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Gender Equality Directory of Good Practice and Research
  1. Gender Equality Directory of Good Practice and Research
  2. Dr Jessica Agnew-Blais

Understanding ADHD across the life course in girls and women

Dr Jessica Agnew-Blais

Published:

Please outline the work you lead and how it relates to progressing gender equality

In 2023 I was awarded a grant from UKRI to investigate attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) across the life course in girls and women. Specifically this project looks at: (1) characteristics associated with girls with ADHD being overlooked in childhood, (2) whether adolescence (and puberty specifically) is a time of risk for emergence/exacerbation of ADHD symptoms in girls, and (3) whether women with ADHD experience exacerbation of their symptoms at different times of the menstrual cycle. I also have a PhD student who is doing work on ADHD and the menopausal transition, as this is a time of real concern for women with ADHD. This research is crucial, as historically ADHD was considered to be a disorder mainly affecting boys, so girls and women, and issues specific to this group like the menstrual cycle and menopause, have been under-researched. 

What has inspired and motivated you to progress this work?

Initially this research area started for me due to a sense of curiosity—in some of my previous work, we were seeing a lot of people who didn’t seem to have ADHD until they were adults. This was surprising, especially at the time (around 10 years ago), because ADHD is defined as a childhood-onset disorder (and in fact to receive the diagnosis, based on widely used clinical criteria, one needs to show symptoms before age 12). But in our research, we were seeing a lot of people whose ADHD was not evident until adulthood, and many of these people were women. So this was something I really wanted to understand—why was it that so many girls and women were getting late ADHD diagnoses, and what else have we missed for women and girls with ADHD, given a historical focus on boys.

How do you hope that this work will make a difference to promote gender equality and have you seen any impact so far?

Our work is really led by women with lived experience of ADHD, so the hope is that our research will be impactful because we are focused on things that women themselves identify as important. Many studies find that women with ADHD are diagnosed later than males, and this later-diagnosis has real consequences; for example, women with ADHD tend to have a more depression, anxiety and other disorders by the time they receive an ADHD diagnosis then men. So we also hope that identifying women with ADHD earlier will also prevent adverse outcomes. 

What did you enjoy most about this piece of work and do you have any plans going forward?

The best part about this research is working with women with lived experience of ADHD. We have several groups of women with ADHD who help us plan our studies, and they are some of the most engaged, enthusiastic and insightful people I’ve worked with. They are so keen to have more research done focusing on women and ADHD and have contributed immensely to our research. Also my research team of students and research assistants and associates are fantastic and we couldn’t do what we do without their hard work and enthusiasm. 

Please share any publications or resources from your work that would like to highlight

https://www.adhdlifelab.com/ (lab website)

https://acamh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jcpp.14023 

 

 

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