ADHD costly in terms of health services utilization

NEW YORK, Oct 6 (Reuters) Children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) use significantly more health services 2 years before and two years after they are diagnosed compared with children without ADHD, research shows.

Among children diagnosed with ADHD, white American children accumulate more expenses related to ADHD than children of other ethnicities, researchers report in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

Roughly eight per cent of US children between the ages of four and 17 years have ADHD, making it one of the most common psychiatric disorders of childhood, note the authors of the paper. ''Excess use of services prior to an ADHD diagnosis may signal an existing problem for which the family may be seeking a diagnosis'' and suggests that these children are not being identified soon enough, the researchers add.

Using health plan records, G. Thomas Ray, of Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program, Northern California Region, Oakland and olleagues identified 3,122 children aged two to ten years with a diagnosis of ADHD. They compared health costs for these children with that of 15,899 age- and sex-matched children without ADHD.

Compared with children without ADHD, children with ADHD had health care costs that were approximately 488 dollars higher in the second year before diagnosis, 678 dollars higher in the year preceding diagnosis, 1,328 dollars higher in the year after diagnosis and 1,040 dollars higher in the second year after diagnosis.

Despite similar insurance status, Asian American, African American and Hispanic American children had 221 dollars lower total average costs per year related to ADHD than white American children did. They also had lower ADHD-related pharmacy costs than white American children.

''Lower use of medications among ethnic minorities may be explained in part by cultural differences in the acceptance of ADHD diagnoses and treatment,'' the authors suggest.

Reuters SP DB0919