diagnoses. That left 460 pairs of same-sex siblings, one with adult ADHD and the other with no psychiatric diagnosis. They selected the non-ADHD sibling closest in age to the ADHD sibling. Using siblings mitigated effects of genetics and upbringing between the ADHD group and normally developing controls.

Looking at personal income (combining work income and public transfers), adults with ADHD on average brought home about 12,000 Euros less – almost a third less – than their sibling counterparts. They also paid 40% less tax. Balancing that out, their after-tax income was roughly 7,500 Euros less than their siblings. With the additional personal cost of prescribed medication (prescriptions are relatively inexpensive in Denmark, and copayments even more so) the net personal cost to adults with ADHD was 7,700 Euros.

The net public costs were considerably greater. That was primarily due to the reduction in taxes paid (about 4,500 Euros) and increase in income replacement transfers (just over 5,500 Euros). The cost of additional crimes committed by adults with ADHD added another 1,000 Euros. Additional primary and secondary health care costs contributed another 1,000 Euros. Subsidies for prescribed medicines added 661 Euros, but that was partly counterbalanced by a reduction of 344 Euros in education costs. There were no significant differences in costs from traffic accidents or adult continuation of foster care. Overall, the net per capita public cost of adults with ADHD was just over 12,400 Euros each year.

Combining public and private costs, the per capita economic burden of adult ADHD was just over 20,000 Euros each year.

The study could not evaluate the extent to which ADHD treatment may reduce economic burden but given many studies that show treatment for ADHD reduces impairments, we would expect treatment to have a positive impact on economic burden. These results are extremely important for policy makers and for those who control the allocation of treatment in health care systems. Although treating ADHD incurs costs, not treating in incurs even greater costs in the long run

REFERENCES
D. Daley, R.H. Jacobsen, A.-M. Lange, A. Sørensen, J. Walldorf, “The economic burden of adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: A sibling comparison cost analysis,” European Psychiatry 61 (2019) 41–48.