Suicide: Women prone to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder are particularly vulnerable

The urge to commit suicide is regrettable, but these causes are multifactorial. Among them, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) can be one of the reasons, especially in women. Researchers from the University of Toronto (Canada) indicate that the lifetime prevalence of suicide attempts was much higher among women with ADHD (24%) than among women without ADHD (3 %). The results were published on December 21, 2020 in the journal Archives of Suicide Research.

Increased risk from childhood abuse

The study was conducted on a nationally representative sample of 21,744 Canadians, 529 of whom said they had been diagnosed with ADHD. Adults with ADHD who have been exposed to chronic domestic violence from their parents are three times more likely to attempt suicide. This risk is more intense than that of people with ADHD who did not experience this adversity in childhood. Parental domestic violence was defined as ‘chronic’ if it happened more than 10 times before the person was 16 years old.

“The cross-sectional nature of this study prevents us from determining possible causality; the relationship between chronic parental domestic violence and suicide attempts could go either way, points out Raphaël Nahar Rivière, a resident in anesthesia at the University of Toronto.

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is more common in men than in women, but little research has been done on women with this disorder. According to the results of this study, women with ADHD are more than twice as likely to attempt suicide as men with ADHD.

Suicide attempts more common among women than among men

“Even when taking into account a history of mental illness, and the higher levels of poverty and early adversity that adults with ADHD often experience, these people are still 56% more likely to attempt suicide than their non-combatants. ADHD”says Esme Fuller-Thomson, professor at the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work at the University of Toronto.

The risks of committing suicide are therefore more present in women and in certain situations that lead people to switch to morbid thoughts. According to Senyo Agbeyaka, knowledge will make it possible to adapt measures to avoid suicide attempts. “Shaving that women with ADHD who experienced childhood difficulties and adults with a history of substance dependence and/or depression are particularly vulnerable to suicide attempts will hopefully help clinicians improve targeting and approach to this population.”