ADHD in international adoptees: a national cohort study
This Swedish national cohort compared 16,134 international adoptees with more than 1.3 million people with Swedish-born parents, using prescribed ADHD medication as the measured outcome. ADHD medication use was higher among international adoptees, with particularly high rates in some regions of origin, and risk increased with older age at adoption. The study reports a population-level association; medication use is not the same thing as a direct measure of ADHD prevalence or neurodivergence.
Limitations: The outcome was ADHD medication recorded in 2006, not a direct clinical assessment of every participant. Findings concern international adoptees in Sweden and should not be treated as estimates for all adoptees or the UK.
- Research type
- National cohort study; quantitative
- Source reviewed
- Abstract
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Age group
- Children / Adolescents / Young people
Study context and review
Age group as recorded: Children; adolescents; young people
Adoption context: Intercountry adoption
Programme: Not recorded
Institutional context: No relationship identified in the material checked
No adoption-sector organisational relationship identified in the bibliographic material screened. This is not confirmation of institutional independence; affiliations, funding and conflicts were not comprehensively audited.
Bibliographic screening. Bibliographic relationships are not a bias or safety rating.
Topics: ADHD, age at adoption, cohort, intercountry adoption, medication, mental health, neurodivergence, Sweden
Review scope: Source checked: Abstract. This does not imply full-text or independent human verification.
Country as recorded: Sweden
- Funding
- Not yet checked for this entry
- Commissioner
- Not yet checked for this entry
- Funder role
- Not yet checked for this entry
- Declared conflicts
- Not yet checked for this entry
- Recruitment
- Not yet checked for this entry
- Adoptee involvement
- Not yet checked for this entry
Entry: study_fde9c6ab459150a0