ADHD in women - a review

Brzezińska Agnieszka, Borowiecka Monika, Zając Marlena, Warchoł Konrad, Michniak Wiktor. ADHD in women - a review. Journal of Education, Health and Sport. 2021;11(9):491-496. eISSN 2391-8306. DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.12775/JEHS.2021.11.09.0636 https://apcz.umk.pl/JEHS/article/view/JEHS.2021.11.09.063 https://zenodo.org/record/5524342 The journal has had 5 points in Ministry of Science and Higher Education parametric evaluation. § 8. 2) and § 12. 1. 2) 22.02.2019. © The Authors 2021; This article is published with open access at Licensee Open Journal Systems of Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, Poland Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author (s) and source are credited. This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non commercial license Share alike. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) which permits unrestricted, non commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited. The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests regarding the publication of this paper. Received: 15.09.2021. Revised: 20.09.2021. Accepted: 23.09.2021. ADHD in women - a review Agnieszka Brzezińska (1); brzezinska2agnieszka@gmail.com; https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5730-8813 Monika Borowiecka (1); monnikaborowiecka@gmail.com; https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2612-7838 Marlena Zając (1); marlenzajac11@gmail.com; https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6251-0175 Konrad Warchoł (1); konrad.wrh@gmail.com; https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9467-680X Wiktor Michniak (2); wiktor.michniak97@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7079-813X (1) Faculty of Medicine, Medical University of Lublin, Aleje Racławickie 1, 20-059 Lublin, Poland (2) Faculty of Medicine, Medical University of Silesia, Poniatowskiego 15, 40-055 Katowice, Poland Abstract Introduction: Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) for many years has been thought to occur mainly in the male population. However, recent studies and change in professionals' perception allowed us to understand that there are significant differences between predominant features related to the gender of the affected person, which changes our look at how the condition may exhibit in women. Current state of knowledge: In this review, we provide a general look at the disorder, its characteristics in the young and adult population, differences in symptoms and finally - how it may prove difficult to diagnose this condition among women. Several factors that could contribute to development of ADHD were listed in literature, among them genetics, prenatal period, diet and parents’ emotional wellbeing. Concerning women, they are considered to internalize their psychological struggles, such as depression and stress more often than men, rendering them more susceptible toward suicidal behaviors and making diagnosis harder. Conclusions: When it comes to diagnosis in women, the main difficulty is that the symptoms are presented in a different way compared to men suffering from the same disorder. Because of those reasons, it’s harder to make a proper diagnosis. Therefore, further studies, taking account of affected one’s gender needs to be conducted, while medical professionals have to be more cautious. Key words: ADHD, women, adults, diagnosi