Patients with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) that have psychiatric comorbidity have an increased risk of premature death.

A cohort study of Swedish register data of 86 670 individuals with ADHD found that the presence of psychiatric comorbidity was associated with an increased risk of premature death. [1] Early-onset psychiatric comorbidity was mainly associated with the risk of natural deaths whereas later-onset psychiatric comorbidity was mainly associated with death due to unnatural causes, including suicide and unintentional injury.

These findings suggest that health care professionals should closely monitor for psychiatric comorbidities in individuals with ADHD to identify high-risk groups and implement prevention efforts.

1         Sun S, Kuja-Halkola R, Faraone S V., et al. Association of Psychiatric Comorbidity With the Risk of Premature Death Among Children and Adults With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. JAMA Psychiatry 2019 [published online August 7, 2019]. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2019.1944