Mothers linked to children’s ADHD

MOTHERS of children with ADHD should be evaluated for symptoms, with research finding they are 10 times more likely to also suffer from the disorder.

The Australian study indicates the children of mums with high ADHD symptoms fare worse across a range of quality-of-life measures, underlining the importance of identifying maternal issues and treatment to overcome them.

The research, by the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, found maternal ADHD even led to poorer outcomes for children without ADHD.

Theof 117 children with ADHD and 149 without found mothers in the ADHD group were typically younger, less educated, more likely to be single and had higher psychological distress. Writing in Archives of Disease in Childhood, researchers found mothers with ADHD to be less involved, poorer at monitoring and more negative than those in the control group.

“Encouraging mothers with high ADHD symptoms to seek evaluation and treatment could result in improved function for them and also indirectly for their children,” they said.