ADHD Patients Who Take Their Medication Are Less Likely to Be Involved in Car Crashes

STATES CHRONICLE – A recent study published in JAMA Psychiatry analyzed the behavior of ADHD patients in traffic. It discovered that those patients who take medication are less likely to be involved in car crashes that any other person.

It is quite common among ADHD patients to be victims of fatal car crashes. However, there might be a way to avoid such incidents. The study looked at car accidents which involved people with ADHD and discovered that they could have been avoided if the victim had taken the special medication for the disease.

ADHD might turn car crashes into fatal events

ADHD (Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder) affects around 5 and 7 percent of children and teenagers. Most of the time, the disorder persists even through adulthood. Previous studies discovered that patients tend to be involved in car crashes more often, and they prove fatal most of the time.

“Core symptoms of ADHD may interfere with the competencies necessary to drive safely, predisposing those with the disorder to greater risk for accidents and injuries.”

Medication could minimize the risk of accidents

There is medication for ADHD, but patients do not always take the recommended dosage. Therefore, researchers decided to see if not taking the medicine does have any major effect on the patients. They took inspiration from a Swedish study which argued that ADHD drugs reduced consistently the number of car crashes for male patients. However, the results were unclear for female patients.

Researchers collected data from insurance companies and health care institutions to look at the incidence of car crashes among ADHD patients. They also looked at who received proper medication between 2005 and 2014.

From the 22,319,450 patients with ADHD, 11,224 of them ended up hospitalized after a car crash. Besides confirming that these people are more likely to be involved in car accidents, the research shows that they are more vulnerable when they are off their medication.
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