User:Banneralexandra/Adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Gender Differences - ADHD in Females
Meta-analyses of ADHD research has revealed that most previous structural imaging had been done almost exclusively on male subjects with ADHD until recently. In January 2010, The American Journal of Psychiatry published a study that compared the working memory between male and female adults with ADHD that shows distinct differences between the functioning of male and female brains with ADHD, and their respective control groups. fMRI scans revealed dramatic differences in neural activation during a working memory test between males and females with ADHD: the male's scans showed much higher activation in the inferior parietal lobule, and females showed much higher activation in the putamen, pallidum, and the left insular cortex. When comparing these results to their respective control groups, researchers found that the fMRI scans of males with ADHD compared to males without ADHD had a much greater difference than the scans comparing females with ADHD to females without ADHD, which they theorized could be attributed to the female brain's superior bilateral functioning.

It has been previously thought that ADHD was almost three times more likely in males than females because males make up a majority of diagnosed cases in children. However, researchers suggest that this could be due to bias in the diagnostic criteria of ADHD given that most research has been done on caucasian males. Another theory is that females are two times more likely than males to have ADHD-PI (inattentive-type), meaning that their symptoms are less disruptive and therefore under-diagnosed in childhood. A 2014 literature review found that females are statistically more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD in adulthood when seeking support for other mental health disorders such as depression or anxiety, which they hypothesized to be due to the way ADHD presents itself in females.

With variables such as age, race, income, and education considered, females with ADHD are still three times more likely to suffer from insomnia, anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation, substance abuse, severe poverty, and sexual and physical abuse in childhood than females without ADHD.

More conclusive research needs to be done to determine the extent of how ADHD may affect the sexes differently.