Therapist Unlimited Blog

Here is a badnews to women inflicted with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) since these people have strong chances of suffering from eating disorders.
The recent research conducted by the University of Virginia has shown that women who have ADHD are likely to dislike their body that drove them to commit binge eating and purging behaviours that are common in bulimia nervosa.
According to studies, ADHD is a disorder that affects about 5 percent of school-age children, and three times more boys than girls.
Symptoms include a short attention span, poor organization, excessive talking, disruptive and aggressive behaviour, restlessness and irritability.
Many children with ADHD suffer through a range of problems, from poor grades to poor relations with parents and teachers, and more than half have serious problems making friends.
Amori Yee Mikami, University of Virginia psychologist who spearheaded the study explained that girls with ADHD might be more at risk of developing eating problems as adolescents because they already have impulsive behaviours that can set them apart from their peers.
Mikami said as these girls get older, their impulsivity may make it difficult for them to maintain healthy eating and a healthy weight, resulting in self-consciousness about their body image and  the binging and purging symptoms.
She added that because ADHD is more common in boys, many girls with the disorder might go undiagnosed and untreated.
Further, she disclosed an alarming concern that stimulant medications used to treat ADHD have a side effect of appetite suppression, creating a risk that overweight girls could abuse these medicines to encourage weight loss.
This medical finding should serve as warning to parents of persons suffering from ADHD to closely monitor their children so that they would not suffer from eating disorders.
Parents and families of those inflicted with ADHD should also offer unconditional love and support to the patients so that they could recover easily from ADHD and not are inflicted with an eating disorder.

Women with ADHD need to be careful since their medical condition is prone to eating disorders.