Head injury in young children associated with ADHD

Head injury in young children may be associated with a subsequent diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), research claims.

In a report published on bmj.com today claims children who go on to develop ADHD may exhibit more risk taking behaviours as young children and are therefore more likely to experience early injuries.

Previous research on the subject have shown that head injury is more common in children with ADHD, and that moderate to severe traumatic brain injury in school age children results in the development of ADHD.

Today’s study looked at whether medically attended head injury, before the age of two, increases the incidence of ADHD occurring.

Researchers looked at 62,088 children from 308 GPs in the UK between 1988 and 2003, from health improvement network database.

They compared three groups of children: children with medically attended
head injury before the age of two, children who had a medically attended burn or scald without a head injury before the age of two, and non-injured
children before the age of two.

The authors found both injury groups had similar and significantly higher
rates of ADHD compared with non-injured controls, with children with a head injury before the age of two twice as likely to be diagnosed with ADHD than non-injured children.

Today’s report therefore claims that head injury does not seem to be a cause of ADHD but some other factor appears to be associated with early injury and the development of ADHD.

The authors concluded that medically attended injury may be an early marker for behavioural traits that lead to a diagnosis of ADHD.