ADHD linked to earlier age at MS diagnosis

Key takeaways:

• The age at first MS diagnosis for those with MS and ADHD was 47.4 years vs. 56.3 years for those with only MS.
• Researchers observed a positive correlation between MS and ADHD among both women and men.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Researchers have identified a positive association between multiple sclerosis and ADHD, as well as a trend toward an earlier diagnosis of MS among those with ADHD, according to a poster presented at ACTRIMS.

“It is well-established that a lot of patients with MS also have a psychiatric diagnosis,” Meagan McNicholas, of Indiana University School of Medicine-Evansville, told Healio. “ADHD is being diagnosed more often in adults.”

McNicholas and colleagues sought to examine the relationship between ADHD and MS diagnosis, as well as to investigate differences in age at MS diagnosis, among those with and without ADHD by analyzing electronic health records in the CRC/Sidus Insights national Real-World Behavioral Health and Psychiatry database. They also accessed real-world data using the university’s RWE DataLab mental health database.

From an initial cohort of more than 3 million individuals aged 41 years and older, the researchers included 805 patients with MS and ADHD for correlative analysis.

They also analyzed a subset of 1,026 individuals with MS and ADHD (75.6% women) along with a similarly-matched cohort of 986 individuals with MS but not ADHD, grouped by sex, using the index MS diagnosis entry for each patient as a proxy for age at diagnosis.

According to the results, the odds ratios for correlation between MS and ADHD were 1.5 (95% CI, 1.4-1.61) overall, 1.55 for women (95% CI, 1.43-1.68) and 1.48 for men (95% CI, 1.28-1.72).

The researchers also reported notable differences in age at first recorded diagnosis of MS overall, as well as among men and women, between those with and without ADHD. The overall age at first MS diagnosis for those with both conditions was 47.4 years (95% CI, 46.6-48.2) compared with 56.3 years (95% CI, 55.5-57.2) for those with only MS. McNicholas and colleagues noted similar trends were observed among both sexes.

“What we found is a positive correlation between ADHD and MS,” McNicholas said. “Patients with ADHD were diagnosed with MS about 10 years earlier than patients without ADHD in our dataset.”

McNicholas noted that a prime limitation of the study was the use of a psychiatry dataset.