Hyperactive teens more likely to have car accidents

NEW research shows that adolescents with attent i on- deficit/ hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are more likely than their peers to have a car accident.

But the higher risk was actually much lower than previously reported in earlier, small studies, an investigators showed.

“We found that adolescents with ADHD are 35% less likely to get licensed six months after they become eligible for a licence, as compared with other adolescents. Adolescents with ADHD have an estimated 36% higher crash risk than other newly licensed teens,” said study author Allison Curry, the dir- ector of epidemiology and biostatistics at the Center for Injury Research and Prevention at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

She noted that higher risk was seen among both boys and girls with ADHD, and lasted for a few years after the new licence was obtained.

In the month before driving, only about 12% of the ADHD group had been prescribed any medication. In theory, such drugs might boost safety behind the wheel, the study team noted. And that could suggest a way to lower risk among new drivers with ADHD.

Patients often struggled with inattention and impulsivity. To explore to what degree such concerns affected the safety of young new drivers, investigators studied the electronic health records (indicating ADHD status) of more than 18 500 New Jersey residents born between 1987 and 1997. All had been patients at the children’s hospital.

Those records were then paired with New Jersey driver’s licence data and crash incident records. Of the nearly 2 500 teens with ADHD in the final analysis, almost 43% had had a car accident during the study period. That figure was just 36% among the study teens without ADHD. – HealthDay