National economic impacts of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children and adolescents and their possible treatment

Abstract

The mental disorder, which affects children and adults with ADHD alike, mainly without treatment, has a significant impact on the national budget. And some symptoms of the disorder are associated with aggression and delinquency, behaviours (symptoms) that can be reduced with appropriate specialist child psychiatric care. In recent years, widespread public interest has focused attention on a number of mental disorders affecting children. In addition to autism spectrum disorders, ADHD has also received increasing publicity, so that it has become part of everyday knowledge that children are mainly characterised by symptoms related to hyperactivity. It is also accepted that certain symptoms persist beyond childhood into adulthood and can therefore accompany a person throughout his or her life.