What to know
- Presentation Day/Time: Tuesday, April 22, 10:55 am–12:20 pm
- Presenter: Brooke Staley, PhD, MPH, EIS officer assigned to the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, Division of Human Development and Disability
What did we do?
- We estimated the national prevalence of ADHD diagnosis and treatment among U.S. adults to provide evidence to inform clinical care and treatment guidelines.
What did we find?
- In 2023, an estimated 15.5 million U.S. adults had a current ADHD diagnosis; 55.9% received the diagnosis in adulthood. Approximately 63.5% reported receiving behavioral treatment or prescription medication for their ADHD care in the previous 12 months.
- Of adults with ADHD, 33.4% reported taking a prescribed stimulant medication in the past year, 71.5% of whom had difficulty getting it filled due to unavailability.
Why does it matter?
- National prevalence estimates of current ADHD among U.S. adults have not been available since 2003. These findings provide timely national estimates addressing critical gaps in adult ADHD surveillance.
- The high prevalence of stimulant medication unavailability indicated in these results document the potential scale of the prescription supply challenges.
Abstract Category: ADHD