The High Price of ADHD

Tention-deficit/Hyperactivity disorder can be costly, as anyone who has it knows. Consider all those lost earrings, car accidents, and the more than occasional job-threatening mishaps. If you're the parent of a child with ADHD, which if you're a parent at all, you probably are, considering the strong hereditary nature of the condition, there'll be additional huge expense for therapists, educational counselling, and the eventual teenage fender-benders, if not more. Alas, ADHD is often accompanied by so-called co-morbidities, including anxiety, depression, substance abuse, and a higher rate of suicide: misery that saps your bank account as well as your soul. All this helps explain why estimates of the national cost of ADHD go into the tens of billions, considering everything from lost productivity at work, to repairs after accidents, to all that extra health care. https://secure.web.emory.edu/forums/read.php?9,2090,2090#msg-2090

One study calculated the average expense as $42.5 billion a year, in extra health care costs alone. This came to mind this week when I happened to come across the latest figures for what we spend on various health issues, per a report by the National Institutes of Health. Total government spending per year on research pertaining to ADHD is $60 million. Seem like a lot? Then compare it to what we spend on cancer -- $5.6 billion -- or heart disease -- $1.2 billion -- or even autism, at $192 million (which is apart from hefty donations from foundations). Even given the fact that annual costs of treating cancer are estimated at more than $124 billion, there's quite a discrepancy. It's something to think about, while we're hunting for all those lost earrings.... http://www.sccs.swarthmore.edu/users/09/leo/intlblogday/forum/read.php?1,2218